DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
111135P.pdf 04/30/2012 United States v. Mateo Ruiz-Zarate
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 11-1135
and No: 11-1172
and No: 11-1373
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Bye and Colloton, Circuit Judges]
Criminal Case - conviction and sentence. In consolidated appeals
following guilty verdicts for conspiring to distribute marijuana and
immigration offenses, the judgments are affirmed. Ruiz-Zarate cannot
raise Fourth Amendment claim because he had no reasonable expectation
of privacy in car he neither owned nor was near at the time of the stop.
Sufficient evidence was presented for a reasonable jury to conclude both
Ruiz-Zarate and Guerrero-Ramirez participated in the conspiracy to
distribute marijuana and aided and abetted in the possession with intent to
distribute. District court did not err in applying enhancement for
possession of the revolver because gun could have been constructively
possessed and in determining it was not clearly improbable that the gun
was connected to the drug offense. District court did not plainly err in
imposing the enhancement.