State v. Carlson, 94-1873

• Decision Date: 17 April 1996
• Docket Number: No. 94-1873,94-1873
• Citation: 548 N.W.2d 138
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Ralph Phillip CARLSON, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 138

548 N.W.2d 138

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Ralph Phillip CARLSON, Appellant.

No. 94-1873.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 17, 1996.

Rehearing Denied May 15, 1996.

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Ahmet S. Gonlubol, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary Tabor, Assistant Attorney General, John P. Sarcone, County Attorney, and Steven Foritano and Jeffrey Noble, Assistant County Attorneys, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and HARRIS, LARSON, CARTER, and TERNUS, JJ.

HARRIS, Justice.

On the basis of a missing person report, officers seized evidence during a nighttime warrantless search of defendant's residence following a forced entry. The question, whether the search was valid, turns on whether a "health and safety" search is authorized under certain extreme circumstances. We think it is authorized, and believe the facts here present the perfect model for its correct application. We accordingly affirm defendant's murder conviction.

In the early morning hours of January 27, 1994, police received a missing person report from Rhonda Young. She was concerned about her mother, Rita Young, who had been living with defendant Ralph Carlson. Two police officers, Cynthia Walters and Steven Kees, responded by meeting with Rhonda at an apartment where she was visiting a friend. Rhonda told the officers she usually spoke with Rita twice a day, but had not heard from her since the 25th. She was extremely worried because Carlson had previously been abusive to Rita.

Rhonda also provided the officers with additional, unsettling information. Carlson had offered conflicting stories about Rita's whereabouts. He telephoned Rita's sister, Glenda Jones, on the evening of January 25 and put Rita on the line. After the two sisters engaged in a brief, awkward conversation, the line was cut off. A few minutes later Carlson called back and said Rita was drunk and he was taking her to her friend Jim's apartment. Glenda heard strange noises in the background and asked to speak with Rita, but Carlson replied she was in the bathroom. Glenda became concerned and tried without success to call Rita at Jim's. ¹ Glenda then phoned Carlson, who told her he dropped Rita off approximately a block and a half from Jim's, and Rita had called him back from a private number and said she was leaving to visit her parents in Missouri.

Not satisfied, Glenda asked her husband, Roger Jones, to call Stacy Young, Rhonda's sister, about Rita's welfare. When told of the odd conversation with Carlson, Stacy related the story to Rhonda. This prompted Rhonda to begin her own inquiry, and she phoned Carlson. This time Carlson replied that Rita had "walked out the front door," and he had not seen her since.

As Rhonda's worries increased she devised a covert plan to check on her mother. On the evening of January 26, as a ruse to enter Carlson's house to check for indications of her mother's whereabouts, Rhonda phoned Carlson and asked if she could borrow a certain special dish. ² Although Rhonda lived only a few blocks away, when she arrived Carlson was nowhere to be found. The lights in the house were on, the garage door was up, and Carlson's car was gone--indicating he had left hurriedly.

Rhonda related all the foregoing to the officers and, based on this information, they went to Carlson's residence to check on Rita. When they arrived there they saw a person watching television in an upstairs room. The officers knocked on the various doors of the house repeatedly and also had the police dispatcher telephone the residence numerous times, but there was no response. At this point the officers asked Sergeant David Brown, their supervisor, to come to the scene for a consultation on how to proceed further.

Sergeant Brown was familiar with the residence, having responded to a domestic abuse report there two months earlier where he confiscated a weapon. He also knocked on the door and had the dispatcher again phone the residence, but there was still no response. He then decided to summon Rhonda to the scene so he could hear from her firsthand before taking any further action. Brown also advised his supervisors of the situation, and Lieutenant Larry Cramer replied he would be on the scene shortly to assist.

Rhonda soon arrived with her boyfriend and repeated all the information she had provided to Officers Kees and Walters. She stressed the history of domestic abuse and Carlson's nervous and evasive answers to questions regarding Rita's whereabouts. Rita's boyfriend, who had independently looked into the matter, was convinced Carlson was at home. There were fresh tire tracks in the newly fallen snow, and Carlson's car was in the garage. Rhonda noticed Carlson's dog was inside the house, which she thought was peculiar because the dog normally was kept in the basement or outside. She pointed out that Carlson usually answered the phone on the second ring, and she thought his failure to answer was another indication that something was amiss.

