Opinion ID: 1657998
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to Suppress Evidence Seized From Home.

Text: Vincik also moved to suppress physical evidence police officers found during the several warrantless searches of his home that followed his telephoned report that his wife and he had been shot. The trial court sustained the motion with respect to evidence seized several hours after the officers first entered the home but overruled that part of the motion which sought suppression of evidence found in the initial search of the home. Consequently, the prosecution was allowed to use in evidence at trial the handgun that fired the fatal shot and a holster, cartridges, slugs, and a gun box. The trial court denied Vincik's fourth amendment challenge, explaining: Once the officers were inside, they were entitled to make a general search of the premises under the totality of the circumstances. This is because there was a danger of violence and injury to the officers and others because it was unclear as to who may have fired the shots that killed Mrs. Vincik and wounded Mr. Vincik. There was certainly the risk of a subject's escape, and there was the possibility that unless a search was made on the spot, evidence would be concealed or destroyed.... [T]heir search corresponded to the exigency at the time they were in the residence. Defendant contends in this appeal that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance in stipulating at the suppression hearing that the motion did not include several items taken from the bedroom, including the handgun. He argues that those items should without question have been suppressed as the products of an unconstitutional warrantless search of Vincik's home, basing his argument on Thompson v. Louisiana, 469 U.S. 17, 105 S.Ct. 409, 83 L.Ed.2d 246 (1984). In Thompson, deputies responded to a phone call from the defendant's daughter reporting an attempted murder-suicide. Upon arriving at the defendant's home, the deputies transported the defendant to a hospital while securing the scene. The officers then conducted a warrantless two hour follow-up investigation in which they discovered a pistol in a chest of drawers, a note in a wastebasket, and a letter in an envelope on top of the chest of drawers. The United States Supreme Court, finding that an impermissible warrantless search had occurred, reaffirmed its position outlined earlier in Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978), that there is no murder scene exception to the warrant requirement. Thompson, 469 U.S. at 20, 105 S.Ct. at 411, 83 L.Ed.2d at 250-51. The Court wrote that a warrantless search of a murder scene may be justified and permissible to the extent that it constitutes a prompt warrantless search of the area to see if there are other victims or if a killer is still on the premises, id., but the Court refused to extend this exception to permit the warrantless seizure of evidence not discovered in plain view while the police were assisting defendant to the hospital. 469 U.S. at 22, 105 S.Ct. at 412, 83 L.Ed.2d at 251. The Court in Thompson also discussed the State's claim that it had established valid consent for a search by showing that defendant's daughter originally permitted the police to enter the home. The Court stated that the issue of consent is ordinarily a factual issue unsuitable for our consideration in the first instance and remanded the case for consideration of the consent issue in the light of earlier Court decisions. Id. at 22, 105 S.Ct. at 412, 83 L.Ed.2d at 252. We need not and do not resolve this fourth amendment issue raised by defendant because the trial court has not addressed the question of consent and, in any event, this case must be remanded for further proceedings. Prior to a second jury trial, the trial court shall decide such fourth amendment issues as defendant's trial counsel presents in a renewed motion to suppress. Defendant's counsel may raise all appropriate grounds for suppression of physical evidence without being bound by the stipulation here challenged, and the State may contend that Vincik consented to the search. We therefore do not address the question of ineffectiveness of counsel argued in this appeal. We note that the trial court did not rely on that stipulation in overruling defendant's earlier motion to suppress.