United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 21-2275

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Johntez Randle

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court 

for the District of Minnesota

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Submitted: February 18, 2022

Filed: July 5, 2022 

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Before LOKEN, COLLOTON, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. 

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LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

Johntez Randle conditionally pleaded guilty to possession with intent to

distribute a controlled substance. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B). He

now appeals the denial of his pre-trial motion to suppress evidence seized in a warrant

search of his residence and the denial of his request for a hearing and related

discovery to challenge the warrant affidavit’s sufficiency. See Franks v. Delaware,

438 U.S. 154 (1978). The appeal also initially challenged the substantive
reasonableness of his 108-month sentence, but Randle’s Reply Brief withdrew that

challenge based on the appeal waiver in his conditional plea agreement. 

Reviewing de novo, we affirm the district court’s1 conclusion that the evidence

Randle seeks to suppress is admissible because “it was objectively reasonable for the

officer executing [the] search warrant to have relied in good faith on the [issuing]

judge’s determination that there was probable cause to issue the warrant.” United

States v. Grant, 490 F.3d 627, 632 (8th Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 552 U.S. 1281

(2008), applying United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984). Reviewing denial of

the request for a Franks hearing for abuse of discretion, we affirm the district court’s

determination that Randle failed to make the necessary “substantial preliminary

showing” of “deliberate falsehood or of reckless disregard for the truth.” See Franks,

438 U.S. at 155, 171; United States v. Short, 2 F.4th 1076, 1077 (8th Cir.) (standard

of review), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 626 (2021). Accordingly, we affirm.

I. The Leon Good Faith Issue

Minneapolis police investigated Randle for selling crack cocaine while he was

on supervised release for a prior federal offense. After conducting a controlled buy,

Minneapolis Police Officer Efrem Hamilton applied for a warrant to search a home

on Vera Cruz Lane in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota that Randle listed as his supervised

release address. The warrant was issued and executed that day. Randle arrived with

the search underway. Police seized 308 grams of crack cocaine and related evidence

from the home and from bags carried by Randle. After indictment, he moved to

suppress this evidence. 

1The Honorable Ann D. Montgomery, United States District Judge for the

District of Minnesota.

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Officer Hamilton’s warrant affidavit first recited his experience in narcotics

investigations and described his investigation of Randle and the Brooklyn Park home:

Your Affiant received information from a Confidential Reliable

Informant (CRI) that a male is selling crack cocaine in and around the

city of Minneapolis MN. Through various investigative techniques,

your affiant positively identified the male as Johntez Leondus RANDLE

[]. Your affiant has had many interactions with RANDLE including

arrests and undercover crack cocaine buys from RANDLE. RANDLE

is currently on U.S. Probation and on Supervised Release. RANDLE

has [] Vera Cruz Lane Brooklyn Park, MN listed as his reported address

until 03/08/2021. 

After reciting the CRI’s past reliability, Officer Hamilton described the CRI’s

controlled buy of crack cocaine from Randle “[w]ithin the past 72 hours”:

CRI contacted RANDLE and a short time later RANDLE arrived

inside . . . a silver 2008 Audi Q7 Sports Utility Vehicle which is

registered to him in the DMV/DVS records. CRI made contact with

RANDLE who was the front seat passenger. . . .

RANDLE sold a quantity of suspected crack cocaine that later field

tested positive to CRI in exchange for the pre-recorded buy funds. CRI

returned and presented to your Affiant an amount of suspected crack

cocaine that they purchased. Your affiant showed the CRI a color photo

of RANDLE and they confirmed that RANDLE is the person that they

bought the field tested positive crack cocaine while in an area of

Minneapolis.

Your Affiant and assisting Officers followed RANDLE as he drove from

the City of Minneapolis to his home located at [] Vera Cruz Lane,

Brooklyn Park, MN.

Later, your Affiant field screened a small amount of the purchased

suspected crack cocaine, and it field screened positive for cocaine. . . .

