United States v. Daniel Gutierrez ( 2023 )

USCA11 Case: 21-13791 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 05/24/2023 Page: 1 of 10
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 21-13791
____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
DANIEL GUTIERREZ,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 4:21-cr-00011-AW-MAF-1
____________________
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2 Opinion of the Court 21-13791
Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and LUCK and MARCUS, Cir-
cuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Daniel Gutierrez appeals his conviction for methampheta-
mine and fentanyl possession on three grounds: that evidence
against him was unconstitutionally seized during a prolonged traf-
fic stop, that the district court should not have admitted the prose-
cution’s expert-opinion testimony, and that the district court erro-
neously sentenced him in accordance with a statutory minimum.
Gutierrez’s constitutional challenge fails because the state troopers
lawfully stopped Gutierrez and did not extend their traffic stop be-
yond the time necessary to fulfill its purpose. And the district court
did not abuse its discretion in admitting the expert witness testi-
mony. Finally, Gutierrez’s last-minute sentencing argument relies
on a decision of this Court that is irrelevant to this appeal. We af-
firm.
I. BACKGROUND
Florida state trooper Gabriel Llanes stopped Gutierrez and
his wife at 8:55 a.m. as they travelled in a semi-truck towing a trailer
full of smaller cars. Florida law requires that the lettering on a li-
cense plate be clearly visible, FLA. STAT. § 316.605(1), but according
to Llanes’s testimony, the lights over Gutierrez’s license plate faced
outward and prevented Llanes from reading the license plate.
Llanes explained this violation to Gutierrez and decided to give him
a written warning.
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21-13791 Opinion of the Court 3
Llanes began to write that warning at 9:01 a.m., at which
time his patrol car’s computer time-stamped the warning. He tes-
tified that the warning took more time than usual to complete be-
cause Gutierrez’s truck, trailer, and license were from three differ-
ent states. While Llanes was still working on the warning, another
trooper arrived and called for a K-9 unit to conduct an open-air
drug sniff. The unit arrived at 9:12 a.m., while Llanes was still work-
ing on the warning, and Llanes paused only to tell the arriving of-
ficer about the situation, to step out of his car for his own safety,
and to explain the reason for the stop to Gutierrez’s wife.
Before Llanes could finish the written warning, a drug dog
alerted the troopers to the presence of illicit drugs. In a toolbox on
the driver’s side of the truck, the troopers found methampheta-
mine and blue tablets that looked like Oxycodone but were in fact
fentanyl. The troopers arrested Gutierrez, and Llanes finished the
warning at the jail. Gutierrez was indicted for possessing, with the
intent to distribute, five grams or more of both methamphetamine
and a substance containing fentanyl. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1),
(b)(1)(B)(vi), (b)(1)(B)(viii).
Before trial, Gutierrez moved to suppress the drugs that
were seized from the traffic stop. He argued that even if Llanes
lawfully stopped him, Llanes unlawfully extended the stop so a dog
could sniff around his car. That extension, he argued, violated the
Fourth Amendment as interpreted in Rodriguez v. United States, 575
U.S. 348, 355 (2015). The district court credited Trooper Llanes’s
testimony and denied the motion on the ground that there was
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4 Opinion of the Court 21-13791
probable cause for the stop and Llanes did not extend the stop
longer than he needed to complete the written warning.
The district court also allowed the expert-opinion testimony
of Dr. Jordan Trecki, a Drug Enforcement Administration pharma-
cology expert. The prosecution sought Dr. Trecki’s testimony
about “the impact of drugs of abuse on the human body and about
dosages, side effects, and consequences of use . . . of drugs.”
Gutierrez moved in limine to exclude this testimony, and the district
court addressed the motion in a hearing at the beginning of trial.
Dr. Trecki had a Ph.D in pharmacology and had worked at the En-
vironmental Protection Agency as a neurotoxicologist before
transferring to the Drug Enforcement Administration. At the Drug
Enforcement Administration, he ran the “DEA TOX” program,
which “collects biological fluids from overdosed victims around
the country” so that the agency can identify new illegal substances
being trafficked. Dr. Trecki gained extensive experience reviewing
samples from overdose victims and studying effects of drugs on the
body. Dr. Trecki also testified that he based his testimony on clinical
trials, peer-reviewed studies, common reference materials, and his
own experience in the DEA TOX program.
