Joseph v. State

• Citation: 2023 WY 58
• Docket Number: S-22-0250,S-22-0282
• Decision Date: 07 June 2023
• Parties: MARIA ANNE JOSEPH, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff). JACKSON ELLIOTT TARZIA, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming

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2023 WY 58

MARIA ANNE JOSEPH, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).

JACKSON ELLIOTT TARZIA, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).

Nos. S-22-0250, S-22-0282

Supreme Court of Wyoming

June 7, 2023

Appeal from the District Court of Carbon County The Honorable Dawnessa A. Snyder, Judge

Appeal from the District Court of Albany County The Honorable Misha E. Westby

Representing Appellants: H. Michael Bennett, Corthell and King Law Office, P.C., Laramie, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee: Bridget Hill, Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Kristen R. Jones, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Donovan Burton Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Mr. Burton.

Before FOX, C.J., and KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, GRAY, and FENN, JJ.

FOX CHIEF JUSTICE

[¶1] In these appeals, consolidated because they present the same legal question, Maria Anne Joseph and Jackson Elliott Tarzia (collectively Appellants) appeal the denials of their separate motions to suppress. They contend the exterior canine sniffs of their vehicles were done without probable cause and thus violated the Wyoming Constitution. We affirm.

ISSUE

[¶2] These appeals present the question of whether the Wyoming Constitution requires that an exterior canine sniff of a vehicle be supported by probable cause.

FACTS

Appeal No. S-22-0250 Maria Joseph

[¶3] On the morning of October 11, 2021, Wyoming State Trooper Nicholas Haller was patrolling Interstate 80 in Carbon County when he observed a silver Kia SUV cross the highway centerline four times. He stopped the vehicle and identified the driver as Ms. Joseph. He told her why he had pulled her over and advised that he was going to give her a warning.

[¶4] The first thing Ms. Joseph said to Trooper Haller was that she was just trying to go home. Trooper Haller testified that through his training he understood this to be a deflecting statement made to draw attention away from the individual. He also observed luggage in the rear of the vehicle covered with a blanket. He asked Ms. Joseph about her travel plans, and she informed him she was coming from Spokane, Washington, was on her way to Canton, Ohio, and from there she was going to Elkins, West Virginia. Ms. Joseph explained that she was speaking at a vigil for her deceased son and was also speaking at other vigils in Arizona and maybe Nevada. She also explained that the items in the vehicle were her deceased son's property that she was taking home to Elkins, West Virginia.

[¶5] Ms. Joseph did not have her vehicle registration, and Trooper Haller thus asked her to join him in his patrol car while he checked the vehicle records. Trooper Haller described Ms Joseph as "very talkative" and "very nervous," which he found unusual because he had already told her he was only issuing a warning. Additionally, during their conversation in the patrol car, she told him her son had been deceased for fifteen years, which he found odd because she had earlier told him she was bringing his belongings home. At about six minutes into the stop, Trooper Haller determined he had cause to detain Ms. Joseph and called for a canine. He testified:

A. With the totality of the circumstances of everything I observed up to that point I believed that there was criminal activity afoot.

Q. And so what things did you take into consideration?

A. Her travel plans, coming from a known source state traveling eastbound on the interstate, in addition to her overly - over nervous behavior, the talkative behavior, and also the time frame difference from when she said the purpose of her trip was to bring her son's stuff back home, when I later found out that her son had been deceased for 15 years.

Q. And how about the contents of the vehicle, was that a consideration as well?

A. That as well, yes, ma'am, the covered luggage in the back.

Q. And why was that something that you took note of?

A. Because it's not something that I see on, I guess, you would say, a normal traffic stop. You don't typically see an entire back end of a vehicle covered under a blanket.

[¶6] About forty minutes later, Deputy Casey Lehr of the Carbon County Sheriff's Office arrived with his canine, Zeus and ran him around the exterior of Ms. Joseph's vehicle. Zeus was trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and MDMA, and he alerted on the back of Ms. Joseph's vehicle. After Zeus alerted, Trooper Haller searched the vehicle and found four large suitcases that contained multiple vacuum-sealed packages of raw marijuana.

[¶7] Ms. Joseph was arrested, and Trooper Haller met with a Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) agent in Rawlins, Wyoming for a more thorough search of her vehicle. That search revealed approximately twenty-five pounds of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) wax, two pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, and fifty-eight pounds of raw, plant-form marijuana.

