No. 23-3783 ___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Jon Thomas Kucharo

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Eastern ____________

Submitted: September 27, 2024 Filed: February 11, 2025 ____________ Before COLLOTON, Chief Judge, LOKEN and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges. ____________ LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

After the district court1 denied Jon Thomas Kucharo’s motion to suppress evidence gathered in state court warrant searches of his Econoline van and cell phone, he conditionally pleaded guilty to transportation and receipt of explosives with intent,

1 The Honorable Stephen H. Locher, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. and unlawful receipt and possession of destructive devices, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(d) and 26 U.S.C. §§ 5841, 5845, and 5861. Varying upward, the court sentenced Kucharo to 108 months imprisonment. Kucharo appeals, arguing the district court (i) erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence recovered as a result of the second warrant search of his van, and (ii) erred at sentencing in determining that a state court conviction for a state law harassment offense committed on the same day he committed the federal explosives offense was not relevant conduct, which resulted in a higher criminal history category and advisory guidelines range. Concluding there was no Fourth Amendment violation and any procedural sentencing error was harmless, we affirm.

I. Background

On June 22, 2022, Kucharo called an Iowa county prosecutor assigned to his pending criminal cases and threatened him, saying, “I’m gonna . . . come get ya real soon . . . I’ll wait outside that door for you . . . I will eliminate you.” For that call, Kucharo was convicted in Scott County District Court of first-degree harassment in violation of Iowa Code § 708.7; he received a two-year sentence. That same day, Davenport Police and Fire Department investigators, responding to a reported explosion, found a pontoon boat and trailer parked at the curb on a residential street, damaged by a homemade pipe bomb. The pipe bomb explosion resulted in a multi- county investigation and this federal indictment and conviction.

Two persons living near the damaged boat reported that Kucharo, an old classmate, was upset with them. Witnesses also reported seeing a man matching Kucharo’s description running away shortly after the explosion. Investigators learned that Kucharo had threatened his defense attorney in Coralville, Iowa. They received photographs Kucharo sent the attorney showing Kucharo in front of a blue Econoline van, next to containers of black powder and a pipe bomb consistent with the device found near the explosion. They learned the blue van in the photographs was

-2- registered to Kucharo’s deceased father and was located near the address listed on his driver’s license. The threatened attorney provided Kucharo’s phone number and photos of Kucharo standing in front of a blue Econoline van and multiple pipe bombs. Coralville police shared text messages and videos from this phone number in which Kucharo made death threats to local judges and prosecutors, waving a pipe bomb.

Based on this information, investigators went to Kucharo’s registered address on West 12th Street, saw the van parked two houses away, detained Kuch