United States v. Musgraves, No. 15-2371 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseIn 2015, Musgraves was convicted of five crimes stemming from his life as a drug dealer-turned-informant. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of Musgraves’s motion to suppress evidence (ammunition and cash, but no firearm or evidence of drug dealing) seized based on a search warrant. While police procedures were “sloppy” and one of the affidavits submitted was not sufficient to establish probable cause, the other affidavit was based on information that was recent and specific, the witness (Boner) appeared before the judge, and there was no damning information about Boner’s credibility. The court reversed, for insufficient evidence, Musgraves’s convictions for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm as a felon, and distribution of cocaine near a school. The government proved a buyer-seller relationship, but not a conspiracy to distribute, and did not prove a link between Musgrave and the car in which the gun and cocaine were found. The court affirmed the district court’s finding that Musgraves qualifies as a career offender under the Sentencing Guidelines.
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