Opinion ID: 691964
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Events Involving Elliott

Text: 10 The unit pertinent to the present case (hereinafter referred to as Unit A) was located on the right side of the first floor of 26 Garden. In early February 1993, three of Unit A's bedrooms were unrented, and the unit's only remaining tenants were Frederick and Carrington. Frederick and Carrington were tenants of a bedroom referred to as bedroom # 1; they had some of their belongings in a second bedroom. Lupinacci removed the door of one of the empty bedrooms, referred to as bedroom # 3, and boarded up the other, hoping to discourage trespassers. Lupinacci told Frederick and Carrington that they could use all of Unit A's rooms until Lupinacci found new tenants to occupy them. 11 On the morning of February 19, 1993, Stamford Police Officers Carl Strate, Douglas Robinson, and Wayne Macuirzynski and Sergeant James Delano made a routine visit to 26 Garden. They knocked and announced themselves, and when Carrington opened the door, which led to Unit A's kitchen area, they entered. Upon entering the kitchen, they noticed Elliott and a woman, Michelle Porter, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the doorless, and otherwise empty, bedroom # 3. Strate and Robinson entered bedroom # 3, awakened Elliott, identified themselves as police officers, and began questioning him. They noticed a small waist pouch located next to the mattress and discovered in it three rounds of ammunition. When Elliott sat up, they also spied a small handgun, which proved to be loaded, on the mattress. After giving his name as Terrence Wells, Elliott was arrested on state charges of trespass and possession of a weapon without a permit. While Elliott was being prosecuted on the state charges, the police learned his true identity and his prior criminal record, which included convictions in 1968 for rape, in 1974 for first-degree assault and second-degree kidnaping, and in 1976 for attempted murder. Based on that criminal history, the matter was transferred to federal authorities for prosecution of Elliott as an armed career criminal. 12 After being indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of possessing, as a prior felon, a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(1), Elliott moved to suppress the weapon and ammunition seized from him and statements he had made, arguing principally that the officers had had no authority to enter Unit A or bedroom # 3 and hence had violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The government opposed the motion, arguing, inter alia, that Elliott had no standing to challenge the officers' entry because he was a trespasser, and that, in any event, Lupinacci and Carrington had consented to the entry. A suppression hearing was held at which the district court heard testimony from seven witnesses--three of the Stamford police officers present at Elliott's arrest, plus Lupinacci, Frederick, Carrington, and the Director of Housing Code Enforcement (Housing Code Director) for the City of Stamford (City). 13 Officers Strate, Robinson, and Macuirzynski gave substantially similar testimony, in part describing the history of their patrols of 26 Garden at the behest of Lupinacci as set out in the preceding section, and describing the events of February 19, 1993. They stated that their understanding was that 26 Garden was run as a rooming house, with tenants in each unit renting individual rooms and sharing the kitchen and bathroom; Strate testified that [Lupinacci] told us ... that the rooms in the past have always been rented out as dwellings, each person would have a room. (Hearing Transcript, July 28, 1993 (Tr.), 55.) The officers testified that they had customarily entered the units of 26 Garden, either without objection from tenants who answered the door or by using the keys Lupinacci had given them. 14 As to the events of February 19, the officers testified, inter alia, that Carrington had told them that Porter was his guest, but he had claimed not to know Elliott or Elliott's name. Porter had roused herself and entered the kitchen area, where she told the police that she also did not know Elliott. Macuirzynski testified that Porter was arrested for trespassing even though Carrington said she was his guest, because she was occupying a room other than the one Macuirzynski believed Carrington was entitled to occupy. 15 The Housing Code Director testified that 26 Garden was licensed to be operated as an apartment house, with four units. He testified that [s]ome years ago there was a question as to whether [26 Garden] was a rooming house or an apartment house (Tr. 123), and that the building's owner was instructed to use the house as an apartment house, having a maximum of four individuals ... in each apartment (Tr. 124). He testified that if a building were being operated in violation of its license, and if the owner refused to comply with an enforcement order by the City, the City would hale the owner into court. He did not indicate that Lupinacci had ever been sued by the City. The Housing Code Director did not know how 26 Garden was in fact being run in February 1993. 16 Lupinacci testified that in early February 1993, after the previous roomers had left, he had rented one of the bedrooms to Frederick, who was the official tenant of that bedroom, along with her boyfriend Carrington. He told Frederick and Carrington that they could use the entire area, until such time when and if I moved somebody else into one of the other rooms. (Tr. 146.) Lupinacci testified, however, that 17 I hadn't given the police any written notification [of this arrangement]. I don't know whether I mentioned it to one of the officers or not. 18 But the problem was periodically the police would ask me for the list of tenants, and I would give them the list of the tenants, but I told them that there were [sic ] such constant changeover in tenants that it was impossible to keep the police informed of who was in there legally. 19 And in this particular case, of course, it was sort of a changeover from a rooming situation to an apartment situation, and the police probably were not aware of that. It was just, it was impossible to keep them informed of changes. I was changing things so fast.... 20 (Tr. 147-48.) Lupinacci acknowledged that he had never been licensed to rent individual bedrooms as separate dwelling units. 21 Carrington testified that when the police knocked on February 19, he opened the door and the police greeted him and entered the kitchen area. They did not ask his permission to enter; he did not invite them in; but he did not object to their entering. Carrington had been told by Lupinacci that the police had keys; and the police had come to inspect several times since Frederick and Carrington moved into 26 Garden. Carrington believed the officers had the right to enter. Carrington testified that, from the kitchen, the officers had seen Elliott lying in the doorless bedroom # 3. 22 Carrington testified that when the officers stated that Elliott and Porter were being arrested for trespassing, Carrington, who had not theretofore said anything about who Elliott was, spoke up and I told them they're not trespassing, they are guests of Sharil and mine. (Tr. 161.) Frederick testified that she informed the police that Elliott was her brother, that Porter was his girlfriend, and that Frederick had allowed them to spend the night in bedroom # 3.