Green v. State

• Decision Date: 16 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2-01-304-CR.,2-01-304-CR.
• Parties: Robert Lee GREEN, II, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, State.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

78 S.W.3d 604

Robert Lee GREEN, II, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, State.

No. 2-01-304-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

May 16, 2002.

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Ronald D. Vanzura, Denton, for appellant.

Bruce Isaacks, Crim. Dist. Atty., Catherine Luft, Michael Moore, and Tony Paul, Asst. Dist. Attys., Denton, Matthew Paul, State Prosecuting Atty., Austin, for appellee.

PANEL A: DAY, and WALKER, JJ.; and WILLIAM BRIGHAM (Senior Justice, Retired, Sitting by Assignment).

OPINION

SUE WALKER, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION.

Robert Lee Green, II ("Green") appeals his conviction for possession of less than one gram of methamphetamine. In two points, he challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence underlying his conviction, and contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the police's forced entry into his home to execute unrelated misdemeanor arrest warrants was improper. We reverse.

II. BACKGROUND.

On the morning of Wednesday September 20, 2000, the maintenance man of Denton North Apartments discovered a hypodermic syringe beside the concrete patio of apartment 3105-A. The apartment complex manager, Amber Parks ("Parks"), decided to phone the police. At approximately 10:00 a.m., Officer Lenn Carter of the Denton Police Department arrived with Officers Padilla and Kronenberger to investigate. Parks informed them that Green leased apartment 3105-A and that similar syringes had been found near his patio before. The officers ran a computer search on Green and learned that he had two outstanding arrest warrants for a traffic violation and for failing to appear in court on that violation. Based on this information, the officers decided to go to the apartment and execute the misdemeanor arrest warrants "if [Green] was at home."

Officer Carter and the maintenance man approached Green's front door and Officer Padilla positioned himself behind the apartment building in case Green attempted to escape from a window.¹ The maintenance man knocked on the door and a woman later identified as Sarah Yarborough ("Yarborough") answered. Officer Carter asked if Robert Green was home, and Yarborough indicated that he was at work. Officer Carter testified:

Q. Well, did you see Robert Green at that time?

A. No.

Q. How was that female acting at the door?

A. She repeatedly looked behind her and was hesitant to answer my questions.

Q. Okay. Was the door — as the female was standing in the doorway, was the door completely open, or how was the door?

A. She initially opened the door completely. When I told her why I was there, she closed the door slightly. She was informed that she had — that Mr. Green had a warrant for his arrest. Eventually she attempted to shut the door on me.

Q. What do you mean she attempted to shut the door? How did she do that?

A. She pushed the door to. I stepped forward and stopped the door from shutting.

Q. How did you do that?

A. Put my foot in the door.

After Officer Carter forcibly entered the apartment by placing his foot in the door, Yarborough retreated into the apartment yelling for Green to wake up. At that point, Officer Carter became concerned about his safety and saw someone lying on a sofa covered with a blanket in the front, living area. Officer Carter pursued Yarborough into the apartment.

After opening a back bedroom door, Officer Carter found Green asleep on a mattress and arrested him. A pat-down search incident to the arrest yielded a "little clear plastic baggie with [a] little white rock inside of it," which later tested positive as methamphetamine. Drug paraphernalia strewn around the bedroom in Officer Carter's plain view, including hypodermic syringes similar to the one found outside of Green's patio, crack pipes, and a marijuana cigarette rolling machine, also was seized.

In support of his motion to suppress, Green argued that misdemeanor arrest warrants for a traffic violation and for failing to appear cannot form the basis for entering a private residence to determine if there are controlled substances inside. The State responded that such warrants can authorize police entry into a person's home if the police believe the person is present at the time. Alternatively, the State contended that exigent circumstances created by Yarborough's behavior justified Officer Carter's entry into the apartment. The trial court overruled Green's motion to suppress and Officer Carter was permitted to testify to the events that unfolded after he entered the apartment.

