United States v. Ramon David Gomez

In a non-jury trial with stipulated facts, Gomez was convicted of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a). He appeals, asserting that denial of his motion to suppress his confession and certain physical evidence was reversible error. We disagree and affirm.

I

According to the confession, on the morning of January 24, 1980, Gomez parked in front of a business and apartment building near an office of the California First Bank in San Diego. He secreted a gray three-piece leisure suit in a gym bag with a razor, shaving cream, and false mustache in the second floor hallway of the building. He then went to the bank wearing blue jeans, tennis shoes, a sweatshirt, and a baseball cap. He approached the teller and handed her a demand note that stated that he had a gun. The teller gave him money which he placed in a zipper pouch. He then ran through parking lots to the building in which he had left his gym bag. In an area of the second floor where he would be unobserved, he changed into the leisure suit, shaved off the stubble of a mustache, and put on the false mustache. He left the clothing he had worn in the hallway area and walked down the stairs toward his car. At that point…