Opinion ID: 2651085
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Search Warrant of Residence

Text: Robinson also appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrant of his residence. Special Agent Lyons also prepared the affidavit in support of the warrant to search Robinson’s residence. It repeated the statements that an IP address associated with Accurate Roofing had been used to log in to the “lowkey” account. It also stated that date stamps on the subject images showed they had been taken in May 2008 and January 2009 and that investigators had determined that the child in the images was Robinson’s son. The affidavit asserted that public records indicated that the home address of Robinson was the subject premises. The affidavit concluded that there was therefore probable cause to believe that the residence would contain evidence of the creation of the images, such as cameras, computers, and the clothing and household furnishings seen in the images. During a telephonic hearing to consider the warrant application, Agent Lyons informed the magistrate judge that investigators had traced the subject images back to an IP address assigned to Accurate Roofing, that the child in the images had been identified as Robinson’s son, and that Robinson worked at Accurate Roofing. He also asserted that the images, depicting a bedroom and a bath tub, appeared to have been taken at a home. Agent Lyons said that 9 Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 10 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 investigators believed that Robinson’s son lived at the residence with Robinson. He stated that agents intended to search for any digital media that could contain child pornography, as well as clothing, bedding, and household items that were visible in the images. At the subsequent hearing on Robinson’s motion to suppress, Agent Lyons acknowledged that the affidavit did not specifically assert that Robinson or his son lived at the residence at the time the images were taken or that any of the items seen in the image were still at the residence. The district court found that the date that the images were taken, more than two years prior to the search, did not render them stale information, unable to support probable cause. In particular, the district court noted that caselaw suggested that, especially in child pornography cases, older information still may be reliable because of techniques allowing for the later electronic retrieval of evidence and the fact that child pornography is usually carried out in the secrecy of the home. The district court also concluded that, “once there was a search of the business and an identity that the victim in the child pornography was the son of Mr. Robinson, then certainly there was reason to believe that items of clothing and property could be found at the home that would substantiate the likelihood that the photographs were taken in the home of the defendant.” Challenging the district court’s suppression ruling, Robinson makes two arguments: first, that the affidavit was “bare bones” because it depended on dated—i.e., “stale”—information on which an officer could not reasonably rely; and, second, the affidavit was otherwise lacking in indicia of probable cause because there was not a sufficient nexus between the place to be searched and the evidence to be seized, such that the good faith exception should not apply. Robinson states that the supporting affidavit contained no information 10 Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 11 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 indicating that he or his son had lived at his current residence when the images were taken in May 2008 and January 2009. He asserts that the affidavit failed to establish a nexus between the evidence sought and the place to be searched. He also asserts that the affidavit contained no information indicating that it was likely that the clothing or household items visible in the images would be present more than two years later. An officer is not entitled to invoke the good faith exception if the affidavit upon which the warrant is founded is a “bare bones” affidavit “so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.” Mays, 466 F.3d at 343 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). A “bare bones” affidavit contains “wholly conclusory statements, which lack the facts and circumstances from which a magistrate can independently determine probable cause.” United States v. Satterwhite, 980 F.2d 317, 321 (5th Cir. 1992) (citation omitted). Whether an affidavit is a bare bones affidavit is determined by a totality of the circumstances. United States v. Fisher, 22 F.3d 574, 578 (5th Cir. 1994). Stale information cannot be used to establish probable cause. Marcilis v. Twp. of Redford, 693 F.3d 589, 601 (6th Cir. 2012). When evaluating the staleness of information in an affidavit, this Court considers the particular facts of the case, including the nature of the unlawful activity and of the evidence sought, especially whether the evidence “is of the sort that can reasonably be expected to be kept for long periods of time in the place to be searched.” United States v. Craig, 861 F.2d 818, 822–23 (5th Cir. 1988). Here, we hold that the information in the affidavit was not so stale that it rendered the affidavit a “bare bones” affidavit. In other child pornography cases, this Court and others have found that similarly old information is not stale for establishing probable cause. See United States v. Allen, 625 F.3d 830, 11 Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 12 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 843 (5th Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Paull, 551 F.3d 516, 522–23 (6th Cir. 2009) (information that the defendant subscribed to child pornography thirteen months earlier was not stale); United States v. Newsom, 402 F.3d 780, 783 (7th Cir. 2005) (“Information a year old is not necessarily stale as a matter of law, especiall where child pornography is concerned.” (citations omitted)); United States v. Lacy, 119 F.3d 742, 745 (9th Cir. 1997) (upholding search warrant in pornography case based on ten-month-old information). Relevant to this inquiry is the fact that evidence of child pornography often is found in the secrecy of a defendant’s home and the criminal activity is carried out over a long period. See Allen, 625 F.3d at 843 (citing United States v. Frechette, 583 F.3d 374, 378 (6th Cir. 2009)). In addition, Robinson alleges that there was not a sufficient nexus connecting the child-pornography activity to his residence. The requisite nexus between the location to be searched and the evidence sought can be shown by “direct observation” or by “normal inferences as to where the articles sought would be located.” United States v. Payne, 341 F.3d 393, 400 (5th Cir. 2003) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The issuing judge may “draw reasonable inferences from the material he receives,” and the ultimate determination of the affidavit’s adequacy is entitled to great deference on review. United States v. May, 819 F.2d 531, 535 (5th Cir. 1987). Even though the affidavit failed to assert that Robinson or his son still lived at the same location as when the images were taken and failed to allege that any of the items visible in the images were still at his residence several years later, the information had sufficient indicia of probable cause that an officer in good faith could rely on it. Even if Robinson could have moved to a different address after taking the images, it would be a reasonable inference that evidence of the production, distribution, or possession of child 12 Case: 12-60841 Document: 00512511135 Page: 13 Date Filed: 01/24/2014 No. 12-60841 pornography might be found at Robinson’s current residence. In addition, it would be a “normal inference” to conclude that Robinson and his son lived at the same residence at the time the photographs were taken and that, because the images appeared to have been taken in a home, the household items visible in the background, the victim’s clothing, or even the camera used to take the images, would be located at their current residence even if Robinson and his family had moved after the images were taken. See Payne, 341 F.3d at 400 (stating that the required nexus may be established by “normal inferences as to where the articles sought would be located”). Accordingly, we hold that the district court did not err when it concluded that the information was sufficient to entitle the officer to invoke the good faith exception. In sum, we affirm the district court’s denial of Robinson’s motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to both search warrants. Robinson’s arguments that the good faith exception does not apply are unavailing. Robinson is unable to prove that the withheld information regarding IP addresses was dispositive to the probable cause determination for the Accurate Roofing search warrant. Robinson is also unable to show that law enforcement could not reasonably rely on the search warrant for his residence. The district court did not err in determining that the information used to establish probable cause was not stale, given the nature of the offense.