Com. v. Kilgore

• Decision Date: 26 December 1995
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Randy Lee KILGORE, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 311

677 A.2d 311

544 Pa. 439

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Randy Lee KILGORE, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted Aug. 2, 1995.

Decided Dec. 26, 1995.

[544 Pa. 440] Allen H. Smith, York, for Kilgore.

Christy H. Fawcett, York, for the Commonwealth.

Before NIX, C.J., and FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

On July 15, 1992, Appellant, Randy Lee Kilgore ("Appellant"), was convicted by a jury of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and delivery of a controlled substance. ¹ Appellant filed post-trial motions alleging, inter alia, that the court erred in failing to suppress evidence of cocaine found in his vehicle during a warrantless, nonconsensual search. The trial court denied Appellant's post-trial motions. On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed the judgment of sentence. We granted allowance of appeal to review the propriety of the warrantless search of Appellant's vehicle. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.

Appellant's arrest resulted from an undercover operation in which police utilized an informant, Scott Winter ("Winter"), to act as an intermediary in a drug transaction. At or about 7:00 p.m. on July 6, 1991, Winter and Appellant's former wife, Kelly Jo Kilgore ("Kilgore"), met in the parking lot of the Brogue General Store in Chanceford Township, York County. There, Winter informed Kilgore that he had a buyer at a nearby location who was interested in purchasing an ounce of cocaine. Winter indicated that if the buyer were satisfied with the quality of this cocaine, Winter would purchase an additional three and one-half ounces on his behalf. Winter then gave Kilgore $1,300 from funds supplied by police, and Kilgore got back in her car and drove away in order to get the ounce of cocaine.

Kilgore drove to the farm residence of her father where she met with Appellant. A surveillance officer who had been following in an unmarked car observed Kilgore and Appellant walk toward a pickup truck that was parked in the driveway. The officer lost sight of the two suspects as he drove past the residence in order to turn his vehicle around without being seen. When he returned, he saw Appellant and Kilgore walking away from the truck. Kilgore then got into her car and returned to the parking lot of the Brogue General Store where she gave Winter approximately one ounce of cocaine. Immediately after the transaction, police moved in and arrested Kilgore. A search of her person uncovered a small quantity of cocaine and related paraphernalia; however, Kilgore did not have the $1,300 nor did she have the additional three and one-half ounces of cocaine.

When police arrived at the residence of Kilgore's father, one of the troopers went to the back door. Upon seeing someone run from the kitchen, the trooper announced the presence of the police and entered. He found Appellant in the living room and placed him in custody. The premises were then searched with the consent of Kilgore's father; however, police failed to recover the additional cocaine or the $1,300 paid to Kilgore.

The search then turned to Appellant's truck which was parked at the rear of the residence. Without a warrant or Appellant's consent, police entered the vehicle and found a McDonald's beverage cup on the floor of the passenger's side. Inside the cup were napkins and wrappers which covered several small bags containing approximately three and one-half ounces of cocaine. As a result of this discovery, Appellant was placed under arrest. He later told police that he had hid the missing money under the living room carpet. A subsequent search of that location uncovered $2,100, which included the $1,300 in prerecorded bills that Winter had given to Kilgore.

Prior to trial, Appellant sought to suppress the cocaine that was discovered in his truck. The suppression court denied the motion holding that

the police had probable cause to believe, based on the interaction between [Kilgore] and [Appellant] as witnessed by the surveillance officer, that [Appellant] was involved with the drug transaction. The officers had probable cause to believe that [Appellant] was transporting drugs for Kelly Kilgore for the purpose of the sale, which occurred at the Brogue store.

Commonwealth v. Kilgore, No. 2081 C.A.1991, slip op. at 4-5 (C.P. York County Mar. 1, 1993).

On appeal, the Superior Court affirmed the lower court's denial of the suppression motion. Commonwealth v. Kilgore, 437 Pa.Super. 491, 650 A.2d 462 (1994). Like the suppression court, the Superior Court reasoned that police had probable cause to believe that cocaine was present in Appellant's vehicle based on the observations of the surveillance officer who saw Appellant and Kilgore walking to and from Appellant's vehicle without having entered the residence. Id. at 497-98, 650 A.2d at 465. Thus, the court believed that when the search of the residence failed to uncover the missing money and cocaine, the police had probable cause to believe that those items were in Appellant's vehicle. Id. Although we agree that the facts as presented to the suppression court would lead one to intuitively deduce that the cocaine and money were present in Appellant's vehicle, we are unpersuaded that a warrantless search of the vehicle was justified under the circumstances of this case.

