United States v. Joaquin Garcia, Joaquin Garcia v. Margaret C. Hambrick, Warden, Metropolitan Detention Center Los Angeles

In his direct appeal in United States v. Garcia, No. 90-50316, Joaquin Garcia appeals his convictions after a bench trial on five counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and heroin, 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1); two counts of weapons possession, 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861 (i) and 5871 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 922 (o )(1) and 924(d); and one count of using a machine gun during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c)(1). Garcia contends the district court erred in determining that police officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment when, without a warrant, they walked up to the back door of his apartment, talked to the occupants for five minutes while pretending to be apartment hunters, looked through a dark screen door and saw Garcia holding cocaine, and then gained entry and arrested him inside. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

In Garcia v. Hambrick, No. 90-56082, the government appeals from the district court’s judgment granting Garcia’s petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate his conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c), one of the counts of which he was convicted in his bench trial. The district court vacated the section 924(c)…