United States v. Bob Castleman, 795 F.3d 904

Castleman was charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, maintaining a drug premises, and conspiracy to possess chemicals and equipment used to manufacture methamphetamine; evidence included a traffic stop in Walnut Ridge and a later search of open fields on Castleman’s property.
During the April 11, 2011 traffic stop, Hoxie Police Chief Smith stopped Castleman and saw tubing in the truck; Spray admitted to buying “stuff” for Cast leman, and a search yielded Coleman fuel, pseudoephedrine pills, tubing, and bags.
Following the stop, a warrant was obtained to search Castleman’s residence in Imboden; officers found contentious items including batteries, marijuana, a tote with chemistry-related paraphernalia, and trash bags in an uphill open area.
Forensic testing linked items to meth production (meth residue on scales, pseudoephedrine residue on a pill crusher, copper tubing with anhydrous ammonia residue); Castleman had a history of pseudoephedrine purchases.
During trial, Jerrod Castleman testified that Cast leman confessed to killing Perkins to prevent him from testifying; the government sought to introduce this as consciousness-of-guilt evidence; sentencing later included a finding that Perkins’s murder qualified as first-degree murder under federal guidelines.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether suppression of traffic-stop evidence was proper	Castleman: officer lacked authority to arrest in Walnut Ridge	Castleman: Fourth Amendment violated; Atwell factors apply	No Fourth Amendment violation; probable cause standard governs
Whether suppression of tote and trash-bag evidence was proper	Castleman: open-field search violated privacy	Castleman: ownership/control creates privacy expectation	Open-field search valid; no reasonable privacy in items left in open field
Admissibility of murder-conspiracy testimony as consciousness of guilt	Castleman: Rule 403 unfair prejudice	State may admit with limiting instruction	Testimony admissible; probative value outweighed prejudice under district court balancing
Whether the murder finding at sentencing was proven by preponderance of the evidence	Castleman: burden to prove murder by clear evidence	Government may prove by preponderance under Villareal-Amarillas	Preponderance standard proper; evidence supported finding of willful, deliberate murder
Whether the sentencing enhancement based on murder was correct given competing evidentiary factors	Castleman: insufficient link to federal murder standard	Evidence supports willful, deliberate murder under 18 U.S.C. § 1111	Enhancement appropriate; § 2A1.1 and § 2D1.1(d)(1) apply

Virginia v. Moore, 553 U.S. 164 (U.S. 2008) (probable-cause arrest exception; state-law restrictions do not defeat Fourth Amendment)
Rose v. City of Mulberry, 533 F.3d 678 (8th Cir. 2008) (probable cause suffices for stop/arrest despite lack of state-law authority)
Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170 (U.S. 1984) (open fields doctrine; no privacy in open fields)
Stallings, 28 F.3d 58 (8th Cir. 1994) (privacy expectation in open-field items not objectively reasonable without possession/control)
Pennington, 287 F.3d 739 (8th Cir. 2002) (open field searches; distinguishes man-made enclosures vs plain-view open-field items)
Weir, 575 F.2d 668 (8th Cir. 1978) (Rule 403 balancing; attempted murder evidence distinct from consciousness-of-guilt)
Villareal-Amarillas, 562 F.3d 892 (8th Cir. 2009) (preponderance standard for murder finding in sentencing)
Dunn, 480 U.S. 294 (U.S. 1987) (open-field/enclosures; context cited in open-field analysis)
Zierke, 618 F.3d 755 (8th Cir. 2010) (Rule 403; death-threat evidence balancing)