[¶8] The State charged Ms. Joseph with five felonies related to the controlled substances found in her vehicle. Ms. Joseph filed a motion to suppress the evidence recovered from her vehicle, arguing the canine sniff of her vehicle's exterior was a search that violated the Wyoming Constitution because it was not supported by probable cause. The district court denied the motion, and Ms. Joseph thereafter entered a conditional plea of guilty to a single count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, reserving her right to appeal the denial of her motion to suppress. The court accepted the change of plea and in accordance with the parties' agreement, it sentenced Ms. Joseph to a prison term of three to five years, suspended in favor of three years of probation. Ms. Joseph timely appealed to this Court.

Appeal No. S-22-0282 Jackson Tarzia

[¶9] On August 4, 2021, Wyoming State Trooper Brandon Deckert was assigned to a canine criminal interdiction detail in the Laramie, Wyoming area. Rather than patrolling the highway, Trooper Deckert was using consensual encounters with individuals who had stopped for fuel to investigate and uncover criminal conduct. That morning he pulled into a truck stop in Albany County and observed a white 2021 Yukon Denali parked at a fuel pump. He was familiar with the vehicle model and knew it to be uncommon, and he testified that the only ones he had encountered around that time were rental vehicles. Because he suspected the vehicle to be a rental, he considered it a vehicle of interest.

[¶10] Trooper Deckert pulled into the opposite side of the gas island from the Denali so that he was essentially parallel to the Denali but at a bit of an angle so his dash camera could catch the view. He exited his vehicle and retrieved a squeegee to wash his windshield, at which point he saw Kevin Curtis, one of the vehicle's occupants, pumping gas. Trooper Deckert greeted Mr. Curtis and the two started a conversation about Mr. Curtis' travel. Mr. Curtis said he was headed to Ohio, that he had family there, and "we were looking at real estate." Mr. Curtis' use of the word "we" made Trooper Deckert expect someone to return from the station's interior.

[¶11] Mr. Curtis gave a lengthy explanation of the real estate they had been looking at around the country and told Trooper Deckert it was a great time to buy real estate. About two to three minutes into their conversation, Mr. Tarzia returned to the vehicle. While Trooper Deckert had found Mr. Curtis to be relaxed and conversational, he described Mr. Tarzia as rigid and standoffish. As Trooper Deckert continued to talk with the two men, he observed inconsistencies and oddities in their travel plans and descriptions of their real estate business.

[¶12] At one point, Trooper Deckert commented to Mr. Curtis that the Denali was a nice car, and Mr. Curtis informed him it was a rental and they had rented it in Las Vegas. Trooper Deckert asked to see the rental agreement, and as Mr. Tarzia tried to show him the contract on his cell phone, Trooper Deckert observed that he was breathing heavily and his hand shook as he held his phone. When Trooper Deckert was finally able to read the agreement, he found that the vehicle had been rented in San Francisco, which did not match anything he had been told.

[¶13] At that point, Trooper Deckert believed the two men were engaged in criminal activity and informed them he was detaining them for further investigation. He read them their rights, had them sit on his vehicle's front bumper, and called for backup. When Trooper Deckert's backup arrived, he retrieved his canine, Yeager, from the back seat of his patrol car and ran him around the exterior of the Denali. Yeager was trained to detect cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana, and he alerted on the right rear wheel well and door area. Trooper Deckert then searched the vehicle and found 149 vacuum-sealed bags of raw material in duffle bags, weighing a total of roughly 150 pounds.

[¶14] The State charged Mr. Tarzia with felony possession of marijuana and felony possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.^[1] Mr. Tarzia moved to suppress the evidence recovered from his vehicle, arguing, like Ms. Joseph, that the canine sniff of the vehicle's exterior was a search that violated the Wyoming Constitution because it was not supported by probable cause. The district court denied the motion, and Mr. Tarzia thereafter entered a conditional plea of guilty to a single count of possession of marijuana. The court accepted the plea and sentenced Mr. Tarzia to a prison term of three to five years, suspended in favor of two years of probation. Mr. Tarzia timely appealed to this Court.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶15] Ms. Joseph and Mr. Tarzia appeal the denial of their motions to suppress under the Wyoming Constitution.

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