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Adopting findings in the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, the district

court found that Hamilton’s affidavit contained “sufficient facts to establish probable

cause that Randle was engaging in the sale of narcotics and that he likely lived at the

[Vera Cruz] Residence.” 

In addition to probable cause that contraband or evidence of a crime will be

found, “there must be evidence of a nexus between the contraband and the place to

be searched.” United States v. Tellez, 217 F.3d 547, 550 (8th Cir. 2000). Here, the

district court concluded, the affidavit did not create a “fair probability that evidence

of Randle’s alleged drug trafficking activities would be found at the Residence.” The

affidavit did not include Officer Hamilton’s statement that in his professional

judgment drug traffickers typically keep narcotics in their home. See United States

v. Ross, 487 F.3d 1120, 1123 (8th Cir. 2007). In addition, the affidavit “did not state

that Officer Hamilton followed Randle to the Residence directly after the controlled

buy” and failed to specify when the officers started following Randle. 

The court nonetheless denied Randle’s motion to suppress because the “Leon

good-faith exception clearly applies.” Under this exception to the Fourth Amendment

exclusionary rule, “disputed evidence will be admitted if it was objectively reasonable

for the officer executing a search warrant to have relied in good faith on the judge’s

determination that there was probable cause to issue the warrant.” Grant, 490 F.3d

at 632. We will assume without deciding that the warrant affidavit lacked a sufficient

showing of nexus and turn to consideration of the officers’ good faith. See United

States v. Carpenter, 341 F.3d 666, 669 (8th Cir. 2003). 

The objective good faith inquiry requires analysis of “whether a reasonably

well trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the [issuing

judge’s] authorization.” Leon, 468 U.S. at 922 n.23. The good faith exception does

not apply when “an affidavit [is] so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render

official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.” Id. at 923 (quotation omitted). 

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In Carpenter, we noted that “‘[e]ntirely unreasonable’ is not a phrase often used by

the Supreme Court.” 341 F.3d at 670. Given this “particularly strong choice of

words,” we held that the Leon good faith exception applied. Despite the warrant

affidavit’s “multiple alleged infirmities,” we concluded “that the cumulative effect

of the information set forth in the affidavit provides an adequate basis for finding that

Officer Shoemaker’s reliance [on the warrant] was reasonable.” Id. at 668, 670.

Regarding the alleged lack of facts showing a nexus between the residence and

suspected contraband, we observed that, “[a]s a matter of common sense, it is logical

to infer that someone in possession of valuable contraband would store that

contraband in a safe, accessible location such as his or her residence.” Id. at 671. We

distinguished our prior decision in United States v. Herron, 215 F.3d 812 (8th Cir.

2000), on which Randle heavily relies, because “the affidavit to support the warrant

[in Herron] focused suspicion of illegal activity solely on a separate suspect.” 341

F.3d at 672. Like the district court, we conclude that the information in the Hamilton

affidavit -- that Randle was engaged in drug trafficking, including the controlled buy

by a CRI -- “allows for a reasonable inference that Randle was trafficking drugs and

might be storing ‘valuable contraband’ in his home.”

We view the failure of Hamilton’s affidavit to recite that in his judgment drug

dealers often store contraband in their home to be “a technical legal deficiency.” 

Herron, 215 F.3d at 814. After the controlled buy, the affidavit recited that officers

followed Randle to his home on Vera Cruz Lane. Thus, it was not “entirely

unreasonable” to rely on the warrant providing probable cause to search the home for

“valuable contraband” he was storing. The district court did not err in concluding

that the Leon good faith exception applies and denying the motion to suppress. 

II. The Franks Hearing Issue

Under Franks v. Delaware, the presumptive validity of a warrant affidavit must

be set aside and an evidentiary hearing held:

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where the defendant makes a substantial preliminary showing that a

false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard

for the truth, was included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit, and if

the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable

cause.

