CA5: Consent to search trunk doesn’t include passengers bags, too; no apparent authority

While the government didn’t argue standing in the USDC, it was decided, so it can appeal on that question. Passengers in a vehicle have standing to challenge the search of their own luggage. Here, the driver’s consent to search the car didn’t extend to the luggage of the passengers since they were never informed. No apparent authority, and the police seemed to recognize it during the process. United States v. Iraheta, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 15960 (5th Cir. August 19, 2014)

As the district court correctly noted, there are two cases in this Circuit applicable to these facts. In the first case, Jaras, the co-defendant, who was the driver and owner of the car, gave consent to search the car. 86 F.3d at 386. However, when the trunk was opened the co-defendant stated that the suitcases, where incriminating evidence was later discovered, belonged to the defendant, Jaras. Id. The officer informed Jaras that his co-defendant had consented to the search but did not ask for Jaras’s consent to search the suitcases. Id. The officer did ask Jaras what was inside of the suitcases. Id. Jaras responded that he did not know. Id. We held that the officer did not have authority, actual or apparent, to search the suitcases. Id. at 389-90. Importantly, there was no apparent authority because the officer was clearly informed by the co-defendant that the bags were Jaras’s; therefore, he was “on notice that [the co-defendant’s] consent to search did not extend to the luggage.” Id. at 389. Reliance on the co-defendant’s consent thereafter was unreasonable. Id. at 390.

In the second case, Navarro, a co-defendant consented to a search of the vehicle he was driving with two passengers, including the defendant, Navarro. 169 F.3d at 230. The officer found methamphetamine in a brown duffle bag on the back seat of the vehicle on which Navarro had been leaning. Id. We held that Navarro’s co-defendant’s consent was voluntary and that his general consent extended to “the entire vehicle, including the luggage contained therein.” Id. at 232. We distinguished Jaras by noting that: (1) there was no indication that the co-defendant had advised the officers that the luggage in the vehicle was not his and (2) the luggage was located not in the trunk but in plain view on the back seat of the car. Id. Additionally, we found it instructive that neither Navarro nor his co-defendant objected to the search of the bag. Id.

The Government argues that the luggage in the trunk was within the scope of Iraheta’s consent because all of the requirements for objective reasonableness under Jimeno have been met. However, as the district court found, an officer cannot conduct a search outside the scope of what a consenting party has authority to consent to. Iraheta clearly did not have actual authority to consent to the search of multiple pieces of luggage in the trunk of a vehicle occupied by him and two passengers. The Government has failed to point to any facts, other than the fact that the duffle bag was in the trunk of the car, that demonstrate “mutual use” or “joint access” sufficient to confer such authority. Without more, the fact that the luggage was found in the trunk of a car is insufficient to establish actual authority. See Jaras, 86 F.3d at 386 (“The fact that [defendant’s] suitcases were contained in the trunk of a car in which he was a passenger is insufficient to show that [the driver] mutually used and had joint control over the suitcases.”).

In terms of apparent authority—what the officers reasonably believed Iraheta had authority to consent to—the Government agrees that this case lies somewhere in between Jaras and Navarro. It is unlike Jaras in that no one alerted the officers to the fact that the luggage was not Iraheta’s. It is also unlike Navarro in that it cannot be said the officers did not have notice that the bag did not belong to Iraheta and the bags were in the trunk. Defendants consistently stated that they were traveling from California to Miami and even asked Deputy Waggoner how far it was from where they were stopped to Miami while the car was being searched. There were three people in the car and the number of bags in the trunk was consistent with three people traveling from California to Miami. The car was stopped in Louisiana, had California plates, and was previously registered in California. Taken together these circumstances would put reasonable officers on notice that Iraheta could not give consent to a search of all of the bags in the trunk.

Although Defendants did not object to the search nor claim ownership of the luggage searched, we conclude that that is not decisive under these facts. It is undisputed that both Gonzalez and Meraz-Garcia did not hear Iraheta give consent to the search nor were they ever informed of Iraheta’s consent by the officers. Under these circumstances, the onus was on the officers to act reasonably. See Mendoza-Gonzalez, 318 F.3d at 667 (“[T]he factual circumstances are highly relevant when determining what the reasonable person would have believed to be the outer bounds of the consent that was given.”). All of the facts indicated a likelihood that the bag did not belong to Iraheta, and therefore, it was unreasonable to rely on Iraheta’s consent alone in searching the bag. See United States v. Cantu, 426 F. App’x 253, 257-58 (5th Cir. 2011) (per curiam) (unpublished) (stating that Jaras “has been the law of this circuit for almost 15 years” and holding that where an officer knew the bag searched belonged to someone else who had not given consent, the search was illegal), cert. denied 132 S. Ct. 357 (2011). Therefore, the search was unconstitutional. The district court properly granted Gonzalez and Meraz-Garcia’s motions to suppress.