Com. v. Rodriquez

Decision Date12 June 1989
Citation559 A.2d 947,385 Pa.Super. 1
CourtPennsylvania Superior Court
PartiesCOMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Providence RODRIQUEZ. 2661 Phila. 1988

Deborah Fleisher, Asst. Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for Com., appellant.

Elizabeth A. Savitt, Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before MONTEMURO, TAMILIA and MONTGOMERY, JJ.

TAMILIA, Judge:

This is a timely appeal by the Commonwealth of a trial court Order granting appellee's motion to suppress physical evidence recovered during a warrantless search. The Commonwealth has properly certified the pre-trial suppression Order substantially handicaps the prosecution of this case, making this appeal a proper appeal from a final Order of court. Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 486 A.2d 382 (1985).

On January 28, 1988 at 1:00 p.m. two Philadelphia police officers were conducting an undercover narcotics investigation. While driving down the street the officers observed appellee and another woman, Elida Santiago, on a sidewalk with appellee yelling "White tape, white tape," which phrase indicated they were selling cocaine in bags sealed with white tape. The officers pulled up and Santiago approached to ask what they wanted. They handed her a prerecorded $20 bill and she gave it to appellee who entered 645 West Shiller Street after unlocking the door by using a key. Appellee reappeared within seconds and handed two bags to Santiago who then gave them to the officers. The officers kept the smaller $20 bag and returned the larger bag. After driving away, the officers field tested the substance in the bag and confirmed it was cocaine. The officers returned to the place of sale with other officers in a marked police car and approached appellee, who dropped the keys to the house when she saw them approaching her. As appellee was placed under arrest, two officers went to the house and inspected the premises through the windows of the house and concluded the house was abandoned because no curtains, window shades, or furniture could be seen. They entered with the keys appellee had dropped and discovered 93 bags of cocaine sealed with white tape, weighing a total of two pounds. The prerecorded $20 bill was also retrieved inside the house.

The Commonwealth's sole issue on appeal is whether the warrantless search of the house was legal under the circumstances, requiring reversal of the trial court's suppression Order. The Commonwealth argues that because the evidence established appellee did not own nor live in the vacant house in which the drugs were found and had abandoned the key which gave entry to the house just prior to her imminent arrest, the subsequent warrantless search was not an unreasonable governmental intrusion into any legitimate expectation of privacy. The Commonwealth urges the storing of narcotics in a vacant property without permission of the owner or anyone else authorized to allow entry does not establish a constitutionally protected right to privacy of possessions placed therein which would give rise to reasonable expectations that police would not enter the vacant house. Further, the Commonwealth contends the trial court's ruling that "exigent circumstances" justifying the warrantless search were not present is erroneous considering the officers' belief that others might be in the house at the time of appellee's arrest.

In reviewing a suppression Order:

Our scope of review is limited primarily to questions of law. We are bound by the suppression court's findings of fact, if those findings are supported by the record. In determining whether the findings of fact are supported by the record, we are to consider only the evidence of the appellees and so much of the evidence of the appellant which, as read in the context of the record as a whole, remains uncontradicted. It is for the suppression court as the trier of fact, rather than the reviewing court, to determine credibility.

However, we are "not bound by findings wholly lacking in evidence." Nor are we bound by the suppression court's conclusion of law.

Commonwealth v. White, 358 Pa.Super. 120, 123, 516 A.2d 1211, 1212-13 (1986) (citations omitted). See Commonwealth v. Monarch, 510 Pa. 138, 507 A.2d 74 (1986); Commonwealth v. Cortez, 507 Pa. 529, 491 A.2d 111 (1985).

Appellee contends in her brief and at argument that she has "automatic standing" under Commonwealth v. Sell, 504 Pa. 46, 470 A.2d 457 (1983), to challenge the search of the house and the seizure of the controlled substances and prerecorded $20 bill within. We find this reliance misplaced. In Sell our Supreme Court interpreted Article I, section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution as giving a broader scope of protection with regard to standing to challenge a search and seizure than the United States Supreme Court has construed in the fourth amendment. 1 The Sell Court elected to continue the "automatic standing" rule it first adopted in Commonwealth v. Knowles, 459 Pa. 70, 327 A.2d 19 (1974). Here, appellee was charged with one count each of knowing or intentionally possessing a controlled substance, manufacture with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled...

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12 cases
  • Com. v. Bennett
    • United States
    • Pennsylvania Superior Court
    • 3 Marzo 1992
    ...abandoned." Commonwealth v. Windell, 365 Pa.Super. 392, 398, 529 A.2d 1115, 1117 (1987). See also: Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 385 Pa.Super. 1, 4, 559 A.2d 947, 948 (1989); Commonwealth v. Cihylik, 337 Pa.Super. 221, 228, 486 A.2d 987, 990 (1985). The applicable law with respect to the issue......
  • Com. v. Mickens
    • United States
    • Pennsylvania Superior Court
    • 8 Octubre 1991
    ...have automatic standing to contest the search, for she had delivered possession of the PCP to another person. In Commonwealth v. Rodriquez, 385 Pa.Super. 1, 559 A.2d 947 (1989), the Superior Court held that after a defendant had abandoned property, the automatic standing rule of Sell was no......
  • Com. v. Marconi
    • United States
    • Pennsylvania Superior Court
    • 16 Octubre 1991
    ...we may entertain this appeal. Commonwealth v. Dugger, 506 Pa. 537, 546-47, 486 A.2d 382, 386 (1985); see Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 385 Pa.Super. 1, 2, 559 A.2d 947 (1989); Commonwealth v. Switzer, 375 Pa.Super. 137, 140, 543 A.2d 1216, 1218 (1988). See Commonwealth v. Defelice, 248 Pa.Supe......
  • Com. v. Black
    • United States
    • Pennsylvania Superior Court
    • 25 Agosto 2000
    ...a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property searched. Following Knowles, supra, this court held in Commonwealth v. Rodriquez, 385 Pa.Super. 1, 559 A.2d 947 (1989), that a person must demonstrate a reasonable expectation of privacy to establish standing. In Rodriquez, this court In S......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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