Summary
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of Shayden Bradley Westfall’s motion to suppress evidence seized from a hotel room and obtained from electronic communications records. The court held that independent corroboration of a reliable confidential informant established probable cause for the hotel-room search. It also held that the Stored Communications Act and Montana law authorized a Montana state district court to issue an extraterritorial warrant for Facebook records stored in California.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Montana state-court warrant to search the hotel room was supported by probable cause.
- Whether the Montana state district court had authority under the Stored Communications Act and Montana law to issue a warrant for electronic communications records stored outside Montana.
- Whether evidence obtained through subsequent warrants was suppressible as the fruit of an allegedly invalid hotel-room warrant.
Holdings
- The hotel-room warrant was supported by probable cause because the reliable confidential informant's information was independently corroborated and, viewed under the totality of the circumstances, established a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime would be found in Room 428.
- A Montana state district court is authorized under the Stored Communications Act and Montana law to issue a search warrant directed to an out-of-state electronic communications provider for records stored outside Montana, provided that the court follows applicable state warrant procedures.
Key quotations
“A Montana state district court is a “court of competent jurisdiction” under the SCA because Montana law establishes state district courts as “a court of general criminal jurisdiction of a State authorized by the law of that State to issue search warrants.”” (142 F.4th at 14)
“Indeed, the Montana Supreme Court rejected this very argument, concluding that the SCA’s requirement to use state warrant procedures does not limit the jurisdiction provided by the SCA.” (142 F.4th at 16-17)
“The search warrant for Room #428 was supported by probable cause, and the state warrant for Westfall’s Facebook records maintained out of state was authorized under the SCA.” (142 F.4th at 18)
Factual background
A confidential informant with a history of providing accurate information told Missoula police that a person who had recently received distributable quantities of drugs was occupying Room 428 at a Missoula hotel. Police independently corroborated the tip by confirming a recent seizure of more than $4,500 from an associate's vehicle, verifying that a known drug offender occupied the room, and learning that the reservation had been changed to another person's name. A Montana judge issued a warrant, and officers found fentanyl, methamphetamine, a stolen firearm, drug paraphernalia, and ammunition; Westfall also made incriminating statements after waiving his Miranda rights. Officers then obtained a warrant for Westfall's Facebook and Messenger records held by Meta in California.
Procedural history
Missoula police obtained a Montana state-court warrant to search a hotel room occupied by Westfall and later obtained warrants for his cellphone and Facebook records. A federal grand jury indicted Westfall for drug-trafficking and firearm offenses. After an evidentiary hearing, the United States District Court for the District of Montana denied his suppression motion, concluding that the hotel-room warrant was supported by probable cause and that the Montana state court had authority to issue a warrant for electronic records stored outside Montana. Westfall conditionally pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 88 months of imprisonment, and appealed.