Opinion ID: 2052203
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admissibility of the Gun Holster

Text: In reviewing the trial justice's denial of defendant's motion to suppress the incriminating    evidence, we defer to the factual findings of the trial justice, applying a `clearly erroneous' standard. State v. Apalakis, 797 A.2d 440, 443 (R.I.2002) (quoting State v. Page, 709 A.2d 1042, 1044 (R.I.1998)). With respect to questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact involving constitutional issues, however, this Court engages in a de novo review in accordance with Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911. Apalakis, 797 A.2d at 443. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has held that it review[s] the legal determination of whether a third party had authority to consent to a search de novo. United States v. Salimonu, 182 F.3d 63, 70 (1st Cir.1999). The Fourth Amendment generally prohibits the warrantless entry of a person's home, whether to make an arrest or to search for specific objects. Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 181, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990) (citing Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948)). Moreover, [o]vernight guests and joint occupants of motel rooms possess reasonable expectations of privacy in the property on which they are staying. United States v. Kimoana, 383 F.3d 1215, 1221 (10th Cir.2004) (citing Minnesota v. Carter, 525 U.S. 83, 89-90, 119 S.Ct. 469, 142 L.Ed.2d 373 (1998); Stoner v. California, 376 U.S. 483, 489-90, 84 S.Ct. 889, 11 L.Ed.2d 856 (1964)). [O]ne of the specifically established exceptions to the requirements of both a warrant and probable cause is a search that is conducted pursuant to consent. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 219, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). The [Fourth Amendment] prohibition does not apply,    to situations in which voluntary consent has been obtained, either from the individual whose property is searched    or from a third party who possesses common authority over the premises. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. at 181, 110 S.Ct. 2793. A third party's consent to search is valid if that person has either the `actual authority' or the `apparent authority' to consent to a search of that property. Kimoana, 383 F.3d at 1221 (quoting United States v. Gutierrez-Hermosillo, 142 F.3d 1225, 1230 (10th Cir. 1998)). The burden of establishing common authority and the effectiveness of a third party's consent rests upon the state. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. at 181, 110 S.Ct. 2793. We have held before that [t]he doctrine that recognizes the validity of third party consent to a search must be applied cautiously to prevent erosion of Fourth Amendment protections. State v. Farrell, 443 A.2d 438, 442 (R.I.1982). In the present case, defendant does not generally challenge the written consent given by his roommate, Shane Roberts, to search their mutual room at the Susse Chalet Motel in Smithfield. He argues, however, that Roberts's ability to consent extended only to the common areas of the motel room and did not include defendant's bed. This case, therefore, raises the question whether defendant possessed a privacy interest in his motel room bed that went beyond the scope of his roommate's consent. Said differently, did the roommate's ability to consent to the search of the motel room extend to defendant's bed? With regard to actual authority, the United States Supreme Court said, in Matlock, that the consent of one who possesses common authority over premises or effects is valid as against the absent, nonconsenting person with whom that authority is shared. United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 170, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974). Common authority rests on mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes, so that it is reasonable to recognize that any of the co-inhabitants has the right to permit the inspection in his own right and that the others have assumed the risk that one of their number might permit the common area to be searched. Id. at 171 n.7, 94 S.Ct. 988; see also State v. Hightower, 661 A.2d 948, 960 (R.I.1995); Farrell, 443 A.2d at 441. [7] It is undisputed that Shane Roberts had actual authority to consent to a search of the motel room because he and defendant had shared use and joint access to or control over the shared area. See United States v. Welch, 4 F.3d 761, 764 (9th Cir. 1993) (citing United States v. Salinas-Cano, 959 F.2d 861, 864 (10th Cir.1992)); see Matlock, 415 U.S. at 171 n. 7, 94 S.Ct. 988. [8] In Kimoana, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that a person who was not the registered guest at the motel and had not paid for it, but had stayed in the room overnight, left his possessions there and carried a key to the room, had joint access and control over the room and thus had actual authority to consent to its search. Kimoana, 383 F.3d at 1222. Furthermore, in Welch, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a defendant who had shared access to, and use of, a rental car had partly relinquished her expectation of privacy in the vehicle, and that her Fourth Amendment interest in the car could be waived by the co-renter's voluntary