United States v. Valdez

Summary

The Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of Jaime Valdez's motion to suppress the drugs and firearms underlying his convictions. It held the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion because Valdez had thrown a duffel bag over a stranger's fence while fleeing, retrieved it, and then loitered nervously in a high-crime area while peering into a for-sale car and reaching into the bag, and it upheld admission of the items found in the frisk and the duffel bag on inevitable-discovery grounds without deciding whether the frisk was lawful. It also held the district court acted within its discretion in treating the government's Notice of Supplemental Exhibits as a motion to reconsider and in revising its interlocutory suppression ruling before final judgment, because the traditionally recognized reconsideration grounds are not prerequisites to granting such a motion.