United States v. Martin Ruiz

Opinion by Judge CHRISTEN; Dissent by Judge GOULD.

OPINION

An early-morning shooting, a mysterious alias, and a problematic eyewitness identification led police to the home of Martin Cantu Ruiz, where they found a gun he wasn’t supposed to have. Ruiz appeals his conviction for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1), contending that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress a shotgun seized during the execution of a search warrant at his residence. Ruiz argues that reckless omissions by the search warrant affiant fatally undermined the magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and affirm the district court’s denial of Ruiz’s motion to suppress.

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Early on March 21, 2011, police responded to a call from a trailer home in Payette, Idaho. When officers arrived, they found that a man who lived there, Emmett Mills, had been shot in the knee. Detective John Plaza spoke with Mills briefly before he was taken to the hospital.

Mills told the detective he was at home with his girlfriend, Charlene Scales, when he heard a knock on the door at around 4:20 in…

dissenting:

I agree with my colleagues that “the drug-related information the district court determined was recklessly omitted does raise serious concerns about Scales’s credibility.” Majority Opinion at 1149. I regret that I cannot agree that there was independent corroboration of Scales’s identification of Ruiz, sufficient to overcome my serious concerns about Scales’s credibility. I conclude that the officer’s reckless omissions about Scales’s drug-related history were not harmless. Under a practical approach, taking into account common sense, a corrected affidavit, including the drug dealing and informant status of Scales, does not establish probable cause.

The record does not show sufficient corroboration that Scales reliably identified Ruiz. Here, there is no question the trailer shooting occurred, and I do not see Scales’s and Mills’s recounting of the basic details of the shooting, such as how two *1153 shots were fired or how the other assailant wore a mask, as strong corroboration of Scales’s overall veracity. The shooting happened, but who did it? Was there sufficiently reliable information of Ruiz’s involvement to justify the search warrant under the probable cause…

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Early on March 21, 2011, police responded to a call from a trailer home in Payette, Idaho. When officers arrived, they found that a man who lived there, Emmett Mills, had been shot in the knee. Detective John Plaza spoke with Mills briefly before he was taken to the hospital. Mills told the detective he was at home with his girlfriend, Charlene Scales, when he heard a knock on the door at around 4:20 in the morning. The person at the door identified himself as “McDog.”1 Mills opened the door and “McDog” asked for Jessica, but Mills said Jessica wasn’t there. Mills described “McDog” as a larger Hispanic male in his thirties with short hair and a black sweatshirt. Mills also saw another, smaller man standing nearby wearing a white clown mask and holding an assault rifle. Mills said the gun looked similar to an AK-47. A neighbor watching from her window also saw a man in a white “Halloween” mask standing near the trailer.

The man who knocked, “McDog,” tried to force his way inside the trailer, and a struggle ensued between Mills and “McDog.” Scales was seated at a computer, where she could observe the confrontation through a crack between the…