"It is well established that our standard of review in addressing a challenge to a trial court's denial of a suppression motion is whether the factual findings are supported by the record and whether the legal conclusions drawn from those facts are correct." Commonwealth v. Morris, 537 Pa. 417, 420, 644 A.2d 721, 723, petition denied, 513 U.S. 1031, 115 S.Ct. 610, 130 L.Ed.2d 519 (1994) (citation omitted). A review of the record in the instant matter fails to disclose any of the recognized exceptions to the search warrant requirement that would justify the search of Appellant's truck.

In Commonwealth v. Cockfield, 431 Pa. 639, 246 A.2d 381 (1968), this Court addressed the legality of a warrantless search of an automobile conducted under circumstances quite similar to those presented in the instant case. In holding that the search of the defendant's vehicle was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment, we stated:

Certainly a search without a warrant is not reasonable simply because the officers have probable cause to believe that incriminating evidence will be disclosed. If this constituted "exigent circumstances," it would be almost impossible to think of a case in which a warrant would be necessary. And certainly an automobile is not per se unprotected by the warrant procedure of the Fourth Amendment. Although it sometimes may be reasonable to search a movable vehicle without a warrant, the movability of the area to be searched is not alone a sufficiently "exigent circumstance" to justify a warrantless search. Other circumstances, for instance a serious possibility that the movable vehicle may, in fact, be moved before a warrant can be obtained, are necessary.

Id. at 644, 246 A.2d at 384 (citations omitted). Thus, because the defendant was in police custody at the time of the search and because there was no legitimate reason to believe that the car would be moved, we held that the failure of the police to obtain a search warrant necessitated the exclusion of the evidence derived from that search. Id. at 644-45, 246 A.2d at 384.

Likewise, in Commonwealth v. Linde, 448 Pa. 230, 293 A.2d 62, cert. dismissed, 409 U.S. 1031, 93 S.Ct. 523, 34 L.Ed.2d 482 (1972), this Court also found that a warrantless search of a vehicle was unreasonable where no exigent circumstances were present. In Linde, the defendant shot his estranged lover five times and then turned the gun on himself. The victim died instantly, and the defendant was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. A police officer went to the hospital to obtain the keys to the defendant's vehicle which was parked at a service station near the scene of the murder. A subsequent search of the vehicle uncovered a notebook of highly incriminating writings authored by the defendant. The writings were introduced against the defendant at trial.

In analyzing the reasonableness of the warrantless search of the defendant's vehicle, this Court again set forth the analysis necessary to justify such a search. "[A] dual inquiry, both parts requiring affirmative answers must be made: first, whether there existed probable cause to search; and secondly, whether exigent circumstances can be found to excuse the obtaining of a warrant." Id. at 233, 293 A.2d at 63-64. These principles were recently reaffirmed by this Court in Commonwealth v. Labron, 543 Pa. 86, 669 A.2d 917 (1995), wherein we held that

this Commonwealth's jurisprudence of the automobile exception has long required both the existence of probable cause and the presence of exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless search. Furthermore, we have consistently recognized that when police have advance information that a particular vehicle carrying evidence of a crime would be situated at a particular locale, such that sufficient time exists to obtain a warrant, the failure of the police to secure a warrant prior to searching the vehicle will render the search unreasonable.

Id. at 100-101, 669 A.2d at 924 (emphasis added).

In the instant case, there is ample evidence in the record to support the suppression court's finding that police had probable cause to believe that the cocaine and money were in Appellant's vehicle; however, we are unable to ascertain the presence of any exigent circumstances which would justify the failure of police to obtain a search warrant prior to searching the vehicle.

The record discloses that at least three of the officers involved in the undercover investigation were at the residence of Appellant's father-in-law at the time of the search of Appellant's vehicle. The police had Appellant in custody...