Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Nona L. BRADY
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1991-09-09
Citations: 585 So. 2d 524
Docket Number: No. 90-KK-2415
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Nona L. BRADY.
Judges: CALOGERO, C.J., and DENNIS, J., dissent with reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 585
Pages: 524–534

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Nona L. BRADY.
No. 90-KK-2415.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Sept. 9, 1991.
Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Valerie A. Welz, for plaintiff-applicant.
Ernest Lee Caulfield, Maurice A. Williams, for defendant-respondent.

Opinion:
LEMMON, Justice
The issue before the court in this second degree murder case is whether the murder weapon and the bloody shirt apparently worn by defendant at the time of the stabbing should have been suppressed by the lower courts. We hold that the police officer who seized the evidence had probable cause to open the closet where the evidence was found and that his immediate and limited warrantless search of the closet was reasonable under the circumstances and within the scope of the defendant's tacit consent to investigate and develop clues to the murder.
Facts
Defendant and the victim, defendant's boyfriend, were living together in an apartment. At approximately 1:00 a.m. on the date of the homicide, defendant's neighbor, at defendant's request, called the police to report a stabbing and to request that officers be sent immediately to defendant's apartment. When the officers arrived in response to this call, defendant answered the door and allowed them to enter the apartment.
The officers found the victim in the hall next to the bathroom. After determining that the victim was dead, the officers called homicide detectives to the scene. Defendant told the officers that the victim said he had been stabbed in another residence and had staggered into their apartment through the front door before collapsing in the hall.
When Detective Demma arrived at the scene, he noted that there were several spots of blood on the kitchen floor near the rear door. There was also a button on the kitchen floor. As Detective Demma stood by the victim's head near the bathroom door, he noted a bloody towel in the lavatory in the bathroom and blood on the handle of the closet door adjacent to the lavatory. He then opened the closet door and found a pair of bloody scissors and a bloody shirt.
Evidently recognizing that the presence of the apparent murder weapon in the closet contradicted defendant's statement that the stabbing occurred in another residence, Detective Demma arrested defendant for murder. Upon questioning after advice of her rights, defendant admitted that she had stabbed the victim.
Defendant subsequently moved to suppress the evidence and the confession. The trial judge suppressed all of the challenged evidence (except the evidence of blood stains on the floor), reasoning that "[tjhere is just no crime scene exception to seize this type of evidence." The judge concluded that the police did not have the authority under the circumstances to search the linen closet without a warrant or without a more positive showing of consent to search the closet.
On the prosecutor's application for supervisory writs, the court of appeal reversed the suppression of the button and the bloody towel that had been found in plain view in the kitchen and bathroom where the officers were lawfully present. However, the intermediate court affirmed the trial court's suppression of the scissors and the bloody shirt on the basis that the officers did not have probable cause to believe evidence of the stabbing would be found in the closet and that the officers had no justification to open the closet without a warrant. 569 So.2d 110.
We granted the prosecutor's application for certiorari to review the suppression of the scissors and the bloody shirt. 571 So.2d 620.
The two principal issues are: (1) whether Detective Demma had probable cause to believe that evidence of the homicide would be found in the bathroom closet, and (2) whether Detective Demma's immediate and limited warrantless search of the closet was reasonable and within the scope of defendant's tacit consent to investigate the immediate area near the body.
Probable Cause
Probable cause to search exists when a reasonable police officer has cause to believe, under the totality of the circumstances, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in the place to be searched. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); State v. Kyles, 513 So.2d 265 (La.1987).
The probable cause standard is a practical, non-technical concept. Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949). Dealing with probable cause involves dealing with probabilities which are not technical, but are "the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act." Id., at 175, 69 S.Ct. at 1310. "[Practical people formulate certain common-sense conclusions about human behavior; jurors as factfinders are permitted to do the same— and so are law enforcement officers." United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). Evidence collected by law enforcement officers must be viewed and weighed, not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement. Id. Probable cause is a fluid concept, turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts and not readily reduced to a neat set of legal rules. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2329, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).
In the present case it was evident that a homicide had been committed with a knife or similar weapon a short time before Detective Demma arrived at the scene. When Detective Demma saw the bloody towel in plain view in the bathroom lavatory near the body and further saw blood on the handle of the closet door next to the lavatory, a reasonable person versed in the field of law enforcement could have formulated a reasonable conclusion that there was a fair probability evidence relating to the stabbing would be found inside the closet. Clearly, the existence of probable cause was established by the evidence. Reasonableness of Search
The more difficult question is whether the search of the closed closet and the seizure of the scissors and bloody shirt (which were not in plain view before the door was opened) were reasonable under the circumstances during the death scene investigation.
Generally, searches may be conducted only pursuant to a warrant which has been issued by a judge on the basis of probable cause. U.S. Const. amend. IV; La. Const. art. I, § 5; La.Code Crim.Proc. art. 162; United States v. Ventreseca, 880 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965). The warrant requirement protects persons against unjustified governmental interference with their lives by limiting searches to those based on probable cause and by requiring a neutral determination of probable cause except when exigent circumstances warrant immediate action.
