Haley v. State

• Decision Date: 02 July 1998
• Docket Number: No. 66A03-9706-CR-223,66A03-9706-CR-223
• Citation: 696 N.E.2d 98
• Parties: Doug HALEY, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 98

696 N.E.2d 98

Doug HALEY, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 66A03-9706-CR-223.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

July 2, 1998.

Transfer Denied Oct. 28, 1998.

Kelly Leeman, Logansport, for Appellant-Defendant.

Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General, Kent D. Zepick, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, for Appellee-Plaintiff.

OPINION

ROBERTSON, Senior Judge.

Doug Haley appeals his convictions for possession of a controlled substance and resisting law enforcement, both Class A misdemeanors, following a bench trial.

Issues

Haley presents three issues for our review, which we consolidate and restate as whether the trial court erred in denying Haley's motion to suppress evidence seized during a warrantless search of a tent at a public campground.

Facts and Procedural History

On May 13, 1995, Haley went to visit his wife at Tippecanoe State Park, where she had been camping in a tent since leaving their home several days earlier. Haley paid the campsite rental fee for the night.

At approximately 10:30 that night, three conservation officers entered the Park and were alerted by the Park's security guard of possible drug activity at Haley's campsite. The officers drove to an adjacent campsite and observed the tent and its occupants from their vehicle for several minutes. The tent had two "rooms," one of which was enclosed on three sides by screen, and the other was enclosed by traditional canvas. A zippered canvas flap separated the two "rooms," and that flap was tied back. The tent was lit by an electric lamp. Three men and two women were inside the tent. The officers observed one man and one woman in the screened area of the tent sharing a hand-rolled cigarette, and believed the cigarette to contain marijuana. They approached the tent and knocked on a bucket sitting outside the tent to announce their presence as they unzipped the flaps to the screened room. Haley was sitting in the back part of the tent, and when the officers entered, one officer noticed Haley put his hand under a blanket. The officer ordered Haley not to move and another officer drew his gun and pointed it at Haley. In Haley's hand was a 35mm film canister which contained an off-white powdery substance later determined to be methamphetamine. A further search of the tent revealed the remains of the cigarette butt in a can of beer and a quantity of a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana. The officers advised all five people of their Miranda rights.

As the officers escorted all five people from the tent, Haley began to run, but stopped when the officers instructed him to. At the Park office, the officers advised Haley and the man and woman who had been seen smoking the cigarette that they were under arrest, and allowed the other two occupants of the tent to leave.

Haley was charged with possession of a controlled substance, a Class D felony, and resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor. Haley filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the search of the tent and testimony regarding that evidence, which was denied by the trial court. After a bench trial during which Haley again objected to the introduction of evidence from the search, Haley was found guilty of possession of a controlled substance as a Class A misdemeanor and resisting law enforcement, and sentenced to one year of imprisonment for each count, with six months suspended, the sentences to be served concurrently. Additional facts will be supplied as needed.

Discussion and Decision

Haley contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained during the warrantless search of the tent. Haley contends that the State did not satisfy its burden of proof on the issue of probable cause and did not show that any exigent circumstances existed to justify the search.

The threshold question for us is whether the officers intruded upon an area in which Haley had an expectation of privacy protected under the United States and Indiana Constitutions. ¹ See U.S. Const. amend. IV; Ind. Const. art. I, § 11. Whether a person camping in a tent erected in a public campground is entitled to constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure is an issue of first impression in Indiana. Haley compares the tent to a hotel room, citing several Indiana cases holding that a person renting a hotel or motel room may have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the room. See Myers v. State, 454 N.E.2d 861 (Ind.1983); Norwood v. State, 670 N.E.2d 32 (Ind.Ct.App.1996); Mowrer v. State, 447 N.E.2d 1129 (Ind.Ct.App.1983). Haley also cites several cases from other jurisdictions specifically holding that a person camping in a tent is entitled to constitutional protection. See United States v. Gooch, 6 F.3d 673, 677 (9th Cir.1993) (holding that a person can have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in a tent erected in a public campground); People v. Schafer, 946 P.2d 938, 941 (Colo.1997) (determining that a camper has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a tent used for habitation); Alward v. State, 112 Nev. 141, 912 P.2d 243, 249 (1996) (holding that choosing to make a tent as opposed to a hotel a temporary residence does not diminish the expectation of privacy). The State has made no argument regarding whether a person can have an expectation of privacy in a tent.

