Hearing conducted to suppress evidence in Sweetser stolen firearm case
A defense attorney argued during a hearing Monday that evidence used to charge Luke Sweetser for a stolen firearm was discovered unlawfully by Abilene police during a homicide investigation.
Taylor County 350th District Court Judge Thomas Wheeler conducted a hearing on the defense's motion to suppress the evidence and has up to 30 days to issue a ruling.
Sweetser was arrested Dec. 14, 2016, on a charge of theft of a firearm, a state jail felony, after police found an allegedly stolen AR-15 in a gun safe they believed was owned by Sweetser.
His arrest came two days after his brother-in-law, Abilene Realtor Tom Niblo, fatally was shot eight times in his bedroom.
Abilene police said spent casings for a .40-caliber handgun were found at the scene.
Early in the homicide investigation, police identified Sweetser as a suspect because of disputes in the family over the execution of a will. Police had secured several search warrants in the case.
Sweetser was out on bond for the firearms charge when he was arrested by the North Texas Fugitive Task Force on Sept. 17, 2020, at a Dallas apartment and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Niblo killing. Abilene officers also were present.
Sweetser has been in Taylor County Jail since his arrest.
During Monday's hearing, Sweetser was present, wearing an orange jumpsuit and his hands secured with restraints.
A jury trial on the firearms and murder charges is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 28.
How the stolen firearm was found
In the motion to suppress document filed before Monday's hearing, defense attorney Lukas Garcia argued that as Abilene police searched the gun safe, they manipulated the AR-15 in such a way that exceeded the scope of a search warrant.
That manipulation of the AR-15 allowed them to unlawfully obtain identifying information about the firearm, which led to an illegal search warrant and violated Sweetser's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, Garcia argued.
Retired Abilene police detective Lynn Beard, now an Abilene City Council member, and Detective Jeff Cowan testified Monday how search warrants in the Niblo case led to the discovery of the AR-15 and another search warrant for that firearm.
The day after the Niblo killing in 2016, Abilene police executed a search warrant at a warehouse in the 300 block of Mesquite Street. Members of the extended Niblo family used the warehouse for storage, and a family member consented to the search, according to court documents.
Police found a locked gun safe that officers were told belonged to Sweetser. Officers obtained a search warrant specifically for the gun safe, which was opened with the assistance of a locksmith, Beard and Cowan testified.
The search warrant for the gun safe specified a search for "items including but not limited to" a .40-caliber handgun and ammunition, cellphone, blood, fibers and bloody or wet clothing and footwear.
All the firearms and other contents of the gun safe were removed and lined up on the floor, the officers testified. The gun safe was searched, and each item was inspected visually for blood and fiber.
During that inspection, Beard noted the serial number on one of the AR-15s and called it aloud because it was in a similar digit-dash format that Abilene police use for case files, he stated Monday.
Cowan testified that the AR-15 stuck in his memory because the manufacturer was one not usually seen.
The officers did not write down the serials numbers of the firearms and did not conduct a check on whether they were stolen, they testified.
Evidence related to the homicide investigation was not discovered in the gun safe, and the contents were returned, the officers stated.
Connecting cases
Cowan and Beard next went to the Alexander Building, where Sweetser had an office, to assist in executing a separate search warrant. While walking up to the building, Beard saw the name of attorney Randy Wilson on the building.
That triggered a memory about Wilson's report months earlier of several of his firearms being stolen from a building office he used for storage.
Cowan testified he had seen the report earlier in the Niblo investigation as part of his research of old cases.
The officers had a copy of the report faxed to them at the Alexander Building and noted the serial number of the AR-15 that Wilson reported stolen. It matched the one they found in the gun safe earlier that morning, they testified.
A second search warrant was obtained for the gun safe, specifying the AR-15.
Taylor County Assistant District Attorney Dan Joiner argued Monday that case precedent allows officers to note serial numbers of items that are moved during a search for evidence.
Sweetser's defense team file a motion to suppress the evidence in the firearms case in September 2017 and supplemented it with another filing the next month. Those filings made different arguments than in the motion related to Monday's hearing, according to court documents.
Wheeler in November 2017 denied the earlier motions to suppress.
More: Brother-in-law Luke Sweetser arrested in connection with murder of Tom Niblo
Laura Gutschke is a general assignment reporter and food columnist and manages online content for the Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Hearing held to suppress evidence in Sweetser stolen firearm case
