Court Opinion

ID: 9644165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:49:11.432374+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:09.230403
License: Public Domain

MEYERS, Judge,
concurring.
The issue presented here is whether Appellant impliedly consented to a search of his house by policemen investigating the murder of his wife. The trial judge determined Appellant consented, at least impliedly, and so denied his motion to suppress evidence seized during the search. Ultimately, the Dallas Court of Appeals agreed, and so do we. Along the way, however, we have imposed a rule of law which will most likely prove unworkable in practice and which is, in any event, not necessary in the present context.
This Court holds “that when a crime is reported to the police by an individual who owns or controls the premises to which the police are summoned, and that individual either states or suggests that it was committed by a third person, he or she implicitly consents to a search of the premises reasonably related to the routine investigation of the offense and the identification of the perpetrator.” Op. at 182. Now, I agree that the evidence in this case is marginally sufficient to support the conclusion of the trial judge and of the appellate court that Appellant impliedly consented to the search of his house. And, because no one contends that either of the lower courts employed the wrong rule of law to reach this conclusion, it seems clear to me that the question here presented is one of fact. Under these circumstances, a new rule of law is not indicated, and Appellant’s petition for discretionary review probably should have been refused by straightforward application of our recent precedents in the screening process. Arcila v. State, 834 S.W.2d 357 (Tex.Crim.App.1992).
*184But, given that we did grant review, I would treat the question presented as a challenge to the sufficiency of evidence proving consent. In my opinion, it is clearly wrong, and futile besides, to hold that consent to search throughout a private residence may always be inferred when a homeowner calls the police to investigate a crime allegedly committed at his house, even when such a search is “reasonably related” to that investigation. There are simply too many variables involved — too many possible circumstances which might affect the question of implied consent in subtle ways — for a court of last resort to announce a general rule governing the subject. Many unreasonable searches will surely come of this doctrine, and I do not wish to be associated with the rule allowing them.
I am satisfied that the only pertinent rule of law in the present context is that law enforcement officers may search a private residence if they have the actual consent of the owner, express or implied. Whether they had such consent in the instant cause is a question of fact which was resolved contrary to Appellant by the trial judge and by the Dallas Court of Appeals. In my view, the question is close. In most instances, I think it entirely unreasonable simply to assume that homeowners are willing to have the police rifle through their private homes and personal effects whenever they report the commission of a crime somewhere on their property. But Appellant in this case described circumstances to the police suggesting robbery as a motive for the murder of his wife, and he evidently invited a full investigation of the crime scene. Under the circumstances, it must have seemed to the investigators that the scene included, not only the garage where the body was found, but the residence itself, where the killing evidently occurred. Although I am not certain that I would have upheld the search myself, had I been the trial judge in this case, I cannot say that the evidence, together with rational inferences therefrom, is insufficient for a finding that Appellant impliedly consented to the limited search of his home actually conducted by the police.
Accordingly, while I cannot join the opinion of the Court, I do concur in its judgment to affirm the Court of Appeals.
McCORMICK, P.J., joins.