Opinion ID: 1994085
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Special Agent Thomas Barmonde

Text: Special Agent Thomas Barmonde for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that he participated in executing the search warrant for Young's arrest. He testified that, although he did not make any notes or records of the incident he did remember [the arrest] because it was a, kind of a safety issue afterwards, realizing how close the firearm was to [Young] ... how easy access he had to it. So it did stick in [Agent Barmonde's] mind. It was his recollection that there was a possibility that the individual we were going to pick up was involved in a shooting. So we were being extra cautious because [a]ny time we go out [to execute a warrant] we [are] usually made aware of even if there is a chance that someone might carry firearms or [have] been involved in a shooting. Agent Barmonde testified that protective sweeps are used because [a]ny time you are in a location you want to be sure that ... everyone there is safe. So you will make sure that there [are] no other individuals around, anyone hiding, or any other threat to anybody's immediate safety. Agent Barmonde stated that while conducting protective sweeps, I have seen people in closets, I have found people in kitchen cabinets, I have found people underneath mattresses, I have seen people in drop ceilings, in attics, in storage lockers, in suitcases. When asked to clarify what he meant by underneath mattresses, he stated, I have seen people literally underneath beds; I have seen people underneath mattresses laying between box springs and mattresses before. When asked on cross-examination whether when someone is hiding between mattress and box spring, there is going to be some indication in the way the mattress is leaning or some hump on the mattress, or some gap between box spring and mattress, Agent Barmonde replied that [m]ost times there would, but I have seen times where you ... could stand there and look at it and have no idea. When asked if in such cases one could just go over and just press on the mattress and feel somebody underneath that mattress, he stated that he had personally been in a situation where there was an individual between a mattress and a box spring and it was such an old box spring, and it had so much [of] ... the insides not there and springs missing, that I don't think you would have been able to feel someone if you would have put your hand on the mattress. Or if you would have just stood back and looked. I don't think you would have known that the individual was there. Accordingly, he stated, [i]f I'm there and I go into a room, I'm going to lift up a mattress. Absolutely ... I wouldn't turn my back to that room and walk out before checking underneath a mattress and box spring. Agent Barmonde could not recall whether Young had been taken out to a police car before the pillow was moved and the gun was found, but he didn't believe so because from what [he could] remember, he was still in that general area ... because it was [a] pretty short, short time after it was deemed that there was no one else in the house, that [the gun] was discovered.