CA7: Inevitable discovery overcame claim of bad consent and no warrant

Police were looking for defendant’s gun because of his alleged “reckless use” of it, and they clearly had probable cause to get a search warrant, and would have except defendant consented. Inevitable discovery was sufficient and the question of consent didn’t have to be decided by the trial court. United States v. Bennett, 491 Fed. Appx. 760 (7th Cir. 2012):

On appeal Bennett argues generally that the gun was obtained through an illegal search and that the evidence is thus permanently tainted and the inevitable-discovery doctrine does not apply. But the district court correctly concluded that the gun was admissible based on inevitable discovery. Even an illegally seized item need not be suppressed if officers would have inevitably discovered it through lawful means. United States v. Stotler, 591 F.3d 935, 940 (7th Cir. 2010). Here the government showed that, even without the challenged search, officers would have obtained a search warrant and recovered the gun. United States v. Marrocco, 578 F.3d 627, 637-38 (7th Cir. 2009); United States v. Tejada, 524 F.3d 809, 813 (7th Cir. 2008). Ealing had probable cause to believe that Bennett committed felony criminal recklessness when he fired a gun in the air in a residential neighborhood, IND. CODE § 35-42-2-2(c)(2)(A), and he saw Bennett enter the house with the gun but return to the porch without it. As the district court noted, it is reasonable to conclude that the police would have continued their efforts to locate the missing gun by obtaining a search warrant, which would have been issued given the “fair probability” that evidence of a crime would be found in the house. See United States v. Miller, 673 F.3d 688, 692 (7th Cir. 2012). Ealing thus could have, and testified that he would have, obtained a search warrant to recover the gun had he not thought that Bennett’s mother validly consented to the search.