The district court admitted Dr. Trecki’s testimony. It con-
cluded that Dr. Trecki was qualified to testify regarding the effects
of different quantities of controlled substances and that his meth-
ods were reliable even if the conclusions were debated in the field.
It also ruled that Dr. Trecki’s testimony would be helpful to the
jury. According to the district court, Dr. Trecki’s testimony could
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21-13791 Opinion of the Court 5
help the jury understand what quantity of the two relevant drugs
would be appropriate for personal use, as opposed to distribution.
The jury convicted Gutierrez, and the district court sentenced him
to 120 months of imprisonment. This sentence was the minimum
sentence permitted by the law because the prosecution gave notice
of a previous “serious drug felony,” namely conspiracy to possess
cocaine with the intent to import and distribute it. See 21 U.S.C.
§ 841(b)(1)(B).
II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW
“A denial of a motion to suppress involves mixed questions
of fact and law,” so we review the district court’s factual findings
for clear error and review questions of law and the district court’s
application of the law to facts de novo. United States v. Campbell, 26
F.4th 860, 870 (11th Cir. 2022) (en banc). We review a decision to
admit expert opinion testimony for abuse of discretion and will not
reverse “in the absence of manifest error.” United States v. Holt, 777
F.3d 1234, 1264 (11th Cir. 2015).
III. DISCUSSION
We divide our discussion in three parts. We begin with
Gutierrez’s argument that the denial of his motion to suppress vi-
olated the Fourth Amendment. We then address his argument that
the district court abused its discretion in admitting Dr. Trecki’s tes-
timony. Last, we address Gutierrez’s eleventh-hour sentencing chal-
lenge.
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6 Opinion of the Court 21-13791
A . The District Court Correctly Denied the Motion to Suppress.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits “unreasonable searches
and seizures.” U.S. CONST. amend. IV. To enforce this prohibition,
courts exclude evidence that is the fruit of an unreasonable search
or seizure. United States v. Perkins, 348 F.3d 965, 969 (11th Cir. 2003).
A routine traffic stop qualifies as a “seizure” within the meaning of
the Fourth Amendment, and a stop is permissible only if the police
have “reasonable suspicion” of unlawful activity. Rodriguez, 575 U.S.
at 354–55. A traffic stop must not extend beyond when the “tasks
tied to the traffic infraction are—or reasonably should have been—
completed.” Id. at 354. So a police officer “may conduct certain un-
related checks,” such as an open-air dog sniff, as part of the stop,
but the checks must not prolong the stop unless there is independ-
ent reasonable suspicion for those checks. Id. at 355; see also Camp-
bell, 26 F.4th at 884.
There was reasonable suspicion for the initial stop. Gutierrez
argues that there was not reasonable suspicion that his license plate
was unlawfully obscured. The district court found that the license
plate was obscured. The district court examined a photograph of
the license plate from Trooper Llanes’s dash-camera and concluded
that at least part of one number was blocked. And it credited
Llanes’s testimony that, from his perspective when Gutierrez drove
by, as opposed to the more favorable angle the dash-camera offered,
the license plate was even less visible. Gutierrez fails to explain why
the district court’s finding was clearly erroneous. See Owens v. Wain-
wright, 698 F.2d 1111, 1113 (11th Cir. 1983) (“Appellate courts
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21-13791 Opinion of the Court 7
reviewing a cold record give particular deference to credibility de-
terminations of a fact-finder who had the opportunity to see live
testimony.”).
Gutierrez also argues that Trooper Llanes unlawfully ex-
tended the stop to allow a drug-dog sniff. He contends that the
tasks relevant to the license-plate violation for which he was
stopped were completed at 9:01 a.m., when, according to
Gutierrez, Llanes finished preparing the written warning. He ar-
gues that he should have been released then but was instead de-
tained for another eleven minutes until a drug dog came and trig-
gered the search that produced the evidence used against him at
trial.
Gutierrez misreads the record. As the district court ex-
plained, Llanes started preparing the written warning at 9:01 a.m.
but was still working on it when the drug dog arrived. He did not
extend the stop after the completion of the written warning; the
warning was incomplete when the dog detected the drugs in
Gutierrez’s car. Gutierrez’s brief does not acknowledge this find-
ing, let alone explain why it was clearly erroneous, so his sole chal-
lenge to the suppression ruling fails.
