United States v. Marco Perez

MEMORANDUM

Marco Joshua Perez pled guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A). His plea was conditioned on his right to appeal the district court’s denial of his motions to suppress evidence recovered from a search of his track and subsequently of his home. We hold that the district court erred in determining that the consent to search Perez’s vehicle was voluntary. The district court made no further finding with respect to whether the agents would have gone to Perez’s home had they not seen the evidence seized during the illegal search. Because a hearing is necessary to determine whether this illegal search prompted the officers’ visit to Perez’s home, we remand to the district court for further findings on this issue.

Involuntary Consent

As our precedent makes clear, the “government bears the heavy burden of demonstrating that the consent was freely and voluntarily given.” United States v. Chan-Jimenez, 125 F.3d 1324, 1327 (9th Cir.1997) (citation omitted). The government did not meet that burden here. We consider five factors to determine whether consent was voluntarily given: “(1) whether the…