consent. Welch, 4 F.3d at 764. Likewise, defendant partly relinquished his privacy interest in the motel room by sharing it with Shane Roberts over the course of several weeks in the fall of 2001. However, some courts have held that [t]he shared control of a `host' property does not serve to forfeit the expectation of privacy in containers within that property. Welch, 4 F.3d at 764 (citing United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705, 725-27, 104 S.Ct. 3296, 82 L.Ed.2d 530 (1984) (O'Connor, J., concurring)). In Welch, the court held that although the defendant had relinquished her expectation of privacy in the car, this did not apply to her purse inside the car. Id. The court said that the government must show shared control with respect to the purse as well as with respect to the vehicle if it is to prevail on a mutual use and joint control theory. Id. Likewise, in State v. Evans, 45 Haw. 622, 372 P.2d 365 (1962), a case decided on state constitutional grounds, the Hawaii Supreme Court held that the wife's authority to consent to a search of the joint home did not extend to a cuff link case, clearly identifiable as the husband's, which was in the joint bedroom. Id. at 372. Conversely, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the search of a motel room consented to by the defendant's girlfriend, who had been staying in the room with him for several days. United States v. Richard, 994 F.2d 244 (5th Cir.1993). In addition, the court found that her authority to consent extended to empty suitcases, trash bags, and dryer sheets in the room and seized during the search because no evidence had been presented showing that the defendant had limited his girlfriend's access to these items. Id. at 250. In Dupont v. United States, 259 A.2d 355 (D.C.1969) the court held that an apartment owner could give valid consent to a search of her apartment, including the bed that the defendant had used and where he had hidden a gun. Id. at 357. The court held that her consent was directed to a part of the apartment not reserved for [defendant's] sole personal use, unlike [a] bureau    or [a] closet   , id. at 357-58, because there was evidence that the bed was used by the apartment owner's friends on a first-come, first-serve basis. Id. at 358 n.2. The main difference between these two strands of cases is that those in which the search was held to be unconstitutional on state or federal law grounds involved evidence seized from closed or locked containers or items reserved for the sole personal use of the defendants and over which they had not relinquished their sole control. The third parties' authority did not extend so far as to override this greater privacy interest and, therefore, these searches were deemed impermissible. In those cases, however, when the defendants were not able to demonstrate that they somehow limited the third party's access to an item of property, the consenting third party's authority extends to all items on the premises. See, e.g., Richard, 994 F.2d at 250. A motel room bed is clearly distinct from a locked safe, a personal suitcase, or other closed container of personal property. The room at issue here was a typical one-room motel room with two beds separated by a nightstand, and an adjacent bathroom. Clearly, Mr. Roberts had common authority and control over the room itself, and there is no evidence that any part of the room was reserved for defendant's sole personal use. Indeed, Mr. Roberts did have the authority, at least when defendant was not in the room, to place items, to sit, or allow others to sit, on the bed in which defendant slept. Addressing the issue in a somewhat different way, the bed  like a purse contained in a car  is a separate item in which defendant may have had a separate, independent expectation of privacy relative to the rest of the motel room. The burden of demonstrating this independent expectation of privacy is on defendant. See Richard, 994 F.2d at 250; see also State v. Verrecchia, 766 A.2d 377, 382 (R.I.2001) (To contest    a seizure of evidence as unlawful,    the defendant must have enjoyed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises or property that was the subject of the search    [and bears] the burden of proving that his alleged expectation of privacy was one that society would be willing to recognize as objectively reasonable.). To determine whether a person's asserted privacy expectation was objectively reasonable, we have examined, among other factors, whether the suspect possessed or owned the area searched or the property seized; his or her prior use of the area searched or the property seized; the person's ability to control or exclude others' use of the property; and the person's legitimate presence in the area searched. Verrecchia, 766 A.2d at 382. The defendant has not demonstrated any factors that would support a greater expectation of privacy in the bed vis-à-vis the rest of the motel room  he did not have exclusive use of the bed nor the ability to exclude his roommate from using the bed. Under these circumstances, we conclude that Mr. Roberts had sufficient authority to consent to a search of all areas of the motel room in which he exercised common authority and control over, including defendant's bed. Therefore, we do not find error in the trial justice's denial of defendant's motion to suppress.