Opinion ID: 748401
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Opinion Testimony of the BATF Agent Concerning the

Text: 22 Movement of the Firearms in Interstate Commerce 23 After Special Agent Cronin was assigned to the Gravens case, his first task was to obtain the FTR from Coast to Coast, for the purpose of establishing that the firearm had, in fact, been moved across state lines. The defendant claims that any testimony from Agent Cronin regarding the interstate shipment of the firearm in this case is inadmissible evidence due to the fact that Cronin traced the firearm record using a serial number lifted from the illegally seized weapon. According to the defendant's brief, [d]uring the first evidentiary hearing, the Government virtually conceded that the firearms recovered from Howard's residence were discovered and seized as a result of incriminating statements made by Gravens without the benefit of any Miranda warnings. Accordingly, the district court ordered the firearms suppressed as fruits of the poisonous tree pursuant to Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). Thus, the defendant argues that the serial number from the firearm should not have been used to trace the FTR of the 12 gauge Ithaca shotgun, since the number was fruit of the poisonous tree. 24 Agent Cronin did not personally retrieve the transfer record from the Coast to Coast hardware store. When Cronin did contact the hardware store to have the clerk search for the record, he provided the name of the purchaser, the year of the transaction, and a description of the firearm. With this information, however, the clerk was unable to locate the record. It was only after Agent Cronin supplied the serial number that the clerk was able to pull the appropriate record. 25 The defendant's argument was rejected by the district court on the basis that the FTR would have been discovered even without the use of the tainted serial number. In so doing, the trial court held that an ATF expert can testify as to the make, model and place of origin of the firearms because those too would have been inevitably discovered, even without the July 8, 1994 statement. (emphasis added). The judge specifically noted that [w]ith respect to the Ithaca shotgun, the record reflects that apart from defendant's suppressed statements, the Government has the testimony of James Beer (whose house was burglarized), the insurance claim paperwork and the Firearms Transaction Record from Coast to Coast. As for the Remington rifle, it too was listed on the burglary report and the claim forms submitted to the insurance company. Those documents, like those regarding the Ithaca, existed prior to July 8, 1994. 26 Since the Supreme Court's decision in Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984), it is well established that the inevitable discovery rule provides exception to the exclusionary rule's requirement that evidence tainted by official wrongdoing be suppressed. If the prosecution can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the information ultimately or inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means ... then the deterrence rationale [of the exclusionary rule] has so little basis that the evidence should be received. Id. at 444, 104 S.Ct. at 2509. 27 Applying the dictates of the Supreme Court, we have consistently held that [w]hereas the exclusionary rule deprives the prosecution of evidence tainted by official wrongdoing and thereby discourages future improprieties, the inevitable discovery exception to the rule permits the introduction of evidence that eventually would have been located had there been no error.... United States v. Jones, 72 F.3d 1324, 1330 (7th Cir.1995). In Jones, we held that under the inevitable discovery rule, $299 of genuine currency found during a pat-down search of a defendant should be admitted as evidence in the event that the search was conducted as part of a general search of the defendant's house for the presence of counterfeiting equipment. Id. This Court found that if the police had completed their search of the defendant's house without searching the defendant personally, they would have had probable cause to arrest him based on the presence of counterfeiting equipment, and that the subsequent pat-down search conducted at the time of arrest would have produced the currency. Id. In United States v. Cotnam, 88 F.3d 487 (7th Cir.1996), we held that cash and drugs found prior to an official arrest were admissible under the inevitable discovery rule since the arrest and search incident to arrest were inevitable. While it would have been preferable for the officers to arrest [the defendant] as soon as they saw the marijuana, i.e., before the subsequent searches, we find that the evidence discovered during these searches would lawfully have been found anyway before the officers left the motel room. Id. at 496; see United States v. Carsello, 578 F.2d 199, 204 (7th Cir.1978) (fact that investigation would not have occurred but for disclosure of illegally seized items does not necessitate suppression of all evidence discovered in course of investigation as fruit of the poisonous tree; evidence sufficiently distinguishable from illegal evidence can be purged of illegal taint and rendered admissible), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 979, 99 S.Ct. 565, 58 L.Ed.2d 650 (1978). 28 In the Jones opinion, this Court addresses an important corollary of the inevitable discovery rule. When the Government relies on the inevitable discovery rule, it bears the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that it would have been able to uncover the challenged evidence through lawful means. Jones, 72 F.3d at 1334 (citing Nix, 467 U.S. at 444, 104 S.Ct. at 2509). The trial court found that in this circumstance, the evidentiary standard had been met, and we agree. Agent Cronin knew, without the help of the serial number, that the missing firearms were a 12 gauge Ithaca shotgun and a .22 caliber Remington rifle. He also knew the date that the shotgun had been purchased at this particular hardware store. Additionally, Beer, the victim of the defendant's burglary, was personally available to testify concerning the make and manufacturer of the firearms. Beer had stated on April 28, 1994, to the investigating officers that an Ithaca 12 gauge shotgun and a Remington .22 caliber rifle were missing. Beer had also submitted an insurance claim that identified two of the stolen firearms as an Ithaca 12 gauge shotgun and a .22 caliber Remington semiautomatic rifle. This evidence existed prior to July 8, 1994, the date of the disputed interrogation of Gravens that ultimately led to the illegal seizure of the firearms and the appropriation of the serial number. 29 At the evidentiary hearing, Cronin testified that he had been asked by the Assistant United States Attorney to obtain the transfer record by facsimile so that it could be attached to the Government's memorandum in opposition to the defendant's motion to suppress evidence. Cronin also testified that given more time, he could have driven to Coast to Coast himself and conducted a year-by-year search for the record. The FTR existed in Coast to Coast's filing system and, with sufficient time and effort, he inevitably would have discovered it by lawful means. 30 We are convinced that the facts support the Government's assertion that, given less exigent circumstances, Agent Cronin easily and inevitably would have discovered the FTR without the taint of the illegal weapons seizure. Although the inevitable discovery rule is not an exception to be invoked casually, Agent Cronin's testimony at the evidentiary hearing meets the sufficiency test to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the Firearms Transaction Record could have been found by means other than the use of the serial number. 1