United States of America v. Luis Humberto Proano, aka Racer

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
LUIS HUMBERTO PROANO, aka Racer,
Defendant-Appellant.
No. 16-50320
D.C. No.
2:15-cr-00199-PSG-1
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Philip S. Gutierrez, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted March 5, 2018
Pasadena, California
Before: GRABER and OWENS, Circuit Judges, and MAHAN,** District Judge.
Officers arrested and interrogated Defendant Luis Humberto Proano after he
attempted to cash a check using someone else’s personal information. In the
district court, Defendant moved to suppress, among other things, several
incriminating statements that he made during the interrogation. The district court
FILED
MAR 15 2018
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
** The Honorable James C. Mahan, United States District Judge for the
District of Nevada, sitting by designation.

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denied the motion with respect to those statements. We reverse and remand with
instructions.
Defendant unambiguously and unequivocally invoked his right to remain
silent when he told the interrogating officers "I have nothing to say." See Arnold
v. Runnels, 421 F.3d 859, 865 (9th Cir. 2005) (explaining that "neither the
Supreme Court nor this court has required that a suspect seeking to invoke his right
to silence provide any statement more explicit or more technically-worded than ‘I
have nothing to say’"). Accordingly, the officers should have ceased questioning
immediately. Anderson v. Terhune, 516 F.3d 781, 788 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc).
We thus instruct the district court to suppress all of Defendant’s post-invocation
statements.
REVERSED and REMANDED with instructions.
2

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