United States v. Eduardo A. Garcia-Camacho, United States of America v. Jose Jesus Gutierrez-Rosales

Defendant Eduardo Garcia-Camacho. and Defendant Jose Jesus Gutierrez-Rosales appeal the denial of their motions to suppress evidence seized after an investigatory stop by U.S. Border Patrol Agents. Defendants claim the agents did not have reasonable suspicion to stop their pickup truck and thus conducted an illegal search and seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court held an evidentiary hearing and denied defendants’ motions to suppress. Defendants subsequently pleaded guilty under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a)(1) and 846 to conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we reverse.

BACKGROUND

On September 27, 1993 at approximately 7:30 a.m., Border Patrol Agent Bernardo Madrid observed a Chevrolet pickup truck with a camper top travelling northbound on Interstate 5 near Grapevine, California. Grapevine is located approximately 300 miles from the United States-Mexico border. Defendant Garcia-Camacho drove the truck and defendant Gutierrez-Rosales was his passenger. At the time of the observation, Agent Madrid and his partner, Neil Jensen, were on the side of the highway and were in the process of unloading eleven…