Opinion ID: 2630333
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Arrest, Search and Seizure Issues

Text: {11} Defendant raises several search and seizure issues regarding the admissibility of the ATM receipt found in his wallet after he was arrested and the fruits of the investigation that resulted from discovery of the receipt. He argues first that his initial arrest was unlawful because insufficient exigent circumstances existed to justify his warrantless arrest. He also argues that the police should have obtained a search warrant to examine the contents of his wallet after it was removed from his possession in connection with his arrest.
{12} A ruling on a motion to suppress evidence presents a mixed question of law and fact. State v. Garcia, 2005-NMSC-017, ¶ 27, 138 N.M. 1, 116 P.3d 72. We first review findings of fact by a substantial evidence standard. We then review whether the district court correctly applied the law to the facts by a de novo standard, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party. Id.
{13} All warrantless arrests must comply with Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution, which states in relevant part that `[t]he people shall be secure . . . from unreasonable searches and seizures. . . .' Campos v. State, 117 N.M. 155, 157, 870 P.2d 117, 119 (1994) (quoting N.M. Const. art. II, § 10) (alterations in original). This Court has previously stated that in all cases the ultimate question is whether the search and seizure was reasonable. State v. Martinez, 94 N.M. 436, 440, 612 P.2d 228, 232 (1980). [F]or a warrantless arrest to be reasonable the arresting officer must show that the officer had probable cause to believe that the person arrested had committed or was about to commit a felony and some exigency existed that precluded the officer from securing a warrant. Campos, 117 N.M. at 159, 870 P.2d at 121. `Probable cause requires that the officer believe, and have good reason to believe, that the person he arrests has committed [or is committing] a felony.' Id. at 157, 870 P.2d at 158 (quoted authority omitted). Exigent circumstances means an emergency situation requiring swift action to prevent imminent danger to life or serious damage to property, or to forestall the imminent escape of a suspect or destruction of evidence. Id. at 158, 870 P.2d at 120 (quoted authority omitted). This requires a determination whether on the basis of the facts known to a prudent, cautious, trained officer, the officer could reasonably conclude that swift action was necessary. State v. Valdez, 111 N.M. 438, 441, 806 P.2d 578, 581 (Ct.App.1990) (quoted authority omitted). {14} We first consider whether the district court was correct in ruling that the police had probable cause to arrest Defendant. By the time the police finally located Defendant the day after both he and Rustvold were last seen together at Montezuma Elementary School, the evidence pointed overwhelmingly to his having assaulted her and removed her from the school premises in his own car. When the officers encountered Defendant, they did not know where she was, and they could not be sure whether she was dead or alive. It was clear, however, that Defendant had already removed her from the school, that he had been eluding detection and that he had been aggressively destroying and concealing evidence of his crimes. The district court's extensive findings of fact from the suppression hearing detailed many of the sound reasons why the officers were justified in believing that swift action was necessary to prevent Defendant's escape, to keep further evidence from being destroyed and to pursue any remaining possibility of saving Rustvold's life. {15} The fact that the police took two hours after Defendant's arrest to obtain search warrants for Defendant's car and home is relied on by Defendant as proof that exigent circumstances did not exist for his arrest. The police also might have risked waiting to get an arrest warrant before apprehending Defendant, but [t]he fact that a different course of action also would have been reasonable does not mean that [an officer's] conduct was unreasonable. State v. Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶ 43, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1. The exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement necessarily provides a range of reasonable discretion to an officer on the scene. If an objectively reasonable, well-trained officer could have determined that swift action was called for to prevent destruction of evidence, the escape of a suspect or undue risk to life or property, the exigent circumstances exception will protect the officer's exercise of discretion. State v. Rowell, 2008-NMSC-041, ¶ 30, 144 N.M. 371, 188 P.3d 95 (emphasis added). We therefore uphold the district court's reasoned determination that the warrantless arrest of Defendant was lawfully supported by both probable cause and exigent circumstances.
{16} In addition to Defendant's argument that the seizure and subsequent search of his wallet were tainted fruits of an initially unlawful warrantless arrest, he contends that the post-arrest search of the contents of his wallet without a search warrant was unlawful. {17} One of the most universally recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement is for searches and seizures incident to a custodial arrest, which permits the search of an arrestee's person and any other area within the arrestee's access. See State v. Weidner, 2007-NMCA-063, ¶ 18, 141 N.M. 582, 158 P.3d 1025. {18} Defendant was carrying his wallet in his pocket when he was taken into custody at his house. The search of his person and the seizure of the wallet were incident to his lawful arrest. {19} A second exception permits inventory searches of property taken into police custody, such as Defendant's wallet. State v. Boswell, 111 N.M. 240, 241-42, 804 P.2d 1059, 1060-61 (1991). In Boswell, this Court addressed a factually indistinguishable situation. The defendant had been arrested for shoplifting and was taken to a detention facility, where he was booked and incarcerated. Id. at 241, 804 P.2d at 1060. The officer then returned to the scene of the arrest to retrieve the defendant's wallet, which inadvertently had been left behind in the store manager's office after the officer had conducted a search incident to the arrest. Id. When the officer searched the wallet, he found a blotter of LSD. Id. This Court declined to suppress the LSD evidence, holding that the inventory search exception justified the search of the wallet that the officer had validly taken into police possession incident to the defendant's arrest. Id. An inventory search does not depend on any reason to believe that there is seizable property to be found because the purposes that justify an inventory search are to safeguard the property from loss or theft, to protect the police from liability and false claims, and to protect the police from hidden dangers. Id. at 244, 804 P.2d at 1063. {20} At the suppression hearing below, the State presented uncontroverted evidence that Albuquerque Police Department written policies required police to inventory every item taken from persons in custody. Under our law, the officer's subjective motives do not avoid application of the inventory search exception where it is lawfully justified. Therefore, we reject Defendant's argument that the detective's search of his wallet was unlawful because it was not motivated by a desire to conduct an inventory. Where an inventory search of Defendant's belongings was inevitable, the inevitable discovery rule would preclude suppression of the officer's search of the items taken from an arrestee. See State v. Johnson, 1996-NMCA-117, ¶ 22, 122 N.M. 713, 930 P.2d 1165. {21} Once the officer saw the receipt in the wallet reflecting Defendant's presence in Belen at an ATM with a potential photographic record of a recent transaction between the time of Rustvold's disappearance and Defendant's surfacing without her, swift action was necessary. State v. Moore, 2008-NMCA-056, ¶ 10, 144 N.M. 14, 183 P.3d 158 (quoted authority omitted). The officer had compelling reasons to investigate the transaction immediately, both in investigating the murder case and in attempting to determine Rustvold's fate and whereabouts. Time was of the essence. The fruits of that investigation, including the ATM photograph of one of the men who had helped Defendant get his car unstuck from the sand where he had driven to dump Rustvold's body, were therefore properly developed and properly admissible in evidence.