Hicks v. US

• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: WAGNER, , and SCHWELB and REID, Associate
• Citation: Hicks v. US, 705 A.2d 636 (D.C. 1997)
• Decision Date: 02 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-CF-1740.,95-CF-1740.
• Parties: Adonis HICKS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

705 A.2d 636

Adonis HICKS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 95-CF-1740.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Submitted February 18, 1997.

Decided October 2, 1997.

Frazer Walton, Jr., Washington, DC, for appellant.

Maureen Bailey, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney at the time the brief was filed, and John R. Fisher, Thomas C. Black and Stephen A. Best, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before WAGNER, Chief Judge, and SCHWELB and REID, Associate Judges.

WAGNER, Chief Judge:

Appellant, Adonis G. Hicks, was charged with unlawful possession with intent to distribute cocaine and phencyclidine (PCP), both in violation of D.C.Code § 33-541(a)(1) (1993).¹ Following a hearing, the trial court denied Hicks' motion to suppress tangible evidence and statements. After a trial on the charges, the trial court found Hicks guilty of possession with intent to distribute PCP, but not guilty of the cocaine charge.² On appeal, Hicks argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the drugs and statements. Specifically, he contends the challenged evidence was the fruit of his illegal arrest by the police. He also contends that the statement he gave was the result of police coercion. The government concedes for purposes of this case that the police seized Hicks without probable cause or reasonable suspicion; however, it contends that the exclusionary rule does not bar admission of the physical evidence because the drugs were in plain view, and their discovery was not a fruit of the violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. We hold that the discovery of the drugs was not sufficiently attenuated from the unlawful police action to purge the taint; therefore, the physical evidence must be suppressed. We find no error in the trial court's ruling denying Hicks' motion to suppress statements.

I. The Suppression Hearing

Officer Michael Jewell testified that he and Investigator Andrews were in a patrol car driven by Investigator Forrester when they observed Hicks sitting in the driver's seat of a car with Virginia tags in the 200 block of K Street, S.W. Officer Jewell testified that he was familiar with the area as the "largest marijuana area in the First District." He further testified that based on his five years in vice, he knew that "80 to 90 percent of the people" coming into the area to buy drugs were from Virginia and Maryland. Officer Jewell testified that when he saw Hicks sitting in a car with Virginia tags, "the first thing on my mind was, they're probably out here buying weed." Officer Jewell also testified that he noticed that the car had a cracked windshield. The officers pulled their vehicle in front of Hicks' vehicle to prevent him from leaving the area while they investigated further.

Officer Jewell testified that because he was aware of many shootings in the area, he had his gun out at his side to protect himself and the other officers. He said that Lieutenant Clay also had his gun drawn, but Investigator Forrester did not. Officer Jewell could not recall if other officers, who were on the scene, had their weapons drawn. He testified that as he approached Hicks' car, he observed, in the center of the two front seats where the armrest would have been, a box of blunts and that he knew blunts were used to smoke marijuana. Next to the blunts, the officer saw a vanilla extract bottle which he knew was used commonly to store PCP. According to Officer Jewell, he asked Hicks whether he had drugs in the car, and Hicks said that he did not. Officer Jewell asked him for permission to search the car, and Hicks agreed. Officer Jewell asked Hicks to step out of the vehicle, and Hicks complied.

During the search of the car, Officer Jewell opened the vanilla extract bottle, and he recognized the odor of PCP. Officer Jewell then recovered the box of blunts and a drawstring bag from the front seat. Inside the bag were two plastic bags which contained a white rock substance that field tested positive for cocaine. One bag weighed approximately twenty grams; the other weighed approximately three grams.³ The officers placed Hicks under arrest.

Sergeant Gerald Gene Neill, Jr. testified that at the police station, he advised appellant of his Miranda⁴ rights. Officer Neill asked Hicks if he understood his rights, and he said that he did. The officer gave Hicks a rights card, which Hicks reviewed and signed, indicating that he understood his rights.⁵ Hicks waived his rights and signed the rights card and gave a statement, which he also signed.

