United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED September 7, 2022 No. 21-50283 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk United States of America,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Luis Fernandez,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas USDC No. 7:20-CR-130-1

Before Stewart, Elrod, and Graves, Circuit Judges. Carl E. Stewart, Circuit Judge: A grand jury indicted Luis Fernandez for being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. The indictment stemmed from an incident in Odessa, Texas, in which Fernandez drove to a police station while in possession of a rifle, and eventually confessed to having recently used cocaine. Fernandez moved to suppress the statements he made to the police. The district court granted Fernandez’s motion to suppress in part and denied it in part. At a bench trial, the district court found Fernandez guilty and later sentenced him to a within-guidelines term of 10 months of Case: 21-50283 Document: 00516462173 Page: 2 Date Filed: 09/07/2022

No. 21-50283

imprisonment and three years of supervised release. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM the judgment. I. Facts & Procedural History Around 1:38 p.m. on May 29, 2020, while driving to the Odessa Police Department (“OPD”), Fernandez called 911 claiming that he was armed and being chased by multiple people. Corporal Ian Kapets and Detective Donny Rocha ran from inside the OPD building to the parking lot, where they observed Fernandez pulling halfway into a parking space while holding both of his hands out of his truck’s window. Rocha approached Fernandez and observed a firearm in his lap. Rocha removed the firearm, and Kapets pulled Fernandez out of his truck and patted him down. Officer Yolanda Medrano responded to the scene in her patrol vehicle, arriving around 1:41 p.m. When she arrived, Rocha stated that he did not know what was going on, only that Fernandez had claimed he was being chased and was in possession of a firearm. Medrano then approached Fernandez, who was not handcuffed or otherwise restrained, and Kapets asked, “So what’s going on, like, can you walk me through who’s chasing you and all that stuff?” Fernandez responded only that “they” were following him. Kapets then asked Fernandez whether there was anything illegal in his truck, and Fernandez replied that his truck had already been searched by sheriff’s deputies he had encountered on the way to the police station. Kapets requested permission to search the truck, but Fernandez again referred to the sheriff’s deputies having already searched it. At that point, Medrano directed Fernandez to sit on the ground. Kapets then asked him, “Did you use any sort of drugs? I mean, be honest with me. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on here.” Fernandez replied, “I been drinking, and yeah, I used cocaine.” Fernandez explained that he had used cocaine the night before to

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