Billy Joe Martin v. United States

Billy Joe Martin, appellant herein, was convicted after a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California for a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 174 (smuggling narcotics). He made a timely appeal to this court, which has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 .

Appellant was stopped by United States Customs Inspector Geiger at the San Ysidro port of entry while he was driving across the Mexican border into the United States. Geiger questioned appellant about his citizenship, the purpose of his trip, and whether or not he was bringing anything back from Mexico. Appellant appeared to be very talkative and Mr. Geiger advised him to drive into the secondary customs area, where he was asked to go into the office. Geiger then asked him to remove his coat; appellant did so and handed it to him. Geiger observed that the coat seemed to be bulky on one side and that there was a large amount of pink tissue paper in the inside pocket. As Geiger started to look inside the jacket to see what the bulky package was, appellant said, “I bet I know what that is; somebody must have put that there.” The package was opened and found to contain what was later stipulated to…