Opinion ID: 2408460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley

Text: Our holding that Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr., legally entered Ms. Wofford's home does not, by itself, answer the question whether the subsequent warrantless intrusion made by Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley comports with the Fourth Amendment's requirement that searches and seizures be reasonable. As with any warrantless search and seizure, the one with which we are concerned here must be viewed as illegal unless the State has established the availability of a warrant-requirement exception. Williams v. State, supra ; Willett v. State, supra . As mentioned, the Trial Court ruled that the evidence seized by Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley was admissible because it was in plain view when the officers observed it. Ms. Wofford maintains that the Trial Court erred in relying on the plain-view exception to the warrant requirement because (1) Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley were not lawfully present in the house when they observed the evidence; and (2) their discovery of the evidence was not inadvertent. Viewing the evidence favorably to the State, we cannot say that the Trial Court's ruling on the admissibility of the evidence seized by Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley is clearly against the preponderance of the evidence, Norman v. State, supra , assuming the items seized had been observed in plain view by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr. Ms. Wofford first contends that the plain-view exception does not apply here because Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley were not lawfully present in her home when they observed in plain view the thirty items of evidence that they ultimately seized. According to the decisions of this Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, one of the prerequisites for applying the plain-view exception is that the initial intrusion that brings the police within plain view of such [evidence] is supported, if not by a warrant, then by one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 326, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 1153, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987) (citations omitted). See Williams v. State, 327 Ark. at 218, 939 S.W.2d at 267 (stating an element of the plain-view exception is that the initial intrusion was lawful); Johnson v. State, 291 Ark. 260, 263, 724 S.W.2d 160, 162, cert. denied, 484 U.S. 830, 108 S.Ct. 101, 98 L.Ed.2d 61 (1987). Thus, in order to uphold the officers' search and seizure of evidence in Ms. Wofford's home pursuant to the plain-view exception, we must find that the officers' initial warrantless intrusion into the residence was lawful. Ms. Wofford contends that their initial intrusion was not lawful because it was covered by none of the exceptions to the warrant requirement. Because the evidence was obtained as the result of an illegal entry, argues Ms. Wofford, the evidence should be suppressed as the fruits of an illegal entry and search. See Wong Sun v. United States, supra . At first glance, Ms. Wofford's argument appears convincing. There is no question that Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley lacked consent to enter and conduct a search of the premises. It also is clear that exigent circumstances were no longer extant when Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley entered the home and commenced their search. The emergency that validated the entry of Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr., at 3:26 p.m. had ceased shortly thereafter when those officers ascertained the condition of Ms. Wofford and her son and secured the crime scene. By 4:00 p.m., the police had concluded that Mark Wofford was dead, the coroner had arrived, and Ms. Wofford had been taken to the emergency room. The exigent circumstances that justified the first two officers' entry at 3:26 p.m. simply did not exist when Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley entered Ms. Wofford's residence. Thus, those circumstances alone could not have validated the subsequent entry made by Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley. See La Fournier v. State, 91 Wis.2d 61, 280 N.W.2d 746, 749 (1979)(stating the emergency exception may not be relied upon where the entry is secured after the emergency is terminated)(emphasis added). Moreover, as the crime scene had been secured, there was no emergency concerning the risk of removal or destruction of evidence, Humphrey v. State, 327 Ark. 753, 766, 940 S.W.2d 860, 867 (1997), that might have justified Sergeant Lonetree's and Officer Risley's entry. Nor were the officers permitted to enter the home simply because they may have suspected that a murder had occurred there. The Supreme Court of the United States has consistently held that a warrantless search of a home cannot be validated under the emergency exception simply because a homicide recently occurred there. