Opinion ID: 901816
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exigent Circumstances Exception

Text: [¶ 15.] We first examine the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement because that is the exception the State contends applies in this case. The exigent circumstances exception is widely recognized and has been consistently applied by this Court. Probable cause and exigent circumstances analysis pertains only when law enforcement officers are investigating criminal activity. United States v. Quezada, 448 F.3d 1005, 1007 (8th Cir.2006); People v. Davis, 442 Mich. 1, 497 N.W.2d 910, 920 (1993). For this exception to apply, law enforcement officers must possess probable cause that the premises to be searched contains the sought-after evidence or suspects. Quezada, 448 F.3d at 1007; Davis, 497 N.W.2d at 920. [¶ 16.] This Court's test for whether exigent circumstances exist asks whether police officers, under the facts as they knew them at the time, would reasonably have believed that delay in procuring a search warrant would gravely endanger life, risk destruction of evidence, or greatly enhance the likelihood of a suspect's escape. Hess, 2004 SD 60, ¶ 25, 680 N.W.2d at 325 (citation omitted). If the officer is not executing a valid search warrant, a warrantless search and seizure is unreasonable absent probable cause and exigent circumstances. Swedlund v. Foster, 2003 SD 8, ¶ 42, 657 N.W.2d 39, 56 (citations omitted). [¶ 17.] Before we consider whether exigent circumstances existed, we must first decide whether the officers were acting in their crime investigation capacity when they entered defendant's home. See Quezada, 448 F.3d at 1007; Davis, 497 N.W.2d at 920. Both officers testified that they did not enter the home because they believed that methamphetamine was being manufactured there. Rather, they entered because they smelled ammonia fumes and wanted to make sure no one was endangered inside. Officers Zimbelman and Openhowski were found credible by the circuit court. Officer Openhowski maintained that before entering he had no clue that the house could contain a methamphetamine lab and was not intending to investigate a possible methamphetamine lab despite the fact that he saw the freezer with tubing while outside the back of the house. Officer Zimbelman similarly insisted that although the neighbor told him that defendant had been caught buying Sudafed, Zimbelman did not suspect a methamphetamine lab until after he was inside the residence. Both officers testified that they had not worked in narcotics during their careers and they had had little training in drug investigation. [¶ 18.] Unlike Hess, where we held that exigent circumstances warranted the intrusion when the officers were at a house to execute an arrest warrant and observed, through a window, two persons consuming what appeared to be a controlled substance, here the circuit court found that the officers entered the house in their non-investigatory capacity to make sure no one inside was overcome by ammonia fumes. See 2004 SD 60, ¶ 2, 680 N.W.2d at 317. The officers neither observed nor suspected that a crime was being committed inside the home and there were no claims by the officers, or findings adopted by the court, that support an entry based on the presence of a possible active methamphetamine lab. See United States v. Walsh, 299 F.3d 729 (8th Cir.2002) (intrusion warranted because of active methamphetamine lab). We also find distinguishable the plain smell cases the State cites to argue that the smell of an odor alone is sufficient to provide probable cause. Here, the officers did not believe that the smell of ammonia meant that a possible crime was being committed, i.e. the presence of an active methamphetamine lab. Because the officers did not enter the house in furtherance of a criminal investigation, the sole fact that the officers smelled ammonia cannot give rise to the application of the exigent circumstances exception.