Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/997-f-2d-1273-597893758
Timestamp: 2020-04-10 00:00:11
Document Index: 512741611

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 841', '§ 5861', '§ 922', '§ 924', '§ 1291', '§ 924', '§ 2255', '§ 924']

997 F.2d 1273 (9th Cir. 1993), 90-50316, United States v. Garcia - Federal Cases - Case Law - VLEX 597893758
Docket Nº: 90-50316, 90-56082.
Citation: 997 F.2d 1273
Party Name: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Joaquin GARCIA, Defendant-Appellant. Joaquin GARCIA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Margaret C. HAMBRICK, Warden, Metropolitan Detention Center Los Angeles, Defendant-Appellant.
Case Date: June 10, 1993
997 F.2d 1273 (9th Cir. 1993)
Joaquin GARCIA, Defendant-Appellant.
Joaquin GARCIA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
Margaret C. HAMBRICK, Warden, Metropolitan Detention Center
Los Angeles, Defendant-Appellant.
Nos. 90-50316, 90-56082.
In his direct appeal in United States v. Garcia, No. 90-50316, Joaquin Garcia appeals his convictions after a bench trial on five counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1); two counts of weapons possession, 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(i) and 5871 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(o )(1) and 924(d); and one count of using a machine gun during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). Garcia contends the district court erred in determining that police officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment when, without a warrant, they walked up to the back door of his apartment, talked to the occupants for five minutes while pretending to be apartment hunters, looked through a dark screen door and saw Garcia holding cocaine, and then gained entry and arrested him inside. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm. 1
On August 10, 1989, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputies Beers, Letizio and three others conducted undercover surveillance of an apartment complex on Beechwood Drive in Southgate, California. 2 Two months earlier, an informant had reported that narcotics were being sold there from Apartment B, one of three units in the complex. Apartment A is a detached single-family home. It is located on the east side of Beechwood Drive. A driveway on the south side of this house leads to an open parking area behind it. To the east of the parking area is a garage. It is attached to a two-story duplex, Apartments B and C. The front of these apartments faces south. Back entrances and porches are around the garage in back facing north. The area in front of Apartments B and C has a walkway and landscaping. The area in back is bare. When looking north at the front of Apartments B and C, B is on the left and C is on the right.
Garcia filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized on August 10 and 11. On November 20, 1989, the district court held a hearing, and the next day denied the motion in a telephonic ruling. The ruling was not placed on the record at that time. After a bench trial, Garcia was convicted of all eight drug and weapons offenses charged in the indictment. The court imposed a 165-month sentence on the five drug counts, a concurrent 120-month sentence for two counts of possession of weapons without serial numbers, and an additional 360-month consecutive sentence for using or carrying a machine gun in a drug offense, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1).
Immediately following sentencing, Garcia petitioned the district court under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to set aside his section 924(c)(1) conviction. The court granted the petition. It held that Garcia's trial counsel had been ineffective because during the trial he had failed to bring to the court's attention United States v. Phelps, 877 F.2d 28 (9th Cir.1989). The district court determined that under Phelps no rational trier of fact could find Garcia guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of using a gun in committing a drug offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1).
District Court's Supplement of Record on Appeal Under Rule 10(e)
On August 5, 1991, after Garcia's opening brief had been filed in his direct appeal, we granted the government an extension of time to file its answering brief. On August 23, 1991, the district court signed and entered a 32-page written order denying Garcia's suppression motion. This order set forth detailed findings, conclusions and reasons for the court's November 21, 1989 telephonic denial of Garcia's motion to suppress. The order was prepared by the government and adopted without change by the district court to supplement the record on appeal under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(e).
The government then filed its answering brief. Garcia filed a motion objecting to the district court supplementing the record on appeal. We denied that motion as moot, but invited Garcia to file a motion for permission to file a revised opening brief. He filed that motion, we granted it, and Garcia filed his revised opening brief. With our permission, the government then filed its supplemental answering brief.
Garcia argues that the government's conduct in waiting more than 1 1/2 years to ask the district court to enter its written order denying his suppression motion unfairly prejudiced him. By the time that order was filed, Garcia had already filed his opening brief in this court. He correctly points out that the district court's August 23, 1991 written order undercuts some of the contentions he made in his opening brief. He asks us to review the district court's decision to...