Mowrer determined that the defendant had the same expectation of privacy in his hotel room as he did in his own home. Because he had spent the night in the room and had eaten a meal there just before his warrantless arrest, the room was clearly his "transitory home." Therefore, the officers could not enter the room to search or arrest without a warrant or exigent circumstances. 447 N.E.2d at 1131-32. As a general proposition, we agree with Haley that the constitutional protections provided to those who rent hotel rooms should also extend to those who choose to make their "transitory home" a tent, if they have exhibited a subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy in that tent. Testimony at the suppression hearing indicated that Haley's wife had been using the tent as her residence for several days, but that Haley had paid the rental fee for the campsite on the night in question. R. 364-66. Haley had been at the campsite several times during the day and had been there for several consecutive hours prior to the officers' arrival. R. 367. Haley manifested a subjective intention to make the tent his "transitory home" at least for that night.

We turn, then, to Haley's contention that the warrantless search of the tent which uncovered the canister of methamphetamine was illegal. Initially, we note our standard of review when reviewing a trial court's ruling on the validity of a search and seizure: we consider the evidence most favorable to the ruling and any uncontradicted evidence to the contrary to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support the ruling. Rook v. State, 679 N.E.2d 997, 999 (Ind.Ct.App.1997). If the evidence is conflicting, we consider only the evidence favorable to the ruling and will affirm if the ruling is supported by substantial evidence of probative value. Id.

A warrantless search can only be justified by probable cause and one of the few, well-delineated exceptions to the warrant requirement, and the State carries the burden of proving that the action fell within one of the exceptions. Lomax v. State, 510 N.E.2d 215, 220 (Ind.Ct.App.1987). Although an exception may justify proceeding without a warrant, it does not eliminate the need for probable cause. Culpepper v. State, 662 N.E.2d 670, 675 (Ind.Ct.App.1996), reh'g denied, trans. denied.

Haley first argues that the State did not prove that the officers had probable cause to engage in a warrantless search. In response, the State asserts that the activity the officers could clearly see inside the tent was consistent with use of drugs and constituted probable cause. Probable cause exists when facts and circumstances would lead a reasonable person to conclude that another was committing a criminal offense. Sears v. State, 668 N.E.2d 662, 667 (Ind.1996).

A review of the evidence given at the suppression hearing reveals the following: the officers were alerted to possible drug activity at Haley's campsite by a Park security officer. The officers drove to an adjacent campsite and observed the tent and its occupants for several minutes. The officers testified that the tent was lit well enough for them to see clearly into the screened areas of the tent. They observed a man and a woman passing a hand-rolled cigarette back and forth, inhaling deeply and not exhaling. They did not see any smoke or smell any characteristic odor. The officers testified that in their experience, the sharing of a hand-rolled cigarette in such a manner indicated that the cigarette contained marijuana.

We have determined that the occupants of the tent were entitled to constitutional protection against warrantless searches and seizures of the premises if they exhibited a subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy therein. Testimony indicated that the occupants of the tent were camped in a public campground in a tent with a considerable amount of screening which allowed those camped at other campsites or traveling on the roads through the campground to see into the tent. The occupants made no attempt to protect their privacy by moving out of the screened "room" and into the canvas "room," which they could secure from outside viewing by closing the flaps. Therefore, by leaving the tent open, the occupants of the tent did not display a reasonable expectation of privacy in the tent. See Sayre v. State, 471 N.E.2d 708, 713 (Ind.Ct.App.1984) (holding that the defendants did not display a reasonable expectation of privacy in their dwelling by leaving the curtains on the front window, which was only a few feet from the front door, open). The officers were able to see...