After hearing all of the evidence, the jury convicted Green of possessing less than one gram of methamphetamine and sentenced him to two years' confinement. This appeal followed.

III. MOTION TO SUPPRESS.

A. Standard of Review.

In his second point, Green asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because "[a] traffic ticket warrant for speeding and attendant failure to appear warrant from a municipal court is insufficient for entry into a residence where the underlying facts suggest a controlled substance or drug paraphernalia offense."

We review the denial of a motion to suppress by giving almost total deference to a trial court's determination of historical facts and reviewing de novo the court's application of the law. Carmouche v. State, 10 S.W.3d 323, 327 (Tex.Crim. App.2000). When, as here, the trial court does not make explicit findings of historical facts, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court's ruling. Id. at 327-28. In determining whether the trial court's decision is supported by the record, we generally consider only evidence adduced at the suppression hearing because the ruling was based on it rather than evidence introduced later. Rachal v. State, 917 S.W.2d 799, 809 (Tex. Crim.App.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 1043, 117 S.Ct. 614, 136 L.Ed.2d 539 (1996). Nevertheless, this general rule is inapplicable where, as in this case, the suppression issue is relitigated by the parties during the trial on the merits. Id. Then, we assess the trial court's ruling in light of the evidence presented at both the suppression hearing and the trial. Id.

B. Police Entry into a Private Residence: Payton v. New York.

The right of a man to retreat into his own home and to be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion stands at the very core of the Fourth Amendment. See Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 683, 5 L.Ed.2d 734 (1961). The Fourth Amendment thus has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house and, absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. See Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1382, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). Whether this warrant requirement may be satisfied by a misdemeanor arrest warrant for an unrelated offense is the issue before us. The basic blueprint for our analysis is found in Payton v. New York. Id. at 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388.

In Payton, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a constitutional challenge brought against a New York statute which permitted police officers to enter private residences without a search or an arrest warrant in order to make arrests. Id. at 573, 100 S.Ct. at 1373. Holding the statute unconstitutional, the Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment prohibits police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's house in order to make a "routine felony arrest." Id. In its secondary holding, however, the court clarified that entry into a suspect's private residence is not unconstitutional if the police lack a search warrant but nevertheless possess a valid arrest warrant for the suspect. Id. at 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388. This is because, for Fourth Amendment purposes, "an arrest warrant founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within." Id. In reaching this rule, the Payton Court acknowledged that,

[A]n arrest warrant requirement may afford less protection than a search warrant requirement, but it will suffice to interpose the magistrate's determination of probable cause between the zealous officer and the citizen. If there is sufficient evidence of a citizen's participation in a felony to persuade a judicial officer that his arrest is justified, it is constitutionally reasonable to require him to open his doors to the officers of the law.

Id. at 602-03, 100 S.Ct. at 1388.

Thus, pursuant to Payton, a police officer may enter a suspect's private residence to execute a felony arrest warrant provided he reasonably believes the suspect is home. Id. Unlike the felony arrest warrant in Payton, the arrest warrants here are for misdemeanor offenses. We therefore must address whether Payton's rule of entry extends to misdemeanor arrest warrants.

C. Does Payton authorize police entry into a private residence to execute a misdemeanor arrest warrant?

Green complains that arrest warrants for misdemeanor offenses wholly unrelated to the crime being investigated cannot justify police entry into a private residence absent consent or exigent circumstances. Consequently, Green makes two arguments. First, that misdemeanor arrest warrants cannot justify police entry into a private residence; and second, that police may not use misdemeanor arrest warrants pretextually to further an unrelated investigation. The State, on the other hand, asserts that the holding in Payton hinges on the idea of a magistrate's independent probable cause review, and therefore extends to all arrest warrants and not just to those issued for felony offenses.

Green's contention that police may not make pretextual use of arrest warrants to further an unrelated criminal investigation is subsumed within the two-pronged Payton analysis. In other words, if, as required by Payton, police possess a valid arrest warrant and have a reasonable belief...