Opinion ID: 1752541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: suppression of evidence issues

Text: Appellant asserts that the police violated his Fourth Amendment rights, applied to Missouri through the Fourteenth Amendment, because they did not have an arrest or search warrant when they arrested him and seized evidence. Appellant also asserts that, because of cocaine intoxication, he was incapable of knowingly and intelligently waiving his Miranda rights. He contends, therefore, that the trial court erred in overruling his pretrial motion to suppress the seized evidence and confession. Appellate review of motions to suppress is limited to a determination of whether sufficient evidence exists to sustain a trial court's holding. State v. Blair, 691 S.W.2d 259, 260 (Mo. banc 1985), cert. granted, 474 U.S. 1049, 106 S.Ct. 784, 88 L.Ed.2d 762 (1986), cert. dismissed, 480 U.S. 698, 107 S.Ct. 1596, 94 L.Ed.2d 678 (1987). The record of the suppression hearing supports the following factual account. During the investigation of Mrs. McDonald's murder, the police learned that appellant worked as the condominium's maintenance worker and that he had not been seen for two or three days. In the condominium's locked tool storage area, police found an adjustable jaw and ring that appeared to be the missing parts of the murder weapon. The condominium's manager informed police that appellant had the only other key to the tool area. A police computer check revealed appellant's previous murder conviction. The computer check reported appellant's address as 4113-A Flad. Around noon on Tuesday, August 30, Clayton police officers decided to check out the address. The officers found Mrs. McDonald's BMW parked approximately one block from the Flad address. The building at the Flad address contains two apartment units, one at ground level, the other upstairs. Each unit has its own entry door facing a small front porch. Upon arrival at the apartment building, the officers encountered ten-year-old Angela Crawford standing on the front porch in the open doorway of the downstairs unit. Angela told the officers that appellant sometimes stayed in the upstairs unit, but that he did not live there. She told the police that appellant was using her telephone in the downstairs unit. Through the open doorway to the downstairs apartment unit, police saw appellant in the hallway using the telephone. The police followed Angela inside as she pointed out the appellant. Appellant stopped dead when he saw the police. He identified himself as Oscar when questioned, but revealed that he was Jessie Lee Wise when police demanded identification. The officers placed him under arrest and read him the Miranda warnings, but did not question him while at the apartment. As officers led appellant onto the front porch, he asked his fourteen-year-old stepson, Arbra Martin, to go to the upstairs apartment unit and get his shoes, coat, and cigarettes. Arbra told the police to come with him and that he would give the police the requested items. Arbra told the police that appellant did not live in the upstairs apartment, but that he occasionally visited. Arbra stated that appellant had last stayed at the upstairs apartment over the weekend. Police followed Arbra into the upstairs apartment unit and proceeded with him to a bedroom. Arbra entered the bedroom to retrieve appellant's shoes and coat. An officer waiting in the bedroom's doorway seized a set of BMW keys that he noticed on a bedroom table. Arbra handed appellant's jacket to a detective who searched the pockets, finding Mrs. McDonald's credit cards. Police asked Arbra if appellant had brought any jewelry into the apartment. Arbra said that he had and gave the officers a small gold chain from the bedroom dresser. During a routine inventory search the police found pawn tickets in appellant's wallet. Police went to the pawn shops with the tickets and found more of Mrs. McDonald's jewelry. Appellant does not challenge the police's probable cause to arrest. Instead, he asserts that because the police did not have an arrest or search warrant to enter the downstairs apartment unit, the arrest violated the Fourth Amendment. He also asserts that the evidence found in the upstairs apartment unit was illegally seized. In Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 267, 80 S.Ct. 725, 734, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), the United States Supreme Court held that criminal defendants who were legitimately on the premises have standing to challenge Fourth Amendment violations. Eighteen years later, in Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 142, 99 S.Ct. 421, 429, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), the Court explicitly overruled the Jones test for Fourth Amendment standing as being too broad a gauge. The Rakas Court stated that Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights that may not be vicariously asserted. Id. at 138-40, 99 S.Ct. at 427-29. To have standing to assert Fourth Amendment violations, a defendant must demonstrate a legitimate expectation of privacy in the premises. Id. at 148, 99 S.Ct. at 432. The issue is whether appellant demonstrated a legitimate expectation of privacy in the downstairs apartment unit in order to have Fourth Amendment standing to challenge the warrantless arrest. The United States Supreme Court held in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), that because people have a legitimate expectation of privacy in their homes, the Fourth Amendment requires police to have an arrest warrant to arrest criminal suspects in their home. In Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990), the Court expanded Payton , holding that an overnight guest has an expectation of privacy in his host's home that society is willing to recognize as reasonable and, therefore, has standing to assert Fourth Amendment violations. Appellant does not have Fourth Amendment standing under Payton or Olson . Testimony at the suppression hearing showed that appellant lived at the Shaw Park Condominium, not at the Flad address. Although appellant occasionally spent the night with his wife in the Flad building's upstairs apartment unit, there is no evidence that he ever spent the night in the downstairs apartment unit. Appellant was in the downstairs apartment unit merely to use the telephone. The rationale supporting a legitimate expectation of privacy in overnight guests does not apply to one occupying another's apartment to make a telephone call. [1] Appellant failed to demonstrate a legitimate privacy interest in the downstairs apartment unit; he does not, therefore, have standing to assert any Fourth Amendment violation in the police's warrantless entrance into the apartment to arrest him. Because police effected a valid, constitutional arrest, the seizures of evidence cannot be fruit of an unlawful arrest. Appellant contends that the seizures were