Motion to Suppress Evidence Denied

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. David Gibson, et al.,

Case No.: 20-1236; 20-2234

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and MANION and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Motion to Suppress Evidence Denied

An informant gave South Bend police the number to a phone that drug dealers in the South Bend area were supposedly using to sell drugs. To confirm this tip, officers carried out a series of controlled buys in which confidential informants or undercover officers called the number and followed instructions to buy heroin. Relying on the controlled buys, officers submitted an affidavit to a state court judge requesting an order for the phone’s service provider to share 30 days of precise, real-time GPS location data for the phone. The state court judge issued a “court order” granting the request. Relying on similar affidavits, officers later obtained two more court orders authorizing an additional 60 days of real-time tracking.

The investigation ultimately led officers to two men at the top of the drug-trafficking conspiracy: David Gibson and Jerry Harris. Both defendants were federally indicted for conspiring to distribute heroin. Before trial, the district court denied their motion to suppress evidence obtained through the cellphone tracking. The court treated the state court orders as valid search warrants for the tracking. At trial, officers and cooperators testified to the large-scale drug-trafficking scheme that the defendants had overseen. The jury ultimately convicted both defendants of conspiring to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin. At sentencing, the district court found that the defendants had conspired to distribute a total of 10.5 kilograms of heroin. The defendants now appeal the court’s denial of their motion to suppress. Harris also challenges the drug-quantity calculations at trial and sentencing, the court’s limits on his cross-examination of the cooperators at trial, and his sentence. We affirm the district court’s well-reasoned rulings across the board.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Associate Corporate Counsel, IP at Amazon.