Opinion ID: 2274559
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Police must perceive visually, aurally, or otherwise the evidence.

Text: Although Connick testified to seeing the evidence in Harris's mouth, he also testified to hearing something muffle Harris's voice. Whether he initially detected the evidence through visual or auditory perception should not be controlling. Because both hearing the baggie's muffling effect and seeing the plastic in Harris's mouth gave Connick notice of Harris's attempt to suppress evidence, either perception would have frustrated Harris's requisite completion of the act of suppression. Pennewell states that a defendant has not committed tampering, when the evidence is visible, but the rationale underlying that usage requires only perception  either visual, auditory, or both. In Pennewell, we cited Anderson v. State, a case where we upheld a tampering conviction. [16] In Anderson, the police deduced from a toilet's clogging that the resident suspected drug dealer might have flushed drugs. The police disassembled the toilet, and found a purse with a plastic bag of cocaine. Although the police officers immediately retrieved the evidence, they did not perceive Anderson's act of suppression. Rather, the police officers relied on Anderson's girlfriend's statement that something might have clogged the toilet. Anderson had already completed his act of suppression without police detection. Harris, in contrast, still held visible evidence in his mouth. Consequently, the police contemporaneously perceived his attempted suppression. Pennewell controls Harris's conduct, but not Anderson's.