nonetheless unconstitutional because police did not have a search warrant to enter and search the upstairs apartment unit. Appellant occasionally spent the night with his wife in the upstairs apartment unit and had spent the weekend with her prior to the arrest. Appellant assumes that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the upstairs apartment under Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). Assuming, without deciding, that appellant did have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the upstairs apartment, appellant's assertion that a search warrant was required is without merit. All of the evidence was seized under various exceptions to the warrant requirement. The United States Supreme Court, in Washington v. Chrisman, 455 U.S. 1, 6, 102 S.Ct. 812, 816, 70 L.Ed.2d 778 (1982), held that under the Fourth Amendment police may accompany an arrestee, at his elbow, if the arrestee is allowed to retrieve items in areas that would otherwise be protected from a warrantless search. In State v. Payano, 528 A.2d 721 (R.I.1987), the Supreme Court of Rhode Island extended Chrisman's rationale to allow police to accompany a third party sent to retrieve items for an arrestee. The Payano court held that the Fourth Amendment did not bar police without a warrant from following a woman into the arrestee's bedroom as she retrieved his shoes. Id. at 726-27. Once in the bedroom, the police were authorized to seize evidence under the plain view doctrine. Id. at 727; cf. State v. Griffin, 336 N.W.2d 519 (Minn.1983) (holding that the Fourth Amendment does not bar police from entering arrestee's room to retrieve his shoes and coat when it was snowing outside, and, once in arrestee's room, police were authorized to seize evidence under the plain view doctrine). The compelling interest in police safety that allows police to follow at the elbow of an arrestee as he is allowed to move around, Chrisman, 455 U.S. at 7, 102 S.Ct. at 817, also applies where a third party is sent to retrieve items for an arrestee. As the Payano court stated, police did not know whether anyone else might be in the bedroom or whether a weapon had been placed therein.... It was only by the exercise of such caution that the police could assure themselves that the woman would not emerge with a weapon rather than a pair of shoes. Payano, 528 A.2d at 727. Under the reasoning of Payano , the police did not need a warrant to follow Arbra Martin into the upstairs apartment unit as he retrieved appellant's shoes, coat, and cigarettes. Once legally in the upstairs apartment, police properly seized the BMW keys under the plain view doctrine. See State v. Blankenship, 830 S.W.2d 1, 14 (Mo. banc 1992). The police properly seized the jewelry after Arbra handed it to them. Arbra also handed the police the jacket containing Mrs. McDonald's credit cards. The police were entitled to ensure their own safety by searching the jacket before giving it to appellant; therefore, the credit cards were also properly seized. See United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973); Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) (police entitled to search areas within immediate control of an arrestee). The pawn tickets were properly seized after police found them in appellant's wallet during a routine inventory search. Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983); State v. Friend, 711 S.W.2d 508, 510 (Mo. banc 1986). The trial court properly admitted the credit cards, jewelry, BMW keys, and pawn tickets. Appellant also argues that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress his confession to the police. Appellant first contends that his confession was a fruit of an illegal arrest and search. Because the arrest and seizure of evidence were constitutional, appellant's argument fails. Appellant next argues that cocaine intoxication rendered him incapable of knowingly and intelligently waiving his right to silence; therefore, his confession should have been suppressed. [2] Appellant does not assert that his confession was involuntary, and there are no indications or allegations of police coercion. Appellant's argument is not supported by the record. A knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to silence is normally shown by having a police officer testify that he read the accused his rights, asked whether the rights were understood, and received an affirmative response. State v. Schnick, 819 S.W.2d 330, 335-36 (Mo. banc 1991); David M. Nissman, et al., Law of Confessions § 6.5, at 157 (1985). Here, police informed appellant of his constitutional rights by giving the Miranda warnings when they arrested him and twice before interrogating him. As police read each right aloud, appellant orally responded that he understood the right. Appellant also signed his initials next to each right on a waiver form indicating that he understood the rights. Appellant refused, however, to sign his name at the bottom of the waiver form where it states: I have read and understand all my rights. I voluntarily waive my rights and desire to make a statement. When asked why he would not sign at the bottom of the form, appellant responded that it was not necessary for him to sign. Appellant never indicated that he did not understand his rights or that he did not want to talk to the police. Sufficient evidence exists for the trial court to have found that appellant made a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to silence. Appellant argues that there was evidence at the suppression hearing that he was using large amounts of cocaine in the two week period prior to his arrest, that he had little sleep during that period, and that he was intoxicated on cocaine at the time of the confession. During the interrogation, appellant told police that he was having difficulty remembering the weekend's events. He also testified at the hearing that he was able to recall very little of what occurred during the police interrogations. The defense's expert opined that appellant was suffering from cocaine delirium when interrogated, which impaired his ability to make judgments. Police testified that appellant appeared tired, but alert, and did not appear high on drugs. Appellant's own witnesses testified that he was not acting unusual or as if he was high on drugs when police arrested him. It is a trial court's duty to weigh evidence and witness credibility. State v. Battle, 661 S.W.2d 487, 491 (Mo. banc 1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 993, 104 S.Ct. 2375, 80 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984). There is sufficient evidence to support the trial court's finding of a knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to silence: the court could have believed the police officer's testimony, viewed the Miranda waiver form that was initialed by appellant, and discounted appellant's testimony and that of his expert witness. [3]