United States v. Ruiz, No. 13-30003 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm, contending that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress a shotgun seized during the execution of a search warrant at his residence. The court concluded that there was enough evidence in the record corroborating the witnesses' statements to diminish the adverse effect of their credibility issues in the context of the probable cause inquiry. In light of the full record, there was a fair probability that evidence of the shooting would be discovered at defendant's residence. Accordingly, the district court properly denied the motion to suppress. The court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress a shotgun seized during the execution of a search warrant in a case in which the defendant argued that reckless omissions by the search warrant affiant fatally undermined the magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause. The panel wrote that the failure to disclose to the magistrate judge at the time of the warrant hearing drug- related information that raises serious concerns about a witness’s credibility is a serious breach of the duty the officer owed to the court. The panel also assumed, without deciding, that two witness’s eyewitness statements, standing alone, were not sufficient to support probable cause. The panel affirmed because there was corroboration that the crime being investigated had actually occurred, as well as some specific indication that the identification of the defendant from a photo lineup was sufficiently reliable. Dissenting, Judge Gould could not agree that there was independent corroboration of a witness’s identification of the defendant, sufficient to overcome serious concerns about the witness’s credibility.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.