United States v. Kattaria, 553 F.3d 1171, 1176 (8th Cir.) (en banc) (quoting Franks,

438 U.S. at 155-56), cert. denied, 558 U.S. 1061 (2009). “The requirement of a

substantial preliminary showing is not lightly met.” United States v. Arnold, 725

F.3d 896, 898 (8th Cir. 2013) (quotation omitted). The showing must be supported

by reliable evidence or affidavits, not mere allegations. Franks, 438 U.S. at 171. 

Although Randle’s motion for a Franks hearing alleged a number of material

misrepresentations and omissions in Hamilton’s warrant affidavit, the magistrate

judge recommended that a Franks hearing be granted only for the omission of the fact

that Randle’s state driving and identification records recite that he lives at an address

on Stevens Avenue in Minneapolis, not the Vera Cruz Lane address in Brooklyn Park. 

“This information would clearly have been critical to the issuing judge,” the

magistrate judge concluded, and therefore further recommended that Randle be

allowed supplemental discovery on this issue. The district court disagreed and denied

Randle’s motions for discovery and a Franks hearing. 

Randle’s appeal focuses on the omission of the Stevens Avenue address. 

Where the defendant’s claim is that the affiant intentionally or recklessly omitted

material information from the affidavit, “reckless disregard for the truth may be

inferred . . . only when the material omitted would have been clearly critical to the

finding of probable cause.” United States v. Carnahan, 684 F.3d 732, 735 (8th Cir.)

(cleaned up), cert. denied, 568 U.S. 1016 (2012). 

 Officer Hamilton testified that he was aware of records listing the Stevens

Avenue address but did not believe this disclosure was relevant because in his

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experience, people use multiple addresses for different reasons. Randle argues the

magistrate judge correctly concluded that this omission was “clearly critical” because

the affidavit’s probable cause showing was based on the assumption that the Vera

Cruz residence was Randle’s “home” and therefore a place where a drug trafficker

would store contraband. According to Randle, disclosing that state records listed a

second address would have contradicted, or at least called this assumption into

question, and the warrant to search the Vera Cruz residence would not have issued.

We agree with the district court that neither the omission of the Stevens

Avenue address nor the affidavit’s characterization of the Vera Cruz Lane address as

Randle’s home satisfies the “substantial preliminary showing” needed to warrant a

Franks hearing. As the district court explained:

Given that at the time of the search Randle was on supervised release

and was being actively supervised by the U.S. Probation Office,

Randle’s address on record with the Probation Office is strong evidence

of where he was living. The [Vera Cruz] Residence is where Randle’s

probation officer was told to find him. The use of the word “currently”

in describing Randle’s supervised release status suggests that it may be

a more recent address than others on record. Although Randle may have

had other residences where he occasionally stayed or received mail, the

Probation Office records establish that the Residence on Vera Cruz Lane

is at least one of his residences. 

There is no evidence that Officer Hamilton in submitting his warrant affidavit

knowingly disregarded the truth to mislead the issuing judge. Even if the Stevens

Avenue listings might have been of interest, “in a warrant affidavit, the government

need only show facts sufficient to support a finding of probable cause.” Short, 2

F.4th at 1080 (quotation omitted). Here, the Probation Office records plus the averral

that officers followed Randle to Vera Cruz Lane after the controlled buy gave Officer

Hamilton reason to believe that his warrant affidavit provided facts sufficient to

support a finding of probable cause that contraband would be found at that address.

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The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Randle’s motions for

a Franks hearing and further discovery. Randle’s contention that the court committed

“procedural error” when it held a hearing on Randle’s motion for a Franks hearing

without conducting a “full” Franks hearing is without merit. Randle’s counsel had

a full opportunity to cross examine Officer Hamilton at the motion hearing, but was

unable to satisfy the “substantial preliminary showing” necessary to warrant grant of

a Franks hearing. 

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

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