United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 14-2536

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Nestor Casillas

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines

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 Submitted: April 17, 2015

 Filed: July 6, 2015

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Before RILEY, Chief Judge, LOKEN and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

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LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Nestor Casillas of conspiracy to distribute and nine counts of

distributing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846. The district

court sentenced him to 188 months in prison. Prior to trial, the court denied 1

The Honorable Stephanie M. Rose, United States District Judge for the

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Southern District of Iowa.
Casillas’s motion to suppress his incriminating voluntary statements made to law

enforcement officers following his arrest without a warrant and prior to his

presentment before a magistrate judge. Casillas appeals the denial of that motion. 

We affirm.

Rule 5(a)(1)(A) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that,

following an arrest, the arresting officer “must take the defendant without

unnecessary delay before a magistrate judge.” Under the judicial doctrine commonly

known as the McNabb-Mallory rule, “confessions made during periods of detention

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that violate [Rule 5(a)’s] prompt presentment requirement” are “generally render[ed]

inadmissible.” Corley v. United States, 556 U.S. 303, 309 (2009)(quotation omitted). 

However, 18 U.S.C. § 3501(c), enacted in 1968, limits the McNabb-Mallory rule by

providing that a confession “shall not be inadmissible solely because of delay in

bringing [the defendant] before a magistrate judge” if the confession was voluntary

and was made “within six hours immediately following” the defendant’s arrest or

detention. “If the confession occurred before presentment and beyond six hours,

however, the court must decide whether delaying that long was unreasonable or

unnecessary under the McNabb-Mallory cases, and if it was, the confession is to be

suppressed.” Corley, 556 U.S. at 322. “[D]elay for the purpose of interrogation isthe

epitome of ‘unnecessary delay.’” Id. at 308.

Reflecting these principles, the pretrial motion filed by Casillas’s appointed

attorney argued that his confession should be suppressed because it “was made more

than six hours after his arrest, and . . . the presentment to a magistrate 36 hours afer

his arrest was unreasonable and untimely.” At the evidentiary suppression hearing,

ATF Special Agent Kelly Etnier and Des Moines Police Officer Anthony Ballantini

testified to the following sequence of events after Casillas was arrested at 8:30 a.m.

Named after the Supreme Court’s decisions in McNabb v. United States, 318

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U.S. 332 (1943), and Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449 (1957).

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on November 7, 2013, based on probable cause to believe he was engaged in

methamphetamine trafficking:

The arresting Des Moines police officer transported Casillas to the Narcotics

Unit office, where he was advised of and waived his Miranda rights. He initially did

not provide information, and the officers ceased interrogating him. Approximately

two hours later, however, he summoned an officer and began to provide useful

information about the presence of explosives and weapons at a farm where agents

were about to execute a search warrant, and then about the scope of the

methamphetamine distribution conspiracy and his role in it. 

At around 11:30 a.m., Officer Ballantini and another officer began driving

Casillas around Des Moines, at his request, and continued the questioning. 

Meanwhile, at 12:30 p.m., Agent Etnier appeared before Magistrate Judge Ross

Walters, who signed a criminal complaint and arrest warrant for Casillas. Ballantini

testified that he returned with Casillas to the police office after about an hour and

continued questioning Casillas about the farmto be searched until 2:30 p.m. A police

van transported Casillas to the Polk County Jail for booking, where he arrived at 3:57

p.m. Agent Etnier testified that federal arrestees are presented at the federal

courthouse for their initial appearances before 2 p.m. each day. Casillas’s interview

regarding the farm to be searched extended until 2:30 p.m. on November 7, so his

initial appearance took place at 2:32 p.m. on November 8. 

At the conclusion ofthe hearing, the district court found the testimony of Agent

Etnier and Officer Ballantini credible. Based on this testimony, the court found that

Casillas was arrested at 8:30 a.m. and his cooperation “ended no later than 2:30

p.m.”; that Casillas understood and waived his Miranda rights; that his incriminating

statements were made voluntarily; and that his presentment on November 8 was not

unreasonably delayed for the purpose of obtaining information from him. Based on

these findings, the court denied the motion to suppress.

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Counsel’s brief on appeal questioned whether Casillas’s confession was made

within six hours of his arrest. “The agentstestified that the interview ended just prior

to 2:30 p.m., which is conveniently within the six hour rule of § 3501(c). Yet Casillas

did not arrive at the jail until 4 p.m.” But at oral argument, counsel conceded, as she

must, that the district court explicitly found that the incriminating statements were

made within six hours of Casillas’s arrest, and that we review this factual finding for

clear error. See, e.g., United States v. Evans, 781 F.3d 433, 436 (8th Cir. 2015). 

Recognizing that the record provides no basis to challenge as clearly erroneous

the district court’s finding that Casillas voluntarily confessed within six hours of his

arrest, counsel argued that even a voluntary confession made within six hours of

arrest must be suppressed under the McNabb-Mallory rule if the defendant’s later

presentment was unreasonably delayed. But this argument is contrary to the plain

meaning of § 3501(c), which provides that a voluntary confession made within six

hours of the defendant’s arrest “shall not be inadmissible solely because of delay in

bringing [the defendant] before a magistrate judge.” As the Supreme Court noted in

Corley, “[i]f the confession came within [six hours], it is admissible.” 556 U.S. at

322 (emphasis added). 

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

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