Rhonda told the officers that the residence was a duplex, and the person they had observed in the upstairs room was a tenant. Rhonda and Officer Walters knocked on the tenant's door and spoke briefly with him. The tenant reported he had not seen Rita and stated that, if Carlson's car was in the driveway, he was probably asleep in his own apartment.

With aroused concern, the officers gathered by the back door and decided to make a forced entry. They broke out a window in the door and entered Carlson's residence where they found him asleep in bed. Carlson told the officers he did not know where Rita was. Police then continued on a cursory search of the house and in the basement found Rita's bound and beaten body behind the furnace. The officers handcuffed Carlson and took him to headquarters for questioning. A search warrant was obtained before the police conducted a more thorough search of the house.

After Carlson was charged with murder, he moved to suppress the results of the warrantless search of his residence. The district court upheld the search. The matter is before us on Carlson's appeal from his subsequent conviction.

I. Carlson makes a constitutional claim, so our review is de novo. Iowa R.App.P. 4. We examine Carlson's claim by making an independent evaluation of the totality of the circumstances as shown by the entire record. State v. Vincik, 436 N.W.2d 350, 353 (Iowa 1989).

II. Carlson contends the district court erred by denying the motion to suppress the evidence seized from his residence as a result of the warrantless forced entry of the premises based on a missing-persons report. Both the fourth amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 8, of the Iowa Constitution protect citizens against "unreasonable searches and seizures." The purpose of this protection is to safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasion by government officials. Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 504, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 1947, 56 L.Ed.2d 486, 495 (1978). It is well settled that, subject to a few carefully drawn exceptions, warrantless searches are per se unreasonable. State v. Emerson, 375 N.W.2d 256, 258 (Iowa 1985). Evidence obtained by an illegal search is inadmissible unless the state proves by a preponderance of the evidence that a recognized exception to the warrant requirement applies. See Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 454-55, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2032, 29 L.Ed.2d 564, 576 (1971); Iowa R.Crim.P. 11.

In Emerson, on the basis of the emergency-aid exception, we recognized a police officer's right to enter a dwelling without a warrant for the purpose of rendering emergency aid and assistance. 375 N.W.2d at 258-59; Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 392, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2413, 57 L.Ed.2d 290, 300 (1978) (recognizing the right of police to respond to emergency situations by making warrantless entries and searches when they reasonably believe that a person within is in need of immediate aid). In doing so we acknowledged the myriad of tasks performed by peace officers. Emerson, 375 N.W.2d at 258. As one commentator explains:

The police have complex and multiple tasks to perform in addition to identifying and apprehending persons committing serious criminal offenses; by design or default, the police are also expected to reduce the opportunities for the commission of some crimes through preventative patrol and other measures, aid individuals who are in danger of physical harm, assist those who cannot care for themselves, resolve conflict, create and maintain a feeling of security in the community, and provide other services on an emergency basis.

3 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 6.6, at 390 (3d ed. 1996) (quotations omitted) (citing ABA Standards for Criminal Justice §§ 1-1.1, 1-2.2 (2d ed. 1980)). In essence police officers function in one of two roles: (1) apprehension of criminals (investigative function); and (2) protecting the public and rescuing those in distress (caretaking function). See Emerson, 375 N.W.2d at 258. ³ Courts have noted that preservation of human life is paramount to the right of privacy protected by the fourth amendment. State v. Boggess, 115 Wis.2d 443, 340 N.W.2d 516, 521 (1983). Thus the emergency-aid exception is justified because the motivation for the intrusion is to preserve life rather than to search for evidence to be used in a criminal investigation. Duquette v. Godbout, 471 A.2d 1359, 1362 (R.I.1984). The exception has been applied in a variety of factual situations, including entry of a dwelling to seek an occupant reported as missing. See LaFave § 6.6(a), at 396 (and cases there cited).

The emergency-aid exception is subject to strict limitations. In Emerson we adopted a two-step analysis to determine the reasonableness of a warrantless search under the emergency aid exception:

First, the search is invalid unless the...