B. The District Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in Admitting Expert
Testimony.
We reject Gutierrez’s argument that Dr. Trecki’s testimony
was irrelevant and unreliable. See Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms.,
Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 589 (1993). Dr. Trecki’s testimony helped the jury
determine whether Gutierrez had drugs for personal use or
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8 Opinion of the Court 21-13791
intended to distribute them as the indictment alleged. See 21 U.S.C.
§ 841(a)(1) (penalizing the possession of an illegal drug “with intent
to . . . distribute” it). And Gutierrez’s assertion that other experts
would disagree with Dr. Trecki’s testimony does not establish that
the testimony was unreliable.
A settled framework governs the admission of expert-opin-
ion testimony. Expert testimony is admissible if “(1) the expert is
qualified to testify competently regarding the matters he intends to
address; (2) the methodology by which the expert reaches his con-
clusions is sufficiently reliable; and (3) the testimony assists the trier
of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.”
United States v. Esformes, 60 F.4th 621, 636 (11th Cir. 2023) (citation
omitted and alteration adopted). The district court may also ex-
clude the testimony “if its probative value is substantially out-
weighed by a danger of . . . unfair prejudice, confusing the issues,
[or] misleading the jury.” FED. R. EVID. 403.
Gutierrez has not established that the district court commit-
ted “manifest error” when it found Dr. Trecki’s testimony relevant
and helpful to the jury. Holt, 777 F.3d at 1264. He argues that Dr.
Trecki’s pharmacological testimony would be relevant if Gutierrez
had been found with analogues to illegal substances whose effects
are unknown, not actual controlled substances like those seized
from Gutierrez. But this argument does not respond to the district
court’s grounds for admitting Dr. Trecki’s testimony. That the tes-
timony could have been relevant to cases involving controlled-sub-
stance analogues does not establish that it was irrelevant in
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21-13791 Opinion of the Court 9
Gutierrez’s trial. Dr. Trecki’s testimony about the effects of the spe-
cific drugs Gutierrez possessed could help the jury to assess
whether the possession of that amount of drugs suggested an in-
tent to distribute those drugs. Having failed to address the district
court’s justification for admitting the evidence, Gutierrez cannot
establish on appeal that the testimony clearly did not “assist[] the
trier of fact” to decide essential issues, Esformes, 60 F.4th at 636 (ci-
tation omitted), nor that the testimony was substantially more prej-
udicial than helpful, FED. R. EVID. 403. See United States v. Morel, 63
F.4th 913, 920 (11th Cir. 2023) (explaining that a district court must
be affirmed if an appellant fails to challenge one of the independ-
ent grounds for its decision).
Gutierrez’s methodology challenge also fails. He contends
that Dr. Trecki’s methodology was not “acceptable” without fur-
ther explanation. And he argues that the testimony “was contra-
dicted by other sources, including respected and accepted studies,
organizations, reports, journals, and experts.” The district court
correctly rejected this argument on the ground that mere disagree-
ment among possible experts is not enough to prove an expert’s
methodology unreliable. That disagreement can form the basis for
cross-examination or competing witnesses, but it is not a ground
for preventing a witness from testifying. See Daubert, 509 U.S. at
596.
C. Gutierrez’s Sentence Was Lawful.
Only two days before oral argument, Gutierrez asked this
Court for the first time to review the application of the statutory
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10 Opinion of the Court 21-13791
mandatory minimum of ten years of imprisonment based on his
prior conviction for conspiring to possess cocaine. He argues that
our recent decision in United States v. Dupree, 57 F.4th 1269 (11th Cir.
2023) (en banc), requires vacating his sentence. In Dupree, we held
that an inchoate offense like conspiracy is not a “controlled sub-
stance offense” triggering guideline sentencing enhancements. Id.
at 1271. We decided Dupree four months before Gutierrez raised
this issue. Gutierrez’s submission is not only last-minute; it is also
entirely meritless. Dupree addressed the interpretation of the term
“controlled substance offense” in the Sentencing Guidelines. But
Gutierrez was sentenced in excess of the guideline range for his
offense because of a statutory minimum based on his previous “se-
rious drug felony.” 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B). Dupree said nothing
about statutory minimum sentences, so that decision is irrelevant
to this appeal.
IV. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM Gutierrez’s conviction and sentence.