Commonwealth v. Marquez

• Decision Date: 03 April 2001
• Citation: 749 NE 2d 673,434 Mass. 370
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. VICTOR MARQUEZ.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

434 Mass. 370

749 NE 2d 673

COMMONWEALTH v. VICTOR MARQUEZ.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

April 3, 2001.

June 20, 2001.

Present: MARSHALL, C.J., GREANEY, SPINA, COWIN, SOSMAN, & CORDY, JJ.

Thomas D. Ralph, Special Assistant District Attorney (Marc A. Eichler, Assistant District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth. Catherine K. Byrne, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for the defendant.

Michael J. Sullivan, District Attorney & Robert C. Thompson, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

GREANEY, J.

Four men (one armed with a handgun) entered and ransacked an apartment, bound and beat its occupants, and stole various items, including a mountain bike. Days later, one of the men confessed to Lowell police his involvement in the armed home invasion and robbery, implicated the defendant, Victor Marquez, and provided the police with the defendant's address. The police made a warrantless arrest of the defendant after one of the victims positively identified him from a photographic array. The arrest was made after the defendant opened the door of his apartment in response to a knock by a police officer, who recognized the defendant as the person being sought; saw, in plain view inside the defendant's apartment through its open doorway, what appeared to be the stolen mountain bike; and heard the defendant say, "The bike's not mine." After his arrest and booking, the defendant was interviewed by the police and made incriminatory statements.

Citing the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, a judge in the Superior Court allowed the defendant's motion to suppress the mountain bike and two tires seized by the police from his apartment after his arrest, and "any statements made by the defendant at his home and at the Lowell [p]olice [s]tation." The judge concluded that, because the defendant was arrested "inside his apartment" without a warrant, and exigent circumstances were not present, the arrest was unlawful under Commonwealth v. Forde, 367 Mass. 798 (1975), and required suppression of the items seized and the defendant's incriminatory statements subsequently made at the police station.

A single justice of this court allowed the Commonwealth's application under Mass. R. Crim. P. 15 (a) (2), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996), to pursue an interlocutory appeal from the judge's order, and we transferred the appeal from the Appeals Court on our own motion. We conclude, as did the judge, that the arrest was unlawful and requires suppression of the mountain bike and the tires seized in the defendant's apartment. We do not suppress the evidence obtained prior to the defendant's arrest, namely, the defendant's identification, the observation of the bike, and the defendant's admission that the bike was not his. Finally, we adopt the principles enunciated in New York v. Harris, 495 U.S. 14, 19-21 (1990),¹ and, based on an application of those principles, reverse suppression of the defendant's postarrest statements made at the police station.

We now describe, in more detail, the facts as found by the judge (which are supported by the evidence), and the procedural background of the case. On November 6, 1998, Sergeant Joseph Murray of the Lowell police department responded to a reported home invasion of an apartment. Four assailants had tied up, beaten, and robbed the four occupants of the apartment. They stole various items, including a mountain bike, and then left.

A victim had recognized one of the assailants, whom he knew by the name "Chinobi." Sergeant Murray knew a male named Vidalis Medina (Medina) who also was known as "Chinobi." He showed the four victims a photographic array containing a photograph of Medina. At least one of the victims positively identified Medina as one of the men who participated in the home invasion. An arrest warrant issued for Medina's arrest, and on November 11, 1998, Lowell police arrested Medina.

During the evening of November 11, 1998, Sergeant Murray learned of Medina's arrest and interviewed him. Medina confessed to his participation in the home invasion, implicated an individual, with the street name of "Doom," who had also participated in the home invasion, and provided Doom's address, the third floor of 282 Salem Street, to Murray. Murray was aware that the defendant was also known as Doom. Murray had previously seen the defendant on October 25, 1998, when he had been arrested on an unrelated offense and had told police that he resided at 282 Salem Street.

Murray compiled a photographic array containing the defendant's photograph from his October 25, 1998, booking. He showed the array to one of the victims, who positively identified the defendant as one of the men who had participated in the home invasion and robbery.

