United States v. Jesus Ramirez-Sandoval

Defendant-appellant Jesus Ramirez-Sandoval entered a conditional guilty plea to the charge of transporting illegal aliens. He now appeals from the district court’s partial denial of his motion to suppress evidence. The district court held that certain evidence was admissible under the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule. We reverse.

I.

FACTS

Sometime prior to July 22, 1987, Los Angeles Police Officer Juan Torres received reports from several merchants that they had, on a number of occasions, seen suspicious activity taking place near a red and white van parked in front of the Central Market at 317 South Broadway. Specifically, they had observed many people coming and going from the van and exchanging what appeared to be money. However, they did not report actually having seen contraband or weapons. These merchants told Torres that the van always appeared after 6:00 P.M., when Torres was off duty. They could describe the occupants of the van only as male Hispanics.

Torres was very familiar with his informants, and with the neighborhood in general, having been assigned to foot patrol duty in the area for five years. He was aware that there was considerable…