Com. v. Taylor
Decision Date | 23 May 2001 |
Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Anthony TAYLOR, Appellant. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. John Mahone, Jr., Appellant. |
Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Kathleen A. Cribbins, Pittsburgh, for Anthony Taylor.
Claire C. Capristo, Michael W. Streily, Pittsburgh, for Com.
Before FLAHERTY, C.J., and ZAPPALA, CAPPY, CASTILLE, NIGRO and NEWMAN, JJ.
OPINION ANNOUNCING JUDGMENT OF COURT
Anthony Taylor (Taylor) and John Mahone (Mahone) appeal from the Superior Court's Order, which reversed the suppression of evidence seized during the execution of a search warrant for a convenience store. The present consolidated appeal questions whether the searches conducted in the basement of the convenience store and the subsequent seizures of evidence violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Because we disagree with portions of the Superior Court's decision, we affirm the order of the Superior Court in part and reverse in part.
The Duquesne Police Department received numerous complaints about drug trafficking activity in the G-Service Convenience Store at 418 Crawford Avenue, in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. In response to the complaints, the police set up surveillance outside the store. On December 13, 1994 and January 4, 1995, the surveillance officer noted the patrons who visited the store and the short length of time many of those patrons spent inside the store. Several weeks later, the police sent a confidential informant into the store to make a controlled buy. The informant returned with crack cocaine that he had purchased from Eric Gooden, the owner of the G-Service Convenience Store.
Based upon the information gathered from the surveillance and the informant's controlled buy, the police obtained a search warrant authorizing a search of the G Service Convenience Store. On January 20, 1995, a search team effectuated the warrant. Inside the store, the police found Gooden and a large quantity of crack cocaine behind a counter. While part of the search team remained with Gooden, two officers went down a set of stairs and into the basement of the building.
In the basement, the officers encountered Taylor, sitting in a barber's chair and wearing a black plastic apron over his torso. The police observed Mahone cutting Taylor's hair. The basement contained one other barber's chair and some hair-cutting equipment.
After the officers announced their presence, Officer Richard Scott Adams (Officer Adams) noticed Taylor's hands moving underneath the plastic apron. Fearing that Taylor could be reaching for a weapon, Officer Adams removed the apron and patted the exterior of Taylor's pocket. Officer Adams felt a hard object and removed it from Taylor's pocket. The object was a plastic prescription bottle, which appeared to contain crack cocaine.
After arresting Taylor and placing him in handcuffs, Officer Adams searched Mahone. Officer Adams did not find anything incriminating on Mahone. Then, Officer Adams handcuffed Mahone, while Constable Gordon McIntyre (Constable McIntyre) searched two coats, which were draped on a chair ten feet from Taylor and Mahone. Constable McIntyre discovered additional pieces of crack in Taylor's coat and several baggies containing marijuana in Mahone's coat.
The police charged both Taylor and Mahone with possession of a controlled substance1 and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.2 Both men filed motions to suppress the evidence seized from them, which the suppression court granted. The court held that, while the warrant for the search of the convenience store had been valid, the searches of Taylor and Mahone had exceeded the scope of the warrant.
The Commonwealth certified in good faith that the suppression of the evidence terminated or substantially handicapped its prosecution, and appealed to the Superior Court. See 42 Pa.C.S. § 934; Pa. R.A.P. 311(d). In a fragmented memorandum opinion, the Superior Court reversed the suppression of the evidence. Writing for the court, Judge, now Justice, Saylor concluded that the search of the basement barbershop had been outside the scope of the warrant, however, the search could be justified as a legitimate protective sweep of the premises in conjunction with the arrest of Gooden. Judge Olszewski filed a concurring opinion in which he disagreed that the search of the basement could be justified as a protective sweep. In his view, the search of the basement had been lawful because the barbershop is open to the public, and therefore Taylor and Mahone did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the basement. Judge Popovich dissented and stated that he would have affirmed based on the reasoning of the suppression court. We granted Petitions for Allowance of Appeal filed by Taylor and Mahone to consider whether the searches conducted in the basement were beyond the scope of the warrant, and if so, whether such searches were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
When the Commonwealth appeals an order suppressing evidence, we apply the following standard of review:
[W]e consider only the evidence of the defendant's witnesses and the evidence of the prosecution that, when read in the context of the entire record, remains uncontradicted. We are bound by the [suppression] court's findings of fact if they are supported by the record, but we must examine any legal conclusions drawn from those facts.
Commonwealth v. Pickron, 535 Pa. 241, 634 A.2d 1093, 1096 (1993). With this standard in mind, we will first examine whether the searches conducted in the basement were within the scope of the search warrant.
Both lower courts found that the search of the basement of the convenience store fell outside the scope of the warrant. The Superior Court concluded that because Gooden and the G-Service Convenience Store, not the basement, were the targets of the police investigation, the search of the basement exceeded the scope of the warrant. Super. Ct. Op., at 5. Thus, the Superior Court agreed with the suppression court that prior to the execution of the warrant and the entry into the building by the police, the Duquesne Police Department lacked probable cause to search the basement. We agree.
The Warrant Clause of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the issuance of any warrant unless based upon "probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." U.S. Const. amend IV. The scope of a lawful search pursuant to a warrant is "defined by the object of the search and the places in which there is probable cause to believe that it may be found." Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84, 107 S.Ct. 1013, 94 L.Ed.2d 72 (1987); Commonwealth v. Kiessling, 380 Pa.Super. 442, 552 A.2d 270, 272 (1988),allocatur denied, 522 Pa. 602, 562 A.2d 825 (1989).
In the present case, the police possessed a valid warrant to search the G-Service Convenience Store. The warrant described the place to be searched as:
418 Crawford Ave[.] Duquesne[,] PA 15110—Corner of Crawford & 5th Street—2 story White Brick. A white sign is above the entrance labled (sic) "G-Service Convenience Store["] & 2 phone numbers 466-1071 and 466-1061 painted in red (also a picture of a car on the sign)[.]
Search Warrant (R.R. 17a). The affidavit of probable cause repeatedly emphasized that the investigation and surveillance focused on the G-Service Convenience Store and did not mention the basement barbershop. Application for Search Warrant and Affidavit of Probable Cause (R.R. 17a-19a). While the barbershop was located in the same building as the convenience store, the suppression court found the barbershop to be a separate and distinct facility from the convenience store. The record, which contains evidence that the basement housed only barbershop equipment and activity, sufficiently supports the finding of the suppression court. Because the barbershop existed as a separate facility from the convenience store and the police did not have probable cause to believe that drug activity had occurred in the barbershop, the basement barbershop fell outside the scope of the warrant issued to search the convenience store.
While the search of the basement extended beyond the scope of the warrant, this search may nonetheless be justified under the Fourth Amendment. The Commonwealth asserts, and the Superior Court agreed, that the police entered the basement as part of a legitimate protective sweep. The Superior Court noted that while it is unclear from the record whether there was a door that physically separated the first floor of the convenience store from the basement, the record did show that persons entering the store could pass freely between the first floor and the basement. Given the possibility that the police may have reasonably believed that other individuals were on the premises who could threaten the officers' safety, the Superior Court found that the officers properly conducted a protective sweep of the basement after arresting Gooden. We agree.
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