United States v. Reginald Jones

Reginald Jones is appealing from his conviction for burglary on a government reservation. The conviction is based on 18 U.S.C. § 13 which provides that, in the absence of a federal statute prohibiting the specific acts charged, the federal government may prosecute a person who commits acts on a government reservation which violate the law of the state where the reservation is located. The state law relevant here is Cal.Penal Code § 459 defining the offenses of burglary and housebreaking. Jones having waived his right to a jury, the district court tried him solely on stipulated facts. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in the custody of the Attorney General.

Jones advances three grounds for the reversal of his conviction all of which relate to the district court’s modification of its initial decision to suppress certain evidence. First, Jones argues that the government was not timely in its motion challenging the suppression order. Second, certain tangible evidence of the burglary was discovered because of a lead produced by an illegal search, and the evidence was thus, Jones contends, tainted and inadmissible. Third, he argues that he confessed only because confronted…