Opinion ID: 203746
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The apartment

Text: Because the layout of 122-124 Middle Street is crucial to our inquiry, we recount the physical characteristics of the premises, based on testimony presented at the two-day suppression hearing. As previously noted, 122-124 Middle Street was a three-story building. There was one apartment on each floor, and Rheault lived in the second-floor apartment. The front door of the building which was left unlockedopened to a landing that contained the mailboxes for the three apartments. From this landing, two doors were accessible. One door was to the apartment on the first floor; the other led to an interior stairway shared by the second and third floor apartments (the front stairway). This interior stairway door had a lock accessed from the outside by a skeleton key [4] , and a deadbolt lock that could only be accessed from the inside, in other words, only by tenants or other people already within the apartments on the second or third floor. There was conflicting testimony as to whether this deadbolt was usually locked. The landlord testified that the deadbolt was not supposed to be locked, while Rheault's roommate, Archambault, testified that it was almost always locked. [5] Both Rheault's apprehension and the discovery of the gun and drugs in the washing machine took place on the third floor landing of the front stairway. The more accessible stairway was in the rear of the building. It served all three apartments and was not locked from the street. While tenants were permitted to use both stairways, the testimony suggested that tenants on the second and third floor relied almost exclusively on the rear stairway, as did delivery persons and guests. The two stairways were not connected. Thus, to get from the back stairway to the front stairway, it was necessary to go through the second or third-floor apartment, as the officers did when they sought to arrest Rheault. The landlord testified that he occasionally used the front stairway to allow, for example, cable television personnel access to the basement. He also testified that tenants were not permitted to use the front stairway and landings for storage, as such use would create a fire hazard. [6] Instead, each apartment had its own storage area, which was large enough for a washing machine or bookshelf. On occasion, he had asked tenants to remove stored items from the front stairway landings. The landlord testified that, although he had asked the third-floor tenants to remove the washing machine from the third-floor landing about a month prior to Rheault's arrest, they had not done so. Moreover, additional items had been placed there, including tables, chairs, a damaged couch, an unhinged door and a desk. True to the maxim that one man's trash is another's treasure, Archambault testified that he took the desk from the third-floor landing down to his own room in the second floor apartment. Archambault also testified that he understood that the front stairway and landings were to be kept clear. The third-floor landing area, and the washing machine that was located in it, are the focus of our inquiry.