FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit PUBLISH March 2, 2021 Christopher M. Wolpert UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Clerk of Court FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT _________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. No. 19-2153 AARON MARTIN MERCADO-GRACIA, Defendant - Appellant. _________________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (D.C. No. 1:16-CR-01701-JCH-1) _________________________________ Irma Rivas, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Appellant Mercado-Gracia. Tiffany L. Walters, Assistant United States Attorney (John C. Anderson, United States Attorney, with her on the brief), Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Appellee United States of America. _________________________________ Before TYMKOVICH, Chief Judge, EBEL, and BACHARACH, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ EBEL, Circuit Judge. _________________________________ In this direct criminal appeal, Defendant Aaron Mercado-Gracia challenges his three convictions for drug trafficking, conspiring to traffic drugs, and using a firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking offense. In upholding his convictions, we conclude: 1) The district court did not err in denying Mercado-Gracia’s motion to suppress evidence discovered as the result of a traffic stop. The traffic stop evolved into a consensual encounter during which the police officer developed reasonable suspicion to believe Mercado-Gracia was involved in drug trafficking. That reasonable suspicion justified a brief investigative detention, during which the officer deployed his drug-sniffing dog, which alerted, leading to the discovery of a gun and two kilograms of heroin in the car Mercado-Gracia was driving. 2) The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Mercado-Gracia’s request to play during voir dire a video to educate prospective jurors on implicit bias. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we, therefore, AFFIRM Mercado-Gracia’s convictions. I. BACKGROUND Just before noon on March 25, 2016, New Mexico State Police Officer Ronald Wood, with his drug-sniffing dog Arras, was patrolling Interstate 40 just west of Albuquerque. The officer clocked Mercado-Gracia driving a Dodge Charger ninety- two miles an hour in a seventy-five-mile-an-hour zone, heading east toward Albuquerque. Officer Wood pulled Mercado-Gracia over. Mercado-Gracia provided the officer with his driver’s license, car registration and proof of insurance. At the officer’s direction, Mercado-Gracia exited his vehicle and stood beside the patrol car while Officer Wood used his in-car computer to check these documents Mercado-Gracia provided. Mercado-Gracia’s driver’s license indicated that he was from Phoenix, Arizona. The car was also registered in Arizona 2 but to a Hector Ramirez Reyes. A third individual, Favian Reyes, had insured the car.1 Although Mercado-Gracia first stated that his cousin Favian owned the car, Mercado-Gracia did not know Favian’s last name. Mercado-Gracia then explained to the officer that Favian was actually “my lady’s, uh, husband’s cousin.”2 (I R. 338 (internal quotation marks omitted).) According to Mercado-Gracia, Favian had let him borrow the car to drive to Albuquerque. While writing a speeding ticket, Officer Wood inquired about Mercado-Gracia’s travel plans, asking what brought him to Albuquerque: Defendant: Just I own my own business — Officer Wood: Do you? Defendant: Yeah. It is a remodeling company. I’m trying to just like get going at …
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