United States v. Bennett

363 F.3d 947 (9th Cir. 2004)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Officer James first spotted D's boat heading north, traveling quickly and hugging the coastline. Officer Sena of the U.S. Coast Guard received James' call about D's boat and led a team aboard at the entrance to San Diego Bay. Once onboard, Sena found peculiarities and an arrest warrant for D which were enough to arrest D and seize the boat. As D was taken away for further questioning, officers began a thorough search of his boat that would eventually culminate in the discovery of the marijuana stashed aboard. During trial Officer Chandler testified that he discovered a global positioning system (GPS) while searching the boat and that the GPS revealed that D's boat had traveled from Mexican waters to San Diego Bay. The GPS came with a 'backtrack' feature that graphed the boat's journey that day. Chandler testified that the backtrack feature mapped D's journey from Mexican territorial waters off the coast of Rosarito, Mexico, to the Coronado Islands and then north to San Diego Bay. Chandler also retrieved 'waypoints' -- navigational points programmed into the GPS to assist the captain in navigating to a particular destination. Chandler stated that in the previous year, someone had programmed waypoints into the GPS that included points in Mexican waters. Chandler had not taken possession of the GPS device itself or obtained any record of the data contained therein. D objected and the court overruled D's foundation, best evidence rule, and hearsay objections to this testimony. D was convicted and appealed.