United States v. Martinez, No. 17-4131 (10th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseDuring a traffic stop in Arizona, law enforcement discovered evidence linking Deon Martinez to a bank robbery in Utah. Martinez argued that the state trooper who pulled him over lacked reasonable suspicion to do so, and the trial court erred in not suppressing evidence seized from his vehicle. Here, the district court relied on four facts to conclude that the arresting trooper had reasonable suspicion to stop the Cadillac: (1) it noted the similarities between the Winslow robbery suspects and the person driving the reportedly suspicious white Cadillac in Flagstaff; (2) it credited testimony that white Cadillacs “aren’t an ordinary part of the automotive ecosystem on this particular stretch of road;” (3) the travel time from Flagstaff to Winslow was generally consistent with the gap in time between the suspicious-vehicle sighting in Flagstaff and the robbery in Winslow and the travel time from Winslow to the site of the traffic stop was generally consistent with the gap in time between the robbery and the stop; and (4) the district court found that the arresting-trooper’s impression of the driver through the Cadillac’s tinted window matched the general description of a Winslow robbery suspect. The Tenth Circuit found that no one reported seeing a white Cadillac - or any other vehicle - at the Winslow robbery. Instead, “a suspicious vehicle” of that color and make reportedly left a parking lot of a Wells Fargo in a different city (Flagstaff) some 41 minutes before the Winslow robbery. So to reasonably suspect that the white Cadillac he stopped was carrying bank-robbery suspects, the trooper had to first infer that the reportedly suspicious white Cadillac from Flagstaff was also involved in the Winslow robbery. From this and descriptions of the robbery suspects, the arresting trooper had no basis to believe the Cadillac he pulled over 130 miles away was in fact the very same Cadillac. The Court reversed the district court’s order denying Martinez’ motion to suppress and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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