Opinion ID: 492349
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Warrantless Entry and Search

Text: 74 Appellants Ford and Cresta argue that the district court erred in holding that the warrantless entry and seizure of evidence was justified by exigent circumstances. 75 Appellants were arrested on December 11, 1983 at 3:45 a.m. in a hotel room in Rockland, Maine. Appellants Ford and Cresta were two out of eighteen defendants originally arrested in this large drug smuggling operation. Although agents had been surveilling the operation for a few months, they did not become aware of Ford and Cresta's involvement until December 9, 1983, when one of the smugglers, Robert Kenney, decided to cooperate with the government. Thereafter, the officers recorded seven telephone calls placed by Kenney on December 9 and 10. Kenney was told that the off-loaders would be staying at the Navigator Motel in Room 106. A phone call to the hotel room confirmed this information. The last phone call was placed at 8:00 p.m. on December 10. The marijuana delivery was scheduled to arrive that night. However, Coast Guard officials had already boarded the vessel, discovered the marijuana and arrested the crewmembers. A decoy boat was sent to the off loading spot at about 3:00 a.m. on December 11 and one of the defendants went to notify the other conspirators sleeping at the Trade Winds Motel. Agents then arrested a number of defendants in their hotel room and there found two portable two-way radios. Minutes later agents arrived at the Navigator Motel and knocked on the door of Room 106, which was dark and silent. Cresta opened the door slowly and the agents pushed past him and arrested him and Ford. 76 The district court held that there were exigent circumstances justifying the warrantless entry and arrests of Ford and Cresta. The guns and other evidence found were held to be admissible under the plain view exception to the warrant requirement, see Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 464-66, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2037-38, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971), or under the exception that permits a search for weapons incident to arrest, see Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). We affirm. 77 Warrantless searches and seizures are constitutionally impermissible unless supported by probable cause and justified by either exigent circumstances or another recognized exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). In this circuit, the test for determining whether exigent circumstances exist justifying a warrantless entry is whether there is such a compelling necessity for immediate action as will not brook the delay of obtaining a warrant. United States v. Adams, 621 F.2d 41, 44 (1st Cir.1980). At the time of the arrests of Ford and Cresta probable cause and exigent circumstances did exist. The agents had a reasonable belief that the defendants arrested at the other hotel had used the two-way radio to warn Ford and Cresta, and they would attempt to flee or to destroy evidence. 78 Appellants however, contend that the officers had acquired sufficient information in the early evening of December 10 to have obtained a search warrant at that time. The officers certainly had probable cause to obtain a warrant after the last recorded phone call was made at 8:00 p.m. on December 10. Clearly this would have been the better course, but it does not follow that the chosen one was fatal. 79 Although probable cause existed some time prior to the arrests, this does not negate the rise of exigent factors. Here exigent factors did arise and it does not matter when they did. United States v. Mitchell, 538 F.2d 1230, 1233 (5th Cir.1976) (en banc), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 945, 97 S.Ct. 1578, 51 L.Ed.2d 792 (1977) (although agents had ample time after probable cause arose to obtain warrant, the failure to do so does not preclude a finding of exigent circumstances). 12 In Mitchell, agents were told by a reliable informant days in advance, the exact time and place that the illegal activity would occur. Closed circuit television cameras were even in place to photograph and record the arrest and seizure. Mitchell, 538 F.2d at 1234 (dissenting opinion). Mitchell and Cardwell both involved a car search which denotes a lesser expectation of privacy; however Mitchell has been extended to a warrantless entry and search of a home. See United States v. Gardner, 553 F.2d 946, 948 (5th Cir.1977), but cf. United States v. Thompson, 700 F.2d 944, 950 (5th Cir.1983). Unforeseeability has never been recognized as an element of the exigent circumstances exception and we decline to rule otherwise. Mitchell, supra, 538 F.2d at 1233, n. 3; see also United States v. Thompson, supra, 700 F.2d 944, 950 n. 4. 80 We note briefly that this is not a case where the exigent circumstances were deliberately created by the government. The agents here had to respond quickly after the vessel was seized by the Coast Guard; the act of sending in the decoy boat was an emergency act to prevent the smugglers awaiting the delivery from suspecting what had occurred. Thus, the agents could not have controlled the time at which the fake delivery took place, which is a necessary element to a finding that the government deliberately created the exigent circumstances. See United States v. Scheffer, 463 F.2d 567 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 984, 93 S.Ct. 324, 34 L.Ed.2d 248 (1972).VIII. Admission of Weapons 81 Although the government did not charge any of the defendants with any firearms offense, the weapons found in the search of the hotel rooms, including a sawed-off shotgun and pistols with silencers, were admitted into evidence. Appellants contend that the guns were inadmissible because they were not relevant to the commission of crimes with which they were charged. Fed.R.Evid. 401. In addition, they contend that even if the guns were relevant evidence, they were so prejudicial as to warrant their exclusion under Fed.R.Evid. 403. We disagree. The guns were relevant to prove appellants' intent to engage in a conspiracy to import marijuana and any possible prejudice that might have resulted from their admission was cured by the limiting instruction given by the trial judge upon the admission of each weapon. 82 Under Rule 401, evidence must be relevant to be admissible. In a large-scale, international smuggling venture such as this one, that involved twelve million dollars worth of marijuana, guns have become tools of the trade almost to the same extent as scales, cutting equipment and other paraphernalia. United States v. Wiener, 534 F.2d 15, 18 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 820, 97 S.Ct. 66, 50 L.Ed.2d 80 (1976) (a gun found in defendant's apartment on the day of his arrest for smuggling hashish is admissible). Because the weapons tend to prove the defendants' intent to promote and protect the narcotics conspiracy, they are relevant and admissible under Rule 401. See United States v. Marino, 658 F.2d 1120, 1123 (6th Cir.1981) (numerous guns found in defendant's suitcase during search of truck after drug bust were admissible as relevant evidence that he committed crimes with which he was charged even though not charged with firearms violation, where defendant found in possession of 3.7 million dollars worth of cocaine). 83 Appellants further contend that even if the guns are relevant, they should be excluded under Rule 403 because of their potential for prejudice. Since the guns are relevant to the crime charged, they should be excluded only if the risk of unfair prejudice outweighs their probative value. Fed.R.Evid. 403. 84 In order to protect the defendants from unfair prejudice, the judge gave a limiting instruction upon the admission of each weapon that the evidence should be considered not to show the character of the defendant, but only as proof of intent, operation, plan, knowledge or absence of mistake or accident. There is no evidence in the record that the weapons were introduced to show bad character. We hold that this limiting instruction properly protected the defendants from undue prejudice. See United States v. Marino, supra, 658 F.2d at 1124. We agree with the trial judge's finding that the probative value of the evidence outweighed its prejudicial effect.