Prior to Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978), many state courts and lower federal courts frequently permitted warrantless searches when there were compelling reasons for the immediate investigation of the scene of a possible murder. When the initial entry of the police was legal and there were exigent circumstances such as the fleeing of the unknown assailant, the need for immediately developing possible identification evidence was deemed to justify war-rantless action. Other cases involving a warrantless continuation of an investigation also turned on the initial lawful entry onto the scene. See 2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure, A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 6.5(e) (2nd ed. 1987); Note, Warrantless Murder Scene Searches in the Aftermath of Mincey v. Arizona, 58 Wash.U.L.Q. 367 (1980).
Although not a murder case, the decision in Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 56 L.Ed.2d 486 (1978) was illustrative of the reasoning. In Tyler firefighters while battling a blaze discovered possible evidence of arson. After the fire was extinguished, but before firefighters left the scene at 4:00 a.m., an arson investigator found two plastic containers of inflammable liquid. At 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. a fire official responsible for determining the origin of fires entered the premises without a warrant and made two searches, the second while accompanied by a police arson investigator. Evidence of arson was seized. The Court approved the seizure of the evidence, noting that the two later searches were no more than a continuation of the initial legitimate entry. The Court held that fire officials, once legitimately in a building to fight a fire, may remain for a reasonable time after extinguishment of the fire to investigate its cause.
Three weeks later the Court decided Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). In that case the police went to Mincey's apartment where a drug sale was scheduled to take place. One of the officers was fatally injured during an exchange of gunfire in a room in which Mincey was the only other occupant. The other officers made a quick search for other shooting victims or accomplices and then guarded the other suspects and the premises, but did not find or seize any evidence. Ten minutes later homicide detectives arrived and conducted a general warrantless search of the apartment that lasted four days. They examined every item in the apartment, including furniture and carpets, and they seized 200 to 300 objects. The state court held it was permissible to conduct a warrantless search of the scene of the homicide, limited to determining the circumstances of death, when the police were legally on the premises in the first instance. The Supreme Court reversed, noting that there were no exigent circumstances, no indication that evidence would be removed or destroyed, and no suggestion that the police could not conveniently obtain a warrant. The Court held that "the warrantless search of Mincey's apartment was not constitutionally permissible simply because a homicide had recently occurred there." Id. at 395, 98 S.Ct. at 2415. Thus the Court refused to recognize a general murder scene exception to the warrant requirement, but noted that the state court could determine on remand whether any evidence was permissibly seized under established Fourth Amendment standards. In concurring, Justice Rehnquist agreed with the invalidation of the four-day warrantless search and with the rejection of a general murder scene exception, but emphasized for purposes of remand that an immediate search may have been required as to some evidence which would have been lost, destroyed or removed if a warrant had been obtained.
Comparing Mincey to other cases in which there were compelling reasons for immediate investigation of the scene, Professor LaFave observed:
What is immediately apparent is that Mincey lacks all of the characteristics which lower courts have traditionally relied upon in recognizing the so-called death scene exception. This was not a generalized investigation to ascertain a then unknown cause of death, for the police were already aware that the shooting was criminal and knew exactly who had done it. This was not a case in which an occupant of the premises had summoned the police and tacitly approved of the investigation, nor was it a case in which the deceased resided at the place of the investigation. Moreover, the temporal and spatial dimensions of the investigation substantially exceeded the limits imposed by other cases. It is difficult to imagine a worse set of facts upon which to rest an argument for a death scene exception to the warrant requirement, and thus it is not at all surprising that not a single vote could be mustered on the Court in favor of the police action in Mincey. (emphasis added).
In Thompson v. Louisiana, 469 U.S. 17, 105 S.Ct. 409, 83 L.Ed.2d 246 (1984), the Court followed the Mincey reasoning in another death scene search. There, the defendant shot her husband and took an overdose of drugs in an attempted suicide. Changing her mind about wanting to die, the defendant called her daughter for help, and the daughter summoned the police to the defendant's house. The police found the defendant unconscious and removed her to the hospital. The police were told by the daughter that the defendant had shot her husband and then attempted suicide. Thirty-five minutes later homicide detectives arrived at the scene and conducted, without a warrant, a two-hour general exploratory search of every room in the house. The evidence at issue included a pistol found inside a chest of drawers in the room where the victim's body was found, a torn-up note found in a wastepaper basket in an adjoining bedroom, and a suicide note found in an envelope on a dresser. The Court held the search invalid on the basis of Mincey, noting that the two-hour general search, although substantially shorter than the one in Mincey, constituted a significant intrusion into the defendant's privacy. The Court further reasoned that the defendant's calling the daughter for assistance, which resulted in the daughter's call to the police, did not serve to diminish the defendant's expectation of privacy in her residence. The Court declined to express an opinion on the prosecutor's alternative argument of consent, because the state court had not addressed that issue in approving the search.
