United States v. Jeffrey Wilson

MEMORANDUM

Jeffrey Michael Wilson (“Wilson”) entered a conditional guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). On appeal, Wilson contends that the district court abused its discretion in denying his request for an evidentiary hearing on his motion to suppress evidence.

“We review for an abuse of discretion a [district] court’s decision whether to conduct an evidentiary hearing on a motion to suppress.” United States v. Quoc Viet Hoang, 486 F.3d 1156, 1163 (9th Cir.2007) (quoting United States v. Howell, 231 F.3d 615, 620 (9th Cir.2000)).

We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to hold an evidentiary hearing because Wilson failed to identify any “significant disputed factual issue” in his motion to suppress. See Howell, 231 F.3d at 621 . Even though there was a factual dispute regarding the scope of Officer Vetere’s patdown, the district court correctly concluded that this factual dispute was immaterial.

Assuming that Officer Vetere’s patdown of Wilson exceeded its permissible scope, Officer Vetere’s subsequent act of looking in the rear passenger window was not “fruit of the…