Opinion ID: 1196421
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: The Warrantless Entries by Police

Text: (24a) Defendant first contends trial counsel was constitutionally remiss in failing to file a suppression motion based on the two warrantless entries into the Smith/Wharton apartment, first by Officer Rivas and later by Officers Fryslie and Tracy. Defendant argues that these entries violated his right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment and that counsel's failure to move to suppress deprived him of an adjudication of the issue, thereby tainting the admission of all the evidence discovered as a result of the entries, including victim Smith's body, defendant's statements to Officer Tonello, and all information elicited from Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Hutcheson. We reject at the threshold defendant's contention that he is entitled to relief merely because counsel's inaction deprived him of the opportunity to challenge the legality of the entry by Officers Rivas, Fryslie and Tracy. (25) Where defense counsel's failure to litigate a Fourth Amendment claim competently is the principal allegation of ineffectiveness, the defendant must also prove that his Fourth Amendment claim is meritorious and that there is a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been different absent the excluded evidence in order to demonstrate actual prejudice. ( Kimmelman v. Morrison (1986) 477 U.S. 365, 375 [91 L.Ed.2d 305, 319, 106 S.Ct. 2574].) A contrary rule would be inconsistent with our pronouncements in numerous cases requiring a defendant claiming ineffective assistance of counsel to show prejudice resulting from counsel's acts or omissions. ( Ledesma, supra, 43 Cal.3d at p. 217; In re Sixto, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 1257.) [11] (24b) Defendant's ineffective-assistance claim is premised on his contention that had counsel moved to suppress the evidence gathered as a result of the allegedly illegal entries, the motion surely would have been granted. Because such evidence comprised the entire case against him, defendant claims counsel's representation necessarily fell below an objective standard of reasonableness ... under prevailing professional norms. ( Strickland v. Washington, supra, 466 U.S. 668, 687-688 [80 L.Ed.2d at pp. 693-694].) Even assuming arguendo counsel was remiss in failing to move to suppress, however, we conclude relief is not appropriate because defendant fails to show a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. ( In re Sixto, supra, 48 Cal.3d at p. 1257.) In short, we find the suppression motion would have been denied. (26) We begin our analysis with the observation that `warrantless searches of a private dwelling are unreasonable per se in the absence of one of a small number of carefully circumscribed exceptions.' ( People v. Cook (1978) 22 Cal.3d 67, 97 [148 Cal. Rptr. 605, 583 P.2d 130], quoting People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 270 [127 Cal. Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333], cert. den. sub nom. California v. Ramey (1976) 429 U.S. 929 [50 L.Ed.2d 299, 97 S.Ct. 335].) One established exception to the warrant requirement, however, is when exigent circumstances exist to justify a warrantless entry. `[E]xigent circumstances means an emergency situation requiring swift action to prevent imminent danger or serious damage to property, or to forestall the imminent escape of a suspect or destruction of evidence. There is no ready litmus test for determining whether such circumstances exist, and in each case the claim of an extraordinary situation must be measured by the facts known to the officers.' ( Lucero, supra, 44 Cal.3d at p. 1017, quoting People v. Ramey, supra, at p. 276.) The exception is applicable to the federal Constitution (see Mincey v. Arizona (1978) 437 U.S. 385 [57 L.Ed.2d 290, 98 S.Ct. 2408]) and California courts are in full accord with the ... emergency exception to the warrant requirement. ( Tamborino v. Superior Court (1986) 41 Cal.3d 919, 924 [226 Cal. Rptr. 868, 719 P.2d 242].) (24c) We conclude the totality of circumstances here demonstrated an emergency situation existed sufficient to justify the entry by Officers Fryslie and Ybarra. Earlier in the month, police had been called to the Smith/Wharton home to quell a domestic disturbance. Later, on the day police discovered victim Smith's body, Officer Rivas was dispatched to the home to locate Linda Smith and found nobody home. Neighbors reported they had