Court Opinion

ID: 9459527
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:23:26.285353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:12.470455
License: Public Domain

SPRECHER, Circuit Judge.
This is an appeal by the government under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 from the order entered May 15, 1973 granting defendant’s motion to suppress certain items named in a search warrant issued on July 27, 1972, namely: a clip for a .45 caliber automatic pistol, rounds of .45 caliber and other ammunition, and knives. We reverse.
I.
In the affidavit for search warrant the affiant, Special Agent Roy M.Mitchell of the FBI, stated that an informant who had provided reliable information over a period of years informed him on May 18, 1972 that in the evening of the preceding day Stanley Robinson, a Chicago Police Department Sergeant, had arrested one Jeff Beard on the street in Chicago for an alleged armed robbery, had handcuffed Beard, and then had driven him to a location in Gary, Indiana and there shot him with a .45 caliber automatic pistol and cut his throat with a knife, killing him. The affidavit also stated that Mitchell went with the informant to that place and found a body, which proved to be that of Jeff Beard. The throat was cut and a .45 caliber bullet was found in the body.
*301The affidavit further recited that several days later Mitchell came into possession of the .45 caliber automatic pistol “reportedly used by Stanley Robinson in the kidnap-murder of Jeff Beard,” but it did not say how he got it or the source of the information that it was the murder weapon.
The affidavit further recited that “on June 21, 1972, Kelly Fox, apartment # 14, 808 Lakeside Street, Chicago, informed affiant that . . . Robinson resides with her and their daughter on the average of two or three nights per week, and has done so over the past 7 years,” and that Robinson kept “his personal belongings in the closet.” It is recited that on July 18 and 19 affiant again talked with Kelly Fox at her apartment and that she stated that “items left by Robinson shortly before his disappearance on June 26, 1972 are contained in two suitcases and two cardboard boxes in the closet just off the living room in her apartment. She stated that affiant could look at these items since they were left in her care, but would not allow seizure of any items without a search warrant.” The affidavit then recited that affiant “observed a clip for a .45 caliber pistol and miscellaneous rounds of ammunition, including .45 caliber ammunition and other calibers, as well as miscellaneous knives, including a switchblade knife.” The affiant, the affidavit went on to recite, had no way of knowing whether the clip observed was the clip from the pistol reported to be the murder weapon, and an examination by the FBI laboratory in Washington was necessary.
A search warrant was issued on July 27, 1972, authorizing the seizure of the clip, the ammunition, the knives, “and other evidence.” The warrant was executed by the seizure of the articles named therein and also miscellaneous papers and some photographs.
II.
After an evidentiary suppression hearing, the district judge found that the reliability of the informer’s information “was corroborated by the fact of the slaying, the identity of the victim, the location of the body, the infliction of the bullet wound, the infliction of the knife wound, and that Robinson had in his possession and stored in a closet in an apartment he shared with his paramour a clip for a .45 automatic, .45 caliber ammunition and knives capable of inflicting the knife wound.” He concluded that “[a] 11 this constituted sufficient probable cause for the issuance of the warrant authorizing seizure of the clip, the .45 caliber ammunition and the knives.”
However, the district judge further concluded that the warrantless searches of the boxes on June 21 and July 18 were unlawful and that therefore the search warrant based in material part on information gained in those searches must be held invalid. We disagree with the latter conclusion.
III.
Evidence adduced at the suppression hearing supported in substantial detail the facts recited in the search warrant. The hearing further disclosed that Kelly Fox also had belongings in the apartment closet off the living room; that men’s and women’s clothing hung from a rack in the closet, about two-thirds of it being women’s clothing; that nothing was seized from the two suitcases; that the two cardboard boxes were about I1/2' xl^'x T, one being a little larger than the other; that “one didn’t have a top and the other one’s top wouldn’t close because it was too full;” that most of the contents of the boxes consisted of papers, including letters, bills, police reports, police bulletins, class notes and pieces of paper with license numbers written on them; and that also in the boxes but apparently not visible until papers were removed, were the .45 caliber clip, the ammunition and the knives.
The hearing also revealed that Agent Mitchell had been accompanied by FBI Agent Roten and a Chicago police officer on June 21 and by Agent Roten on July 18, 1972 when the Fox apartment *302was searched; that on both occasions Kelly Fox served coffee to the men; and, as expressly found by the district judge, that “as the agents testified, she purported to authorize the search and made no protest as it was going on.” 1
Between the June 21 and the July 18 searches, Robinson had disappeared and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He had taken a metal box and some other items with him when he disappeared.
IV.
