United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 20-1153 ___________________________ United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Rafael Puebla-Zamora Defendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the District of North Dakota - Bismarck ____________ Submitted: February 19, 2021 Filed: May 3, 2021 ____________ Before LOKEN, BENTON, and KELLY, Circuit Judges. ____________ BENTON, Circuit Judge. A jury convicted Rafael Puebla-Zamora of reentry of a deported alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). He appeals the district court’s 1 denial of his pretrial motion to suppress. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, this court affirms. 1 The Honorable Peter D. Welte, United States District Judge for the District of North Dakota, adopting the report and recommendation of the Honorable Alice R. Senechal, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of North Dakota. I. On August 30, 2018, Officer Jacob Bratsch, a Bismarck police officer, received a text message from a confidential information (“the CI”) reporting a possible burglary at the apartment of a known drug dealer. Officer Bratsch shared this information with his patrol partner, Officer Joseph Olsen. Viewing this as credible, the officers went to the apartment (#308) and knocked on the door; no one answered. Officer Bratsch texted the CI to confirm the apartment number. The CI responded that “if the people weren’t in 308 . . . they’d be in 111.” Based on that information, the officers knocked on the door of Apartment 111. Although in uniform and displaying badges, they did not announce themselves as police. Puebla-Zamora answered the door. To avoid alerting him to the robbery, the officers asked about a noise complaint. He responded he had heard nothing. The officers then asked his name and date of birth; he provided them. Per routine procedure, the officers contacted dispatch to check warrants and driver’s license records. Dispatch found no records with the name and date of birth provided, so the officers asked for identification. He provided a Mexican passport. Because the officers could not verify his identity from it, they called Border Patrol. Throughout the encounter, the officers remained outside the apartment in the hallway of the building; Puebla-Zamora stood in the doorway. Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Tanner Branham ran a records check, finding that Puebla-Zamora had previously been removed from the United States. Agent Branham asked Puebla-Zamora to identify his country of citizenship and any documents allowing him to be legally present in the United States. Puebla-Zamora responded that he was a Mexican citizen with a Nevada driver’s license but no documents allowing him to be legally present in the United States. Agent Branham told the officers that Puebla-Zamora was illegally present in the United States and requested they detain him until a Border Patrol agent could -2- take him into custody. Meanwhile, the officers sought his consent to search the apartment. As requested, the officers took Puebla-Zamora into custody until a Border Patrol agent arrived. Once in custody of Border Patrol, Puebla-Zamora was fingerprinted. Puebla-Zamora …
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