United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 17-1258 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. JEAN CARLOS RIVERA-MORALES, a/k/a CARLI, Defendant, Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO [Hon. Francisco A. Besosa, U.S. District Judge] Before Howard, Chief Judge, Selya and Barron, Circuit Judges. Eleonora C. Marranzini, Assistant Federal Public Defender, with whom Eric Alexander Vos, Federal Public Defender, and Vivianne M. Marrero, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Supervisor, Appeals Section, were on brief, for appellant. Julia M. Meconiates, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States Attorney, and Mariana E. Bauzá-Almonte, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, were on brief, for appellee. May 29, 2020 SELYA, Circuit Judge. The warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment is among the most important of the constitutional protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Even so, not all government intrusions into seemingly private areas, whether physical or virtual, trigger the warrant requirement. One such type of intrusion, seldom encountered, is embodied in the private search doctrine. In general terms, that doctrine provides that law enforcement officers may, without a warrant, examine evidence that a private party has unearthed and made available to them, as long as their actions remain within the scope of the antecedent private search. See United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 115, 118-20 (1984); United States v. Powell, 925 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 616 (2018). This appeal requires us to apply the private search doctrine in the evolving context of modern technology. At a granular level, it concerns a wife's search of a cellphone belonging to her husband (defendant-appellant Jean Carlos Rivera- Morales), leading to her discovery of a disturbing video. The wife then brought the cellphone to the authorities and directed their attention to the video. Her actions paved the way for the defendant's indictment on a charge of production of child pornography. After the district court denied the defendant's motion to suppress the video, see United States v. Rivera-Morales, - 2 - 166 F. Supp. 3d 154, 170 (D.P.R. 2015),1 a jury found him guilty as charged. The defendant now appeals. After careful consideration, we affirm the district court's denial of the motion to suppress under the private search doctrine and, thus, affirm his conviction. We also affirm the defendant's sentence. I. BACKGROUND We briefly rehearse the relevant facts and travel of the case. With respect to suppression, our account gives credence to the facts supportably found by the district court. See United States v. Coombs, 857 F.3d 439, 443 (1st Cir. 2017). As to the assignments of sentencing error, we draw the facts from the trial record, the undisputed portions of the presentence investigation report (PSI Report), and the transcript of the disposition hearing. See United States v. Flete-Garcia, 925 F.3d 17, 21-22 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 140 S. Ct. 388 (2019). On the evening of January 5, 2015, the defendant and his then-wife, Beskis Sánchez-Martínez (Sánchez), were ...
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