Opinion ID: 1587827
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Clothing Search

Text: On the second day of trial, Young moved to suppress the results of a warrantless search of her blue jeans, which revealed the presence of the victim's blood, arguing that she had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the clothing and its physical integrity and that a second seizure of her blue jeans occurred when the officers sent pieces of her jeans to the crime lab, which required a warrant. The circuit court denied her motion, and Young now argues on appeal that she had a reasonable expectation that the physical integrity of her clothing would be preserved, but does not contend that the State did not have the right to seize her blue jeans. When considering a denial of a motion to suppress evidence, we conduct a de novo review based on the totality of the circumstances, giving due weight to inferences drawn by the circuit court, and use the abuse-of-discretion standard. See Mhoon v. State, 369 Ark. 134, 251 S.W.3d 244 (2007). The circuit court has broad discretion in its evidentiary rulings; hence, the circuit court's findings will not be disturbed on appeal unless there has been a manifest abuse of discretion. See id. Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 16.2(b) requires that a motion to suppress be filed no later than ten days before the trial date. See Ark. R.Crim. P. 16.2 (2006). However, a circuit court may entertain a motion to suppress at a later time for good cause. See Kimble v. State, 331 Ark. 155, 959 S.W.2d 43 (1998). Here, the circuit court ruled first that the motion was untimely, but went on to opine that there was not a reasonable expectation of privacy in the clothing. While Rule 16.2 does not require every untimely motion to be denied, we cannot say there was an abuse of discretion by the circuit court in denying the motion and affirm on this point.