not seen Smith in two weeks. There was mail in the mailbox, indicating she had not been home. Rivas left a note inside the apartment asking Smith to call the police. He locked the door behind him as he left the apartment. Later that evening, police received a second call from Smith's aunt in San Francisco voicing additional concern for her welfare. Officer Zuniga responded to the scene but did not attempt an entry. Later that same night, Officer Fryslie was dispatched to the scene (in what he characterized as a check-the-welfare call) after Mrs. Short, a neighbor, called 911 after she heard someone banging on Smith's front door. Fryslie rang the doorbell and knocked on the door. Receiving no response, he tried the doorknob and discovered the door was unlocked. Announcing his identity, Fryslie entered the apartment behind his police dog. Officer Ybarra accompanied Fryslie into the residence. As one leading commentator explains, Doubtless there are an infinite variety of situations in which entry for the purpose of rendering aid is reasonable. Included are those in which entry is made ... to seek an occupant reliably reported as missing. (2 LaFave, Search and Seizure (2d ed. 1987) § 6.6(a), p. 702.) Courts in both California and other states are in accord. (See Lucero, supra, 44 Cal.3d at pp. 1016-1018 [evidence of missing girls justified warrantless entry]; People v. Mitchell (1976) 39 N.Y.2d 173 [383 N.Y.S.2d 246, 248-249, 347 N.E.2d 607] [missing chambermaid in hotel; warrantless search of hotel rooms permissible]; State v. Fisher (1984) 141 Ariz. 227 [686 P.2d 750, 759-764] [manager of apartment house had not been seen for 39 hours; warrantless search permissible]; Com. v. Silo 1985) 509 Pa. 406 [502 A.2d 173, 175] [neighbors reported victim had not been seen for 24 hours, could not be reached by telephone, and did not show up for work; warrantless search of her home justified].) Because a suppression motion based on the warrantless entry of Officers Fryslie and Ybarra would have been denied because of exigent circumstances, it follows counsel was not ineffective for failing to make the motion. Defendant contends that even if the entry by Fryslie and Ybarra was justified by an emergency, cutting open the plastic in which the victim's body was wrapped constituted an illegal opening of a closed container which was not justified by any emergency. This theory, however, assumes the emergency which justified the initial entry had terminated. (See Michigan v. Clifford (1984) 464 U.S. 287 [78 L.Ed.2d 477, 104 S.Ct. 641].) The facts are to the contrary. Upon entering the victim's residence, Officer Fryslie noticed the telephone was unplugged and found the suicide note defendant wrote. These additional suspicious circumstances contributed to the officer's belief that all was not well. When he felt a portion of the plastic wrapping that protruded from the barrel, he radioed his superior that he had found a potential body disposal site. After cutting away the plastic wrapping and discovering the victim's body, the emergency generated by the reports of a missing person ceased (because the probable subject of the reports was no longer living), and the investigating officers left the premises to secure a warrant before continuing their search. The officers' actions in this case fully comported with Fourth Amendment guarantees. Although defendant urges us to endorse a different result, his rule would have Officers Fryslie and Ybarra vacate the premises despite their well-founded suspicion that they had found the victim's body. Because there existed the possibility that the victim was still alive, we cannot fault the officers' decision to investigate further. We thus find trial counsel's failure to move to suppress based on the officers cutting open the plastic wrapping did not amount to ineffective assistance of counsel. Defendant finally claims the initial, daytime, warrantless entry by Officer Rivas was not justified by any emergency. While it is true there were fewer indications of an emergency at the time Rivas entered the apartment, we need not resolve this issue because Rivas did not discover any evidence during his entry. As a result, his entry, even assuming it was improper, did not (1) lead to suppressible evidence, or (2) taint the later entry by Fryslie and Ybarra. (Cf. Lucero, supra, 44 Cal.3d at p. 1018 [possibly improper entry by detective of no significance because he did not testify at trial].) Counsel thus cannot be faulted for failing to move to suppress on this ground. [12]