That same evening, November 11, 1998, at approximately 11:45 P.M., Murray, accompanied by two detectives (all in plain clothes) went into the apartment building at 282 Salem Street.² From the common hallway, Murray knocked on the door of a third-floor apartment, and the defendant opened the door and remained standing inside his apartment. Although he recognized the defendant, Murray asked, "Are you Victor Marquez?" The defendant answered, "Yes." Behind the defendant, Murray observed in the apartment a mountain bike, tipped upside down without its tires. Murray said to one of the detectives, "There's the ... mountain bike." The defendant stated, "The bike's not mine." Murray then told the defendant that he was being placed under arrest for the home invasion and robbery. The arrest took place inside the apartment, after which the police seized the mountain bike and its two tires. The defendant was brought to the police station where, after booking, he was interrogated by the police and made incriminatory statements.

A grand jury returned indictments charging armed robbery, armed assault within a dwelling, home invasion, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. Prior to trial, the defendant filed two motions to suppress; the first sought to suppress all evidence seized, and all statements obtained, as a result of his warrantless arrest, and the second motion sought to suppress postarrest statements he made to police during his interrogation.³ After an evidentiary hearing, the judge entered an order only with respect to the first motion. She concluded, based on Federal and State constitutional law, that there were no exigent circumstances and that the police had made an unlawful warrantless arrest of the defendant while he was inside his apartment. To remedy the constitutional violation, the judge ordered the suppression of the mountain bike and tires (and the officer's observations of these items), as well as any statements made by the defendant at his home. She also ordered that the defendant's later statements at the police station be suppressed because they constituted "the fruit of an unlawful arrest," and the Commonwealth had failed to "demonstrate that the connection between the improper conduct and the statements had become ... so attenuated as to dissipate the taint."⁴Commonwealth v. Fredette, 396 Mass. 455, 460 (1985). Noting that this court has not had occasion to decide whether to adopt the holding articulated in New York v. Harris, supra (see note 1, supra) the judge declined to admit the defendant's postarrest statements.

1. We agree with the judge that the police made an unlawful warrantless arrest. "The right of police officers to enter into a home, for whatever purpose, represents a serious governmental intrusion into one's privacy. It was just this sort of intrusion that the Fourth Amendment [and art. 14 were] designed to circumscribe by the general requirement of a judicial determination of probable cause." Commonwealth v. Forde, 367 Mass. 798, 805 (1975). Significantly, "the Fourth Amendment [and art. 14 have] drawn a firm line at the entrance to [a] house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant." Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590 (1980). Thus, Federal and State constitutional law prohibit "a warrantless entry into a dwelling to arrest in the absence of sufficient justification for the failure to obtain a warrant." Commonwealth v. Forde, supra at 806. See Payton v. New York, supra at 576; Commonwealth v. Sanna, 424 Mass. 92, 96 (1997). If the police do not have a warrant to enter a dwelling to execute an arrest, "two conditions must be met for the entry to be valid: [t]hey must have probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the crime and there must exist exigent circumstances." Commonwealth v. Pietrass, 392 Mass. 892, 897 (1984). In this case, probable cause to arrest the defendant existed. The Commonwealth, however, does not argue error in the judge's findings of fact and legal conclusions pertaining to the absence of exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless arrest. We therefore accept this determination.

Our review does not end here. The Commonwealth, citing United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 42-43 (1976) (Santana), maintains that the defendant's arrest was lawful, and no warrant was required, because the police arrested the defendant in a public place and not in a home. We reject this argument. First, the Commonwealth argues (somewhat inconsistently) that the defendant's arrest "was initiated in the public hallway [of the apartment building]," and that "the judge's findings show that the defendant was standing in the threshold of his apartment door" at the time of his arrest. These contentions ignore the motion judge's finding of fact that the police arrested the defendant inside his apartment. The record supports this finding. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Sergeant Murray testified that he arrested the defendant "in the doorway of [the] apartment," while he (the officer) was "[i]n...