The Fifth Circuit on Thursday gave federal prosecutors in Mississippi a second chance to prove a defendant in a drug trafficking case voluntarily waived his rights during a police interview because he continued to speak with investigators even after being misled.

The three-judge panel ruled that a federal trial court must now determine whether Lexus Sanchez Weaver implicitly waived his Miranda rights by continuing to speak with police even after they illegally tricked him into signing away his constitutional rights.

"Even if Weaver's signed waiver was invalid, he can still implicitly waive his Miranda rights," U.S. Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones said, adding, "The district court neglected to perform an implied waiver analysis, which depends on consideration of all the relevant circumstances of the interview. Given its fact-specific nature, this court declines to be the first to do so."

Weaver was arrested in March 2024 after police in Mississippi used a confidential informant to set up a number of drug buys. The officer who drafted the search warrant and supporting affidavit asserted that the informant was reliable and had aided police in identifying Weaver as a suspect in their investigation, the opinion said.

A Starkville, Mississippi, Municipal Court Judge Brian Kelley approved the warrant over the phone and had the officer sign his name and indicated that the order was "via Facetime." The appeals panel said the practice had been adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and judges were still allowed to approve warrants remotely when Kelley granted it, the opinion said.

A search was executed on Weaver's home, and police recovered methamphetamine, cocaine, firearms, money and cellphones. Police arrested Weaver following the raid, and he was taken to a local police station for questioning, the opinion said.

Police interviewed Weaver on video and began with the same officer who authored the warrant telling Weaver that they wanted to discuss the search on his home. The officer placed a form with Miranda rights on it, while pointing to each right, and asked Weaver if he understood each right, the opinion said.

The panel said that, based on the video, Weaver did not appear to read the form placed in front of him but still signed it once police requested him to do so. The form, which did contain a list of his rights, also contained a section listed as a "waiver of rights," which said he would choose to waive his rights to protections, like being provided legal counsel.

The officer did not mention the section about the waiver of Weaver's rights to him and later admitted that the tactic used to coerce him to sign it was "deceptive," the opinion said. Weaver maintained that he believed he was signing a form acknowledging, not waiving, his rights, the opinion said.

A federal grand jury in September 2024 indicted Weaver on four drug trafficking charges and a single count of being a felon in possession of multiple firearms. Federal prosecutors sought to admit as part of the ongoing trial evidence collected from both the house and during police interviews as part of Weaver's trial, the opinion said.

U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills ordered that the evidence be suppressed because the warrant application was "bare bones," and because of the Miranda waiver at the police station. Judge Mills said in the suppression order that the warrant and waiver together represented "noticeable erosions of constitutional safeguards," according to the order.

The government appealed, claiming that the warrant contained enough information to reasonably be approved by a judge, including times the informant met with Weaver. The government also claimed that, even though the paper waiver was incorrectly obtained, Weaver implicitly waived his rights by continuing to talk with police, the opinion said.

The panel agreed with the government finding that because the affidavit contained information from an independent police investigation, it is not bare bones under Fifth Circuit precedent. The panel agreed that the signature obtained was not voluntary, though it declined to rule on whether Weaver implicitly waived his rights.

The appeals panel reversed the suppression order issued by the district court and provided instructions that it must determine whether Weaver's Miranda rights were implicitly waived.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Mississippi and an attorney representing Weaver did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Circuit Judges Edith H. Jones, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Dana M. Douglas sat on the panel for the Fifth Circuit.

The government is represented by Philip Martin Levy and Robert J. Mims of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Weaver is represented by Merrill K. Nordstrom and Kiger Lee Sigh of the Federal Public Defender for Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi.

The case is USA v. Lexus Weaver, case number 25-60269, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

--Editing by Dave Trumbore.