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. at 395, 98 S.Ct. at 2415. The Court in the Mincey case declined to hold that the seriousness of the offense under investigation itself creates exigent circumstances of the kind that under the Fourth Amendment justify a warrantless search. Id. at 394, 98 S.Ct. at 2414. See also Thompson v. Louisiana, 469 U.S. at 21, 105 S.Ct. at 411 (stating that, in the Mincey case, the Court unanimously rejected the contention that one of the exceptions to the Warrant Clause is a `murder scene exception'). We noted the Supreme Court's rejection of the murder scene exception in our opinions in Mitchell v. State, 294 Ark. 264, 742 S.W.2d 895 (1988), and Alford v. State, 291 Ark. 243, 724 S.W.2d 151 (1987). Even if the police collectively had acquired probable cause to arrest Ms. Wofford, probable cause to arrest Ms. Wofford could not have supplied a basis for entering her home without a warrant, at least in the absence of exigent circumstances and Ms. Wofford's presence in the home. See Payton v. New York, supra . Finally, any emergency arising from the gas or oil fumes could not have justified the officers' entry given Sergeant Lonetree's testimony that he and Officer Risley entered the residence after having been assured that the crisis was over. Thus, we cannot say that Sergeant Lonetree's and Officer Risley's initial intrusion into Ms. Wofford's home was lawful because they had consent or because exigent circumstances were prevailing at the time of their initial entry. These exceptions to the warrant requirement simply do not cover their intrusion. Nonetheless, we conclude that Sergeant Lonetree's and Officer Risley's entry into Ms. Wofford's home was lawful and that their seizure of evidence may have been valid under the plain-view exception. In reaching this conclusion, we rely on the holding in La Fournier v. State, 91 Wis.2d 61, 280 N.W.2d 746, 751 (1979), that, where the police enter a private residence in accordance with the emergency exception but are unable to preserve the evidence that they observe in plain view while rendering assistance, a second entry by other officers without a warrant is lawful, even though the emergency has passed, if the search that follows is restricted in nature and scope to securing the evidence observed in plain view by the officers who entered pursuant to the emergency exception. Other courts have found the rationale of the Wisconsin court persuasive and have relied on it to uphold certain warrantless second entries made by the police following the termination of the emergency that justified an initial entry. See, e.g., Hunter v. Commonwealth, 8 Va.App. 81, 378 S.E.2d 634 (1989); Smith v. State, 419 So.2d 563 (Miss. 1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1047, 103 S.Ct. 1449, 75 L.Ed.2d 803 (1983), overruled on other grounds, Willie v. State, 585 So.2d 660 (Miss.1991). See also State v. Tidwell, 888 S.W.2d 736 (Mo.App. S.D.1994); State v. Jolley, 312 N.C. 296, 321 S.E.2d 883 (1984); Norman v. State, 302 So.2d 254 (Miss.1974). The facts in the case at bar are analogous to those in the La Fournier case and the other cases cited above. Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr. made a valid emergency entry into Ms. Wofford's home. They secured the crime scene and called for assistance, and Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley arrived within a reasonable amount of time to process the crime scene and complete the search begun by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr. If Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley seized only evidence that was observed by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr., in plain view without expanding the scope and nature of the initial entry made by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr., then the seizure was proper. The record does not establish that the evidence seized by Sergeant Lonetree and Officer Risley was in fact observed in plain view by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr. Thus we must remand for the Trial Court to make that determination. See State v. Spears, 560 So.2d 1145 (Ala.Cr.App. 1989); People v. Reynolds, 672 P.2d 529 (Colo.1983). Ms. Wofford next contends that the plain-view exception cannot apply here because Sergeant Lonetree's and Officer Risley's discovery of the evidence was not inadvertent. Ms. Wofford points us to Sergeant Lonetree's testimony that he arrived at the crime scene and entered the house for the very purpose of collecting evidence. Thus, says Ms. Wofford, his discovery of evidence inside the house was intentional rather than inadvertent. In a different case, Ms. Wofford's argument might be persuasive. We have said that another of the prerequisites for applying the plain-view exception is that the discovery of the evidence must be inadvertent. See Williams v. State, supra ; Johnson v. State, supra . Here, the record clearly supports Ms. Wofford's contention that Sergeant Lonetree's and Officer Risley's discovery of the evidence in question was anything but inadvertent. It is clear to us, however, that the inadvertency requirement applies to the initial officers' observations and not to those of officers who follow. Again, if the items seized were inadvertently viewed by Officers Ohm and Boyd, Jr., then it does not matter that the later officers entered the house with the purpose of seizing them. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that inadvertence is not a necessary condition for application of the plain-view exception in any type of case brought under the Fourth Amendment. Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990). Thus, insofar as Ms. Wofford's inadvertence argument concerns the Fourth Amendment, the Horton case supplies a sufficient basis for rejecting the argument. However, Ms. Wofford's motion to suppress alleged that the seizure of evidence from her home also violated the Arkansas Constitution. We need not decide here whether we will follow the Horton case and dispense with the inadvertence requirement for all cases brought under the Arkansas Constitution. Thus, insofar as Ms. Wofford's inadvertence argument concerns only the Arkansas Constitution, we reject it because we believe it is unnecessary for an officer who enters a residence for the purpose of continuing another officer's search and collecting evidence that the other officer observed in plain view to discover the evidence inadvertently.