People v. Snider, Docket No. 203328.

• Citation: 608 N.W.2d 502,239 Mich. App. 393
• Decision Date: 04 April 2000
• Docket Number: Docket No. 203328.
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eric SNIDER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan (US)

608 N.W.2d 502

239 Mich. App. 393

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eric SNIDER, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 203328.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted September 14, 1999, at Detroit.

Decided January 14, 2000, at 9:00 a.m.

Released for Publication April 4, 2000.

Jennifer M. Granholm, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, Timothy A. Baughman, Chief of Research, Training, and Appeals, and Jeffrey Caminsky, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

Ashford & Associates (by Linda D. Ashford), Detroit, for the defendant on appeal.

Before: WHITBECK, P.J., and SAAD and HOEKSTRA, JJ.

WHITBECK, P.J.

I. Introduction

This matter arises from the brutal, and apparently drug-related, shotgun slayings of two people near the Regency Inn in Detroit on the night of February 20, 1995. A jury convicted defendant Eric Snider of two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, M.C.L. § 750.316; MSA 28.548, with respect to these shooting deaths, as well as of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, M.C.L. § 750.227b; MSA 28.424(2). Following the jury verdict, the trial court sentenced Snider to two mandatory terms of life imprisonment without parole for the first degree premeditated murder convictions, to run consecutively to the mandatory two year prison term for felony-firearm. Snider appeals as of right on a number of grounds, including one of first impression in Michigan: whether, after executing a search warrant and leaving a premises, the police may return to the premises and continue their search. We affirm.

II. Basic Facts And Procedural History

A. The Shotgun Slayings

During trial, Ronald Rucks testified that at about 10:00 p.m. on February 20, 1995, he saw a white van pull into a parking lot near the Regency Inn in Detroit and that he then heard the victim, Freddie Beatty, "hollering for help," indicating that he had been shot. Rucks stated that he saw a person in black clothing, wearing a hooded jacket, running away from the van. Rucks said that he then approached Beatty, who asked him to call the police, and that the police arrived four or five minutes later. Rucks explained that he knew Snider because Snider also lived at the Regency Inn, a transient hotel, and that Snider was about the same size as the person Rucks saw running away.

Detroit Police Sergeant Michael Passage testified that he arrived at the scene of the crime at about 10:17 p.m. and asked Beatty who shot him. Beatty answered "Eric." When Officer Passage asked for a last name, Beatty gave no reply. When Officer Passage asked Beatty what "Eric" was wearing, Beatty said a dark hooded jacket. According to Officer Passage, their conversation was not "flowing coherently" because Beatty was grimacing in pain from the gunshot wounds. When Officer Passage asked where "Eric" lived, Beatty stated "here," nodding "his head towards the hotel or motel." Officer Passage also testified that, about thirty feet away in the parking lot, he found a white Chevrolet van with both front doors open and the engine running. Inside the van was the body of a woman, Dannielle Collins, who was dead from a gunshot wound. Officer Passage recovered a spent red shotgun shell near the driver's front tire and some twelve-gauge pellets in the front seat.

B. The First Entry Into And Search Of Room 412

Officer Passage testified that he then entered the hotel and ascertained that Snider was the only "Eric" listed as a guest. Officer Passage stated that he then went back out to ask Beatty, as he was being placed into the ambulance, if the man who shot him was Eric Snider, and Beatty replied "yes." Officer Passage reentered the hotel, obtained a key for Snider's room, room 412, from the desk clerk, and went to that room. When no one responded to his knocks, Officer Passage entered the room, but found no one present. Officer Passage stated that he looked under the bed and saw a red twelve-gauge shotgun shell that was similar to the shotgun shell he had recovered near the van. Officer Passage testified that he also saw Snider's driver's license on the nightstand. Officer Passage testified that he entered room 412 "[t]o see if Eric Snider was in there to arrest him" and "to verify that he had fled the scene." Officer Passage testified that, after posting another officer outside the room, he gave information to the Detroit Police Homicide unit to obtain a search warrant for the room. Returning once again to speak to Beatty, Officer Passage asked him if his assailant was Eric Snider, but Officer Passage received no answer because "Beatty wasn't doing real well" because "[h]e was in a lot of pain."