The present case is vastly different from Mincey and Thompson. In Mincey and Thompson the circumstances of the killing and the identity of the perpetrator were known before the search was conducted; in the present case the police knew a stabbing with some instrument had occurred somewhere, but knew nothing of the identity of the assailant. In Mincey and Thompson no occupant of the premises called the police, requested or participated in the investigation, or acted in any manner that demonstrated the occupant's diminished expectation of privacy in the premises; in the present case a co-occupant (defendant) had her neighbor summon the police, admitted the police into the apartment herself, disclaimed any culpability, and tacitly manifested an interest in the officers' con ducting an investigation, thereby significantly indicating that her expectation of privacy was yielding to her interest in apprehending the killer of her boyfriend. In Mincey there was a four-day exploratory search of the entire premises that included opening drawers and ripping up carpets, and in Thompson there was a two-hour exploratory search of every room in the house, without any clue initially directing the police in either case to a particular place which might contain significant evidence; in the present case there was an immediate and momentary search of a closet with blood on the door handle that called out to be opened if the co-occupant and the police truly wanted to apprehend the killer. The immediate and limited particular search in this case especially contrasts with the delayed and extended general search in the Mincey and Thompson cases.
Additional analysis further shows the reasonableness of the officer's beliefs in the present case, when considered in the light of defendant's conduct. The police were summoned to the murder scene by the live-in girlfriend of the stabbing victim. When defendant welcomed the police into the apartment (of which she was the co-occupant) and stood by approvingly as they found the blood stains and the button on the floor, the police reasonably believed that defendant wanted them to develop clues, both inside and outside the apartment, as to the identity of the killer. And when Detective Demma, while examining the body in accordance with defendant's apparent desire to take the necessary steps to apprehend the culprit who might be escaping detection with each passing minute, noticed the bloody towel in the lavatory and the blood on the door handle of the closet, a reasonable police officer under such circumstances would have believed that the limited action of opening the closet door with the bloody handle to check there for clues that might aid in the speedy determination of the identity of the killer was within the scope of the investigation to which defendant had continued to consent tacitly.
At that point in time the probable cause to search the closet was not focused specifically on defendant, whose apparent purpose in summoning the police was to determine the identity of the killer of her boyfriend. At that point the immediate opening of the particular place on which probable cause focused was within the scope of the tacit consent of the person who had yielded her expectation of privacy to the objective of finding the killer. This case, therefore, is clearly not one in which the accused merely acquiesced to the authority of the police. Cf. Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 549, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 1792, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968). A reasonable police officer would have believed under the circumstances of this case that he was not discharging his duty to the citizen who called him to the murder scene if he did not open the door and look inside. Cf. Illinois v. Rodriguez, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990) (a warrantless search is valid if the facts available at the moment would warrant a police officer of reasonable caution in the belief that the party who consented to the search had authority over the premises); Florida v. Jimeno, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 114 L.Ed.2d 297 (1991) (a warrantless search of a closed container found within a car was valid when the defendant consented to the search of the car, knowing the officer was looking for drugs, and did not place any limitation on the search, and when the officer knew drugs were generally carried in some form of container and reasonably believed that the scope of the consent permitted him to open the container). While the result might be different if the police had searched defendant's clothes in the bedroom and found cocaine, the limited search conducted here was clearly reasonable under the circumstances and within the tacit consent of defendant.
Decree
Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeal is reversed, the motion to suppress evidence is denied, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.
CALOGERO, C.J., and DENNIS, J., dissent with reasons.
. This shirt was later identified by defendant's neighbor as the one worn by defendant when she requested the call for assistance.
. The judge refused to suppress the confession, and defendant did not seek review of that ruling.
. The Court has suggested an emergency circumstances exception to the warrant require ment when necessary to prevent destruction or removal of evidence. See Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948); McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 69 S.Ct. 191, 93 L.Ed. 153 (1948); and United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951). However, the Court has never recognized in a case holding that a valid war-rantless search may be permitted when necessary to prevent the imminent destruction, removal or concealment of evidence for which law enforcement authorities have probable cause to search.
. Professor LaFave referred primarily to cases in which the defendant and the victim were co-occupants of the premises and the defendant claimed that someone else had killed the victim, expressly or impliedly urging the police to take the necessary steps to apprehend the culprit.
. In State v. Fredette, 411 A.2d 65 (Me.1979), the defendant called the police to her home, stated her husband had been shot by an intruder, and did not object to the continuing investigation which subsequently implicated her. The court held that the defendant's conduct had suggested her consent to the entry for the dual purpose of getting medical assistance and determining the identity of the killer. The court concluded that the police reasonably understood, from these circumstances and from the defendant's failure to limit her consent to the police presence to time, space or purpose, that the search was within the scope of her tacit consent.
. Of course, the perspective changed as soon as Detective Demma opened the door. Demma's finding the bloody shirt and the apparent murder weapon inside the closet, when pieced together with defendant's prior statement that the victim had been stabbed before he entered the apartment, shifted the finger of suspicion upon defendant and provided probable cause to arrest defendant for the murder.