United States v. Raymond Duenas, Jr.

These consolidated appeals arise from the chaotic two-day execution of a search warrant by the Guam Police Department’s (“GPD”) SWAT team, in coordination with federal DEA and ATF agents. The search resulted in one of the largest “busts” of stolen items in Guam’s history. The “woefully inadequate” management of the search of Raymond (“Ray”) and Lourdes (“Lou”) Duenas’s compound and the staging of the inventory of seized drugs and goods on the compound’s front yard attracted members of the media and victims who came to claim their property while the two-day execution of the warrant was ongoing.

Ray and Lou were arrested and separately gave statements to police officers. The district court denied their motions to suppress evidence of the drugs and stolen goods seized in the raid and their statements. A jury convicted each of the Duenases on multiple counts. Both appeal their convictions, contending that the suppression motions should have been granted, that former testimony of by-then-deceased Officer Frankie Smith should not have been admitted at trial, and that there was insufficient evidence to support their convictions. Although the conduct of the search was highly…