United States v. William Wilkinson

706 F. App'x 337
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 25, 2017
Docket16-30078
StatusUnpublished

This text of 706 F. App'x 337 (United States v. William Wilkinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. William Wilkinson, 706 F. App'x 337 (9th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Following a four-day jury trial, defendant-appellant William Roger Wilkinson received a 130-year sentence after he was convicted on three counts of sexual exploitation of children in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), one count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), and one count of access with the intent to view child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2262A(a)(5)(B). Before trial, the district court denied Wilkinson’s motion to suppress evidence obtained under.four different search warrants, request for an evidentiary hearing under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), and motion in limine to exclude testimony of the government’s expert. And the district court granted the government’s motion in limine to admit evidence of uncharged acts of child molestation. Wilkinson appeals those pre-trial decisions and the substantive reasonableness of his sentence. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

1. The search warrants pass constitutional muster.

Wilkinson offers a host of reasons why the district court should have suppressed evidence seized under the warrants to search his home, electronic devices, and truck. We review suppression decisions de novo and the underlying factual findings for clear error. United States v. Rodgers, 656 F.3d 1023, 1026 (9th Cir. 2011). We also review the issuance of a search warrant for clear error, and we give “great deference” to a magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause. United States v. Krupa, 658 F.3d 1174, 1177 (9th Cir. 2011).

a. Residential search warrant

The question for the magistrate judge issuing a search warrant is whether, under the “totality-of-the-circumstances” set forth in the affidavit, “there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.” Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Interpreting the affidavit in a “commonsense[ ] manner” and paying “great deference” to the magistrate’s finding of probable cause, as we must, id. at 236, 103 S.Ct. 2317 (quotation marks and quoted references omitted), we do not find that the affidavit *339 supporting the search warrant of Wilkinson’s home was deficient, The affidavit contains relevant statements from the victim, her mother,, and her grandfather that would lead a magistrate judge to reasonably conclude that evidence that Wilkinson sexually abused the victim would be found at the address.

Wilkinson complains that two categories of items listed in the warrant are over-broad: videos and electronic data containing images of minor children. This is a distinction without a difference because law enforcement did not search the electronics or seize any video or electronic data under the residential search warrant; they obtained other warrants to do .that. See United States v. Clark, 31 F.3d 831, 836 (9th Cir. 1994) (“The remedy for an overbroad search warrant is suppression of the seized evidence. The court need suppress, however, only those items seized pursuant to the invalid portion of a search warrant.”).

b. Warrants to search electronics seized from Wilkinson’s home

Wilkinson argues that evidence obtained under two warrants to forensieally search electronics seized from his home should be suppressed because the warrants are not sufficiently particular. Wilkinson did not provide the district court any authority or analysis to demonstrate why the warrants fail the particularity requirement, nor did he object when the court did not rule on this issue in denying his suppression motion. Because he failed to adequately raise this argument below, we deem it waived. See In re Mercury Interactive Corp. Sec. Litig., 618 F.3d 988, 992 (9th Cir. 2010) (noting that an issue will generally be deemed waived on appeal if not sufficiently raised below).

c. Warrant to search Wilkinson’s truck

Wilkinson next contends that the 15-day delay between the seizure of his truck and the warrant to search it was unreasonable. “An unreasonable delay between the seizure of a package and obtaining a search warrant may violate the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. The touchstone is reasonableness.” United States v. Sullivan, 797 F.3d 623, 633 (9th Cir. 2015). In determining reasonableness, “[w]e must balance ‘the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion.’ ” Id. (quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 703, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983)).

The extent of the intrusion on Wilkinson’s possessory interest in the truck was minimal given the totality of the circumstances. The government had a legitimate interest in seizing and retaining the truck based on the likelihood that it was evidence of Wilkinson’s suspected crimes. The government’s course of conduct was reasonable.

Wilkinson has not persuaded us that the warrants to search his home, truck, or electronics fail to satisfy the Fourth Amendment’s requirements. We therefore affirm the trial court’s decision denying Wilkinson’s suppression motion.

2. Wilkinson was not entitled to a Franks hearing.

Wilkinson next argues that the district court erred when it denied his request for an evidentiary hearing under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), because he made the requisite preliminary showing that false statements were intentionally or recklessly included in the affidavit supporting the forensic search warrants and *340 the statements were necessary to a finding of probable cause. See United States v. Kiser, 716 F.2d 1268, 1271 (9th Cir. 1983). “We review de novo a district court’s decision not to conduct a Franks hearing.” United States v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Franks v. Delaware
438 U.S. 154 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Illinois v. Gates
462 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1983)
United States v. Place
462 U.S. 696 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Rita v. United States
551 U.S. 338 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Krupa
658 F.3d 1174 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Apodaca
641 F.3d 1077 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Larry Dean Kiser
716 F.2d 1268 (Ninth Circuit, 1983)
United States v. Rodgers
656 F.3d 1023 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Terrence Wayne Clark
31 F.3d 831 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Fred James Lemay, III
260 F.3d 1018 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
United States v. J.R. Gonzales
307 F.3d 906 (Ninth Circuit, 2002)
United States v. Arthur Napier
436 F.3d 1133 (Ninth Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Crowe
563 F.3d 969 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
United States v. Edward Sullivan
797 F.3d 623 (Ninth Circuit, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
706 F. App'x 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-william-wilkinson-ca9-2017.