Page 48 - May June 2019 TPA Journal

distribute the cocaine; and testimony by co- Department that a man named Arturo was using a
conspirators that he was not only involved in a white Avalanche pickup truck to transport
cocaine transaction, but that he urged a distributor methamphetamine around San Antonio. About a
to “front” himself and another conspirator some of month later, that same confidential source told
the drug. The evidence was sufficient for a Detective Contreras that Arturo would be
rational jury to find him guilty, and Gonzalez’s transporting about two kilograms of
arguments to the contrary border on frivolous. methamphetamine that very day, to the parking lot
of Bill Miller’s restaurant in San Antonio.
U.S. v. Gonzalez, Fifth Circuit, No. 17-40895, Oct.
31, 2018. Officers established surveillance and saw a white
Avalanche pickup truck. They checked the license
**************************************** plate of the truck and found it was registered to
****** Arturo Sarli, who had a pending municipal arrest
warrant. When a marked police unit entered the
parking lot, Sarli appeared nervous and drove
SEARCH & SEIZURE – CONSENT SEARCH away. Other officers, including Officer Juan
OF VEHICLE Torres, followed Sarli and initiated a stop after
witnessing a traffic violation. Sarli appeared
Following a tip from a confidential source, Arturo shaky in the presence of the officers.
Sarli was arrested and convicted for possession
with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He Officer Torres asked if Sarli would consent to a
challenges his conviction under the Fourth and search of the truck. Sarli agreed. Officer Torres
Sixth Amendments. We unanimously deny Sarli’s then waited until other officers were free to assist
Fourth Amendment claim, on the ground that he him, before again requesting and obtaining
consented to the search of his vehicle. consent to search. Before beginning the search,
officers told Sarli that he was under arrest on the
(Ed. note: The discussion of the 6th Amendment outstanding warrant, handcuffed him, and placed
confrontation claim arising from informant him in the back of a police car.
statements introduced at trial is omitted.)
Officer Torres and others then began the search.
Moreover, Sarli’s defense at trial wasn’t that he The initial search was unsuccessful. About 15
didn’t do it—it was that he didn’t know what he minutes after the stop, the first of two police dogs
was doing. Sarli admitted he agreed to be paid to arrived to conduct a “sniff” of the truck. Neither
transport a box of cat litter from a Walmart dog alerted. Within five minutes of the second dog
parking lot to a restaurant parking lot. He simply beginning to sniff, Detectives Contreras and
denied knowing that the cat litter contained Robert Tamez arrived at the scene. Soon
methamphetamine. Naturally, the prosecution thereafter, Detective Tamez looked inside of a box
ridiculed Sarli’s dubious story as implausible in of cat litter in the back of the truck and found
the extreme (and as evidence of guilt, as our several small bundles that were later determined
precedents permit). The officers at the scene also to contain methamphetamine. From beginning to
testified that, once they found the drugs, Sarli end, the entire search lasted roughly 51 minutes.
cried about not wanting to go to prison, and
Upon discovery of the drugs, Sarli began to cry.
protested his wife’s innocence.
He told the officers that he was scared of going to
In June 2014, a confidential source told Detective prison. He also told them that his wife was
Steven Contreras of the San Antonio Police innocent.

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