United States Fifth Circuit

Denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence in a prosecution for drug and firearm-related charges is reversed and remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal where an officer unreasonably extended a traffic stop beyond the point at which a van's occupants' ID's were cleared, defendant's consent to a search was not independently given, and a gun and drugs found on defendant's person had to be suppressed under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/23/2006
• Published 08/24/2006

Judges

• JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:, Before SMITH and STEWART, Circuit Judges, and CRANE, District Judge.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Margaret M. Embry (argued), San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee., Dusty Gallivan (argued), Gallivan & Associates, Odessa, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.