Hicks testified that he was in the passenger seat of his car drinking juice when the police approached him with their guns drawn and pointed toward the car. He testified that the officers asked him "where was the weed. I know you got the marijuana. Where is the marijuana." He said that the police told him to get out of the car, which he did, and the officers patted him down and searched his car. According to Hicks, the vanilla extract bottle was under the armrest, and the box of blunts was on the seat of the car. He denied knowing that the drawstring bag was in the car or its contents.

Hicks testified that he could not recall whether the officer read him his rights before or after requesting a statement. He stated that the officer told him that his statement would "help me out as far ... as the arrest was concerned." Hicks also stated that he had smoked PCP during the preceding week, but not that night. He testified that he did not know whether he was suffering from any effects of PCP when he signed the rights card.

In denying the motion to suppress, the trial court made findings essentially crediting the testimony of the police officer. The court found that Hicks had been seated in the driver's seat of the vehicle with Virginia tags, in an area known for marijuana sales to buyers, primarily with Maryland or Virginia tags. The court found that "there was also a crack in the ... windshield of Hicks' car." The court also found that the officer had his gun out when he approached the car, but that it was not pointed at Hicks. The court stated:

the police had a reason to detain and investigate further at the point at which they went up to the car and saw the vanilla bottle and ... the blunts box on the seat of the car. At that point they were certainly authorized to ask Hicks to step out.

The court specifically found that Hicks denied there were drugs in the car and consented to the search.

The trial court determined that Hicks voluntarily made the statement to the police. The court did not find "enough evidence to support any conclusion that Hicks might have been intoxicated or that his will was overborne because of his past usage of PCP."⁶

II.

Hicks argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the drugs because the police did not have probable cause to order him from his car and search it, or probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that he had committed a crime. For purposes of this case, the government concedes that the manner in which the officers blocked Hicks' vehicle and approached him with guns drawn as he sat in the car amounted to a seizure which was not supported by probable cause or reasonable suspicion. See In re T.T.C., 583 A.2d 986, 988 (D.C.1990); Kelly v. United States, 580 A.2d 1282, 1285 (D.C.1990). Further, the government also does not contend that the presence of the cracked windshield justified the seizure.⁷ The government contends that, even assuming that the seizure of Hicks was without legal justification, the discovery of the PCP in plain view was not a fruit of the illegal seizure. Once the officers observed the suspected contraband, the government argues, they had probable cause for the search of the car and the seizure of the drugs.

Our scope of review of a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress is limited. Deference must be given to the trial court's factual findings. Lawrence v. United States, 566 A.2d 57, 60 (D.C.1989). The facts and all reasonable inferences therefrom must be viewed in favor or sustaining the trial court's ruling. Peay v. United States, 597 A.2d 1318, 1320 (D.C.1991) (en banc). However, our review of the trial court's legal conclusions is de novo. Lewis v. United States, 632 A.2d 383, 385 (D.C.1993).

Since the government concedes that Hicks was illegally seized, we must determine whether the drugs must be suppressed as the fruit of the illegal detention. If the evidence was obtained by exploitation of the violation of Hicks' Fourth Amendment rights, then the evidence must be suppressed. New York v. Harris, 495 U.S. 14, 18-19, 110 S.Ct. 1640, 1643-44, 109 L.Ed.2d 13 (1990); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 485, 83 S.Ct. 407, 416, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). The question is whether the evidence was "come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint." Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 488, 83 S.Ct. at 417 (citation omitted).⁸ When determining the admissibility of evidence derived from "a chain of causation that began with an illegal arrest," the Supreme Court has declined to adopt a "but for" test, holding, instead that the "the penalties visited upon the Government... because its officers have violated the law must bear some relationship to the purposes which the law is to serve." Harris, 495 U.S. at 14, 17, 110 S.Ct. at 1641, 1642-43 (citations and internal quotations omitted). The exclusionary rule would not bar evidence "arrived at by an independent source." Spinner v. United States, 618 A.2d 176, 178 (D.C.1992) (citations and internal quotations omitted).

The government argues that the seizure had no bearing on Officer Jewell's ability to observe the extract bottle and blunts lying in plain view on the front seat of Hicks' car, and therefore, the police obtained nothing as a result of the illegal seizure. The...