It is clear that “where two persons have equal rights to the use or occupation of premises, either may give consent to a search, and the evidence thus disclosed can be used against either.” United States v. Sferas, 210 F.2d 69, 74 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, Skally v. United States, 347 U.S. 935, 74 S.Ct. 630, 98 L.Ed. 1086 (1954); United States v. Stone, 471 F.2d 170, 173 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 931, 93 S.Ct. 1898, 36 L.Ed.2d 391 (1973). A defendant’s paramour may give valid consent to the search of premises they jointly occupy. United States v. Airdo, 380 F.2d 103, 106-107 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 913, 88 S.Ct. 238, 19 L. Ed.2d 260 (1967). The rule is not based on principles of agency but rather on the “reasonableness, under all the circumstances, of a search consented to by a person having immediate control and authority over the premises or property searched. Cf. Roberts v. United States, [332 F.2d 892,] 896-897 (8th Cir. 1964)].” Id. The rule is not based upon the joint possessor’s right to waive the other’s constitutional rights but on her “own rights to authorize entry into the premises where she lives and of which she had control.” Roberts v. United States, supra, 332 F.2d at 897.
The district court found that in this case “as in Airdo, the paramour ‘lived in the apartment and therefore had authority to consent to a search of it,’ including the foyer closet where the boxes were kept. She jointly used the unlocked closet.” The consent given by Fox was voluntary. The question is whether a search of the two cardboard boxes was permissible.
At the outset it is obvious that this question is not solved by those cases where a defendant-tenant claims exclusive occupancy to a specified portion of larger premises occupied by a consenting landlord. United States v. Mattlock, 476 F.2d 1083 (7th Cir. 1973). Here no landlord-tenant relationship existed between Kelly Fox and the defendant, nor does the defendant claim exclusive dominion and control over a specific room or portion of a room or particular area of the apartment. Cf. United States v. Wixom, 441 F.2d 623, 625 (7th Cir. 1971), where Judge Kiley said: “Each had equal rights to the use and occupation of the premises at the time of the search, and either could give consent to the search, the fruit of which would be admissible against the other party.”
The question must be approached in the light of several policy considerations : First, the Fourth Amendment protects against search areas “where, like a home ... a person has a constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy.” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 360, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). If a spouse does not have complete expectation of privacy in his own home in view of the possibility of his mate’s consent, the casual lover who drops in at his convenience can hardly expect more when he turns his part-time home over to the full-time dominion of his paramour and then places his belongings in unlocked, uncovered cardboard boxes in a closet frequented by her. Here the defendant also impliedly disavowed any expectation of privacy in the *303cardboard boxes when he disappeared with a metal box and other belongings but ignored the cardboard boxes.
A second policy consideration surfaces when the defendant is absent from his dwelling by reason of flight or hiding from law enforcement officers for fear of arrest, at which time a strong case for third party consent is presented. United States v. Stone, 471 F.2d 170, 177 (7th Cir. 1972) (Swygert, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 931, 93 S.Ct. 1898, 36 L.Ed.2d 391 (1973); Wade v. Warden, Maryland Penitentiary, 278 F.Supp. 904 (D.Md.1968). In the present case, the defendant had fled prior to the July 18 search.
Finally, there are the policy considerations posed by Frazier v. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731, 89 S.Ct. 1420, 22 L.Ed.2d 684 (1969), where Mr. Justice Marshall delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court. A duffel bag was being jointly used by defendant and his cousin Rawls and it had been left in Rawls’ home. Both Rawls and his mother consented to the search. Defendant argued that Rawls only had actual permission to use one compartment of the bag and that he had no authority to consent to a search of the other compartments, in one of which the officers found some of defendant’s belongings. The Court said at 394 U.S. 740, 89 S.Ct. 1425:
“We will not, however, engage in such metaphysical subleties in judging the efficacy of Rawls’ consent. Petitioner [defendant], in allowing Rawls to use the bag and in leaving it in his house, must be taken to have assumed the risk that Rawls would allow someone else to look inside. We find no valid search and seizure claim in this ease.”
The police might be deterred from employing consent searches altogether if they were required to ascertain the ownership or possession or custody of every article or space on the premises searched. The metaphysical subleties would be endless and consent searches would be lost from the law enforcement arsenal.
This case is quite similar to White v. United States, 444 F.2d 724 (10th Cir. 1971), where a paramour gave permission to officers to search a motel unit occupied jointly by her and the defendant, leading to the search of a small, cloth zipper bag owned by the defendant. The court concluded that the paramour’s consent to the motel search extended to the defendant’s bag.
The case relied upon by the defendant and the district court in this case, United States v. Poole, 307 F.Supp. 1185 (E.D. La.1969), is distinguishable. Poole was an overnight guest in Dickson’s apartment and had left his overnight bag in the hall closet. When the officers obtained Dickson’s consent to the search at 1:15 A.M. in the morning, Poole was present in the bedroom and his consent was neither given nor sought. Since evidence obtained in a search is inadmissible against a person having equal rights in the premises if he is present at the time of the search and does not consent, Lucero v. Donovan, 354 F.2d 16 (9th Cir. 1968), the Poole case does not detract from the interspousal consent doctrine of Sferas, Airdo and Stone.
The portion of the order of May 15, 1973, granting defendant’s motion to suppress the clip for a .45 caliber automatic pistol, rounds of .45 caliber and other ammunition and knives is reversed.

. The district judge further found: “I do not credit . . . [Kelly Fox’s] testimony to the effect that she asked them on . [both occasions] not to go through the boxes because they contained Robinson’s things, or that she did not give her consent to the search of the closet and the boxes.”