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United States of America v. Marlon K. Spears

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ARGUED JUNE 7, 2011

Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and BAUER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

On August 1, 2008, a magistrate judge issued a search warrant for the home of Marlon K. Spears, which law enforcement officers executed five days later. Spears was arrested and charged with possessing 100 or more marijuana plants with intent to distribute, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and maintaining a place for the manufacture and distribution of marijuana. He filed multiple motions to suppress the evidence obtained from the search, chal- lenging numerous statements made in the affidavit ac- companying the warrant application, including: (1) state- ments about finding a marijuana stem during a “trash pull”; (2) the existence of PVC piping at Spears’s home; (3) the affiant’s statements that she “received information from” the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (“NIPSCO”) about Spears’s power usage; and (4) statements made about Spears’s criminal history, namely, that he had one in the state of Indiana. The district court eventually conducted a hearing pursuant to Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 (1978). After hearing testimony, the district court found that the warrant did not contain any material false statements that were made intentionally, and denied the motion. The court also found that the warrant did not otherwise lack proba- ble cause.

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