C. The Second Entry Into, Search Of, And Seizure Of Evidence In Room 412

Later that night or in the early morning hours of February 21, the Detroit police obtained a search warrant and made a second entry into room 412, which was still unoccupied. The police then searched the room and seized a twelve-gauge shotgun shell and Snider's identification.

D. The Third Entry Into, Search Of, And Seizure Of Evidence In Room 412

Detroit Police investigators testified that they told the hotel staff to advise them when Snider returned to his room. At about 4:00 a.m. on February 21, the hotel clerk advised the police that Snider had returned to his room. After obtaining a key from the hotel clerk, the police officers went to room 412, knocked and announced, "Police, would you open up." Although the police testified that they "heard somebody in there," there was no response, and an officer began to use the key. When the key did not work, the police officers kicked in the door. According to Detroit Police Officer Raymond Tandeski, the police were afraid that Snider might destroy evidence, might have blood from the scene or a weapon, might have property belonging to the complainant, or might barricade himself in the room. After breaking down the door, the police found Snider sitting on his bed with a shotgun pointed at them. The police ordered Snider to drop the shotgun, and he did so. The police then seized the shotgun and five shotgun shells they found in Snider's possession and arrested Snider.

E. Snider's Confession

The Detroit police took Snider to police headquarters for questioning. Detroit Police Homicide investigator Steven Myles met with Snider at 5:45 a.m. on February 21, advised him of his rights, and had a brief conversation with him in which he denied his involvement in the fatal shootings. According to Snider, after he said that he did not want to make a statement, Officer Myles told him that he "was going to go to jail for murdering the two people they found at my apartment and they was [sic] going to do it one way or the other."

At about 9:30 a.m. on February 21, Detroit Police Homicide investigator Monica Childs met with Snider, advised him of his rights, and talked with him. Snider indicated that he had completed an adult education program and that he had also attended Wayne State University. According to Officer Childs, Snider was coherent, his behavior was not abnormal or inappropriate, and he did not appear intoxicated. Snider admitted in his testimony that he understood his rights and that he had never asked to speak with a lawyer. Snider testified that he never indicated that he wanted to talk to Officer Childs, although she told him that he "was wanted for two homicides and that I was going to go to jail for it because they had evidence saying that I done [sic] it and either I was going to make a statement to her or she was going to make her own statement."

From roughly 10:00 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. on February 21, Officer Childs talked to Snider about some stolen property and his prior arrest record. At about 2:15 p.m., Snider gave a statement to Officer Childs. According to Snider, he agreed to make a statement because "we had been in there the whole day and she said she was going to make her statement or my statement and I said well it's better to be mine because I wanted to say what I felt on the statement." Snider also admitted that he did not tell Officer Childs that he did not want to talk any more. According to Snider, however, most of his statement was a "lie."

In his statement, Snider indicated that, although "Beatty wanted me dead for quite some time now," he arranged for a meeting with Beatty at about 10:00 p.m. in the parking lot to discuss a drug transaction. Snider further stated:

I got into the van with him [Beatty] and the female. Then after about three minutes of conversation, Freddy got out of the van and reached into the driver's side quarter panel. I shot him once and I shot the female once. I shot two times period. Snider also stated that he used a twelve-gauge sawed-off shotgun for the shooting, "[T]he same one the police took from me last night." When asked what he was wearing at the time of the shootings, he stated:

The same clothes I got on now, black pants, black shirt, dark brown boots, dark green coat with a hood. No, I had on my black coat with the hood; and then after I shot them I came back when the police left and changed my coat when they arrested me.¹

F. The Victims' Deaths

According to testimony at trial, Beatty died of a single shotgun blast that wounded the right arm and reentered into the right chest and then the abdomen, penetrating the liver and causing massive internal bleeding. The medical examiner opined that the shot was fired from approximately four to five feet away, although he could not determine the exact trajectory of the wound. The medical examiner opined that Beatty bled "internally profusely and rapidly and from that the death would be, I would estimate maybe as short as five or ten minutes, as long as more than half hour at the most." The medical examiner opined that, assuming that Beatty remained conscious, he would have been able to talk because there was no damage to his voice mechanism. According to the medical examiner, the internal bleeding...