Graves v. State

• Decision Date: 18 December 1997
• Docket Number: No. 93-KA-00591-SCT,93-KA-00591-SCT
• Citation: 708 So.2d 858
• Parties: Michael Lynn GRAVES v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 858

708 So.2d 858

Michael Lynn GRAVES v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 93-KA-00591-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Dec. 18, 1997.

Rehearing Denied May 14, 1998.

Thomas L. Kesler, Columbus, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Attorney General, W. Glenn Watts, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

En Banc.

MILLS, Justice, for the Court:

¶1 Michael Graves was convicted by the Circuit Court of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, for possession of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) with the intent to distribute. After trial by jury, Graves was found guilty as charged and was sentenced to ten years in the Department of Corrections and a $5,000.00 fine. His sentence was suspended dependent upon other conditions being met. Graves appealed his conviction to this Court and assigned as error his contention that the trial court committed reversible error by denying Graves' motion to suppress the controlled substances found in his bedroom closet.

FACTS

¶2 In June, 1991, Agent Bobby Grimes and other narcotics officers were investigating drug activity in and about Oktibbeha County. The suspect of this investigation was Scott Malone. The officers made a controlled buy of LSD from Scott Malone on June 11, 1991, using a cooperating individual named Gary Owens. Within hours of making the controlled buy, the officers obtained a search warrant for the mobile home occupied by Malone. The search warrant was not directed to the defendant herein, Michael Graves, as the officers did not know his name at this point in time, nor did they have probable cause to believe that any other person resided in the mobile home. Informant Owens gave no information concerning Graves, who shared the trailer with Malone. The search warrant was sworn to by agent Bobby Grimes and pertained to the trailer located on Lot 168, University Hills Trailer Park, and all vehicles parked at this location. Grimes stated that this trailer was occupied and controlled by Scott Malone and that the items searched for were to be LSD and U.S. currency.

¶3 After obtaining the search warrant, the following Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) agents proceeded to the trailer: Bobby Grimes, Wesley Koehn, Wesley Coward and Charlie McVey. When they arrived at the trailer, agents Grimes, McVey, and Koehn went to the front door and knocked. Agent Coward secured the rear door of the trailer. McVey checked the front door and found it unlocked. The officers then entered the trailer with guns drawn, announcing that they were police officers with a search warrant.

¶4 Inside the trailer, the officers found Scott Malone, Rusty Yarborough and Michael Graves. A copy of the search warrant was given to Malone. Sergeant McVey advised all three of their Miranda rights. The agents subsequently learned that Yarborough did not live in the trailer, and allowed him to leave. Graves was forced to remain in the trailer.

¶5 Malone was then escorted to his bedroom and told of the drug purchases. He surrendered dosage units of LSD and "buy money" to the agents. McVey asked Malone if he had any more. Malone said, "That's all I've got." McVey then asked if his roommate had any, and Malone said, "He's supposed to have some."

¶6 The agents confronted Graves in the trailer "living room" with this information and told him, "You might as well surrender yours, we know you've got some." Graves denied having any at first, but was then told that Malone had informed the agents that he did. Graves stated, "I got it in the closet--it's in my room in the closet." According to Grimes, "We told him to come on and show us where it's at. He got up, we walked with him into the bedroom, he pointed up to the shelf in the closet and said, 'It's up there in the envelope laying in the shelf.' And I reached up and got it and opened the envelope up and it had two hundred and one (201) dosage units in it."

¶7 According to Grimes, the trailer was shared by both Malone and Graves, with each having separate sleeping quarters. Graves testified that each co-tenant possessed his own separate bedroom. They shared the remainder of the trailer. Graves paid half of the rent and half of the utilities.

¶8 Prior to his trial, Graves moved to suppress the LSD found in his closet, arguing that he had exclusive occupancy of the bedroom in which the LSD was found when the officers from the MBN came to search the trailer which he occupied jointly with Malone. Consequently, he argued that the search of his bedroom was invalid.

¶9 The State pointed out, through the testimony of Officer Grimes, that when the search warrant was requested, there was no knowledge on the part of the State as to the identity of Graves. The State argued that Graves was merely discovered on the premises, and the officers learned that he apparently occupied a separate bedroom after they were on the premises executing a warrant to search the trailer at 186 University Hills Trailer Camp occupied by Scott Malone. Furthermore, it was pointed out that both Graves and Malone were informed of their Miranda rights when the officers entered the premises with the search warrant.

¶10 At the suppression hearing, the State did not argue consent or waiver, but insisted that Graves' room was searched pursuant to a valid warrant. According to Officer Grimes, "[W]e did not ask him for his permission to search his room. We asked him for the additional dosage units of LSD. He produced those un (sic)--dosage units to us which were concealed in his room."

¶11 The defense properly objected that the State's proof was inconsistent since the State was not arguing consent.

¶12 The trial court, after a hearing, overruled the suppression motion, thereby allowing the evidence to be introduced against Graves.

LAW

1) Dual-Occupancy Requirements for Search Warrants

¶13 Graves argues on appeal that the evidence introduced against him was obtained by the State in violation of his rights under the United States Constitution and the Mississippi Constitution.

¶14 The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but 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.

¶15 The Mississippi Constitution, guaranteeing her citizens similar rights, states:

The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, and possessions, from unreasonable seizure or search; and no warrant shall be issued without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, specially designating the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.

Miss. Const. of 1890, art. 3, § 23 (1890).

¶16 The Warrant Clause of the Fourth Amendment:

categorically prohibits the issuance of any warrant except one 'particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.' The manifest purpose of this particularity requirement was to prevent general searches. By limiting the authorization to search to the specific areas and things for which there is probable cause to search, the requirement ensures that the search will be carefully tailored to its justifications, and will not take on the character of the wide-ranging exploratory searches the Framers intended to prohibit.

Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84, 107 S.Ct. 1013, 1016, 94 L.Ed.2d 72 (1987). In Garrison, the United States Supreme Court upheld a warrant which provided for the search of the third floor of a building. Unknown to the police, the third floor separated into two distinct separately occupied apartments. The Court stated "an officer's reasonable failure to appreciate that a valid warrant describes too broadly the premises to be searched" does not invalidate the warrant or the search. Garrison, 480 U.S. at 88, 107 S.Ct. at 1018.

¶17 However, this Court has found that the Mississippi Constitution extends greater protections of an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy than those enounced under Federal law. As stated in Scott v. State, 266 So.2d 567, 569-70 (Miss.1972), "the protection afforded by Section 23 of our Constitution should be liberally construed in favor of our citizens and strictly construed against the state." This Court further stated:

that where the proof shows that a person is renting a room or is in possession of a room in a house or an apartment under such circumstances as to make such person the owner thereof for the time being, such person is entitled to the protection afforded by Section 23 of the Constitution.

Id. at 569.

¶18 Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution provides greater protections to our citizens than those found within the United States Constitution. Where the proof shows that a portion of a residence is in the sole, separate, and exclusive possession of an individual other than the one named by the search warrant, that individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her solely occupied portion.

¶19 It is clear that Graves possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in his solely occupied portion of the house trailer. After learning of his separate occupancy of the bedroom prior to searching it, the officers must have either obtained a new warrant for his separate room or searched the room pursuant to a valid exception to Section 23's warrant requirement. As stated in Moss v. State, 411 So.2d 90 (Miss.1982);

The Fourth Amendment protects the individual's privacy in a variety of settings. In none is the zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home -a zone that finds its roots in clear and specific constitutional terms: 'The right of the people to be secure in their ... houses ... shall not be violated.' That language unequivocally establishes the proposition that '[a]t the very...