Mercado v. State

• Decision Date: 23 November 2022
• Docket Number: Court of Appeals Case No. 22A-CR-459
• Parties: Angelito MERCADO, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

200 N.E.3d 463

Angelito MERCADO, Appellant-Defendant,

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.

Court of Appeals Case No. 22A-CR-459

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

Filed November 23, 2022

Attorney for Appellant: Jacob T. Rigney, Rigney Law, Indianapolis, Indiana

Attorneys for Appellee: Theodore E. Rokita, Attorney General of Indiana, Jodi Kathryn Stein, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, Indiana

Mathias, Judge.

[1] Angelito Mercado appeals the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. Mercado raises three issues for our review, which we restate as the following two issues:

I. Whether a stopping officer's mistaken understanding of the private nature of the road on which he initiated a traffic stop requires suppression of the evidence seized following the stop under Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution.

II. Whether Mercado has shown reversible error under the United States and Indiana Constitutions in certain purported omissions and misstatements made by the officer in the probable cause affidavit for a search warrant for Mercado's person.

[2] We hold that Article 1, Section 11 affords Hoosiers greater protection than the Fourth Amendment does under Heien v. North Carolina , 574 U.S. 54, 135 S.Ct. 530, 190 L.Ed.2d 475 (2014). However, that greater protection notwithstanding, we agree with the trial court that Mercado is unable to demonstrate a violation of his rights in the initiation of the traffic stop here. We further hold that Mercado is unable to show reversible error in the purported omissions and misstatements in the officer's probable cause affidavit. Thus, we affirm the trial court's denial of Mercado's motion to suppress.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] Sometime before mid-June 2020, officers with the Columbus Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Unit were investigating "a very large drug dealer in Columbus," and the course of that investigation led officers to Mercado. Tr. Vol. 2, p. 34. In particular, officers had observed Mercado visiting the residence of the individual whom they had suspected of moving large amounts of narcotics.

[4] In mid-June, Mercado's ex-girlfriend, Christina Ricks, approached Columbus Police Department officers "multiple times" about alleged "criminal activities that Mr. Mercado was conducting ...." Id. at 36. Specifically, Ricks contacted Officer Drake Maddix and informed him that Mercado was dealing in methamphetamine. Officers "separately corroborate[d]" some of Ricks's assertions "through what [the officers] already knew ...." Id. at 37.

[5] In mid-July, Officer Maddix responded to Ricks. Ricks stated that she wanted "to help get Mr. Mercado off the streets." Id. at 51. In exchange, she wanted help in getting her fiancée, Ian Colson, released from jail. Colson "was facing several charges in multiple counties," including a "major felony drug case," and "was looking at dozens[ of years], if not decades[,] in prison potentially." Id. at 52. Also, Ricks was currently on probation for a prior robbery conviction, and she had a notice of violation pending. Both Colson and Ricks were facing some of their legal issues in Jackson County, and Officer Maddix "reached out" to Jackson County prosecutors on their behalf. Id. at 55.

[6] Afterward, Officer Maddix asked Ricks for information regarding "where [Mercado] was" so that Officer Maddix could initiate a traffic stop, as Officer Maddix knew that Mercado had a suspended driver's license. Id. The evening of July 15, Ricks texted Officer Maddix that Mercado was on his way to pick her up at the Econo Lodge hotel¹ on Carrie Lane in Columbus, just off of State Road 46. Although referred to as "Carrie Lane," the road in question is a private service road that accesses three businesses, the middle of which is the hotel. Neither the Indiana Department of Transportation ("INDOT") nor the Columbus Department of Public Works ("DPW") maintains Carrie Lane. Instead, Carrie Lane is maintained by "the businesses associated with that road." Id. at 90. However, "several years" ago, the DPW filled "quite a few potholes" at the "intersection" of Carrie Lane and State Road 46. Id. at 91-92. Carrie Lane also "appears" to be "similar or the same as other roads in town" that are maintained by the DPW. Id. at 92. And in 2020, a vehicle hit the original stop sign that regulated traffic coming off Carrie Lane and onto State Road 46. An INDOT representative later testified that, while INDOT would not have installed the original stop sign on private property, INDOT typically replaces damaged stop signs regardless of their placement and did replace the stop sign here. Id. at 85-87.

[7] Immediately after receiving Ricks's text, Officer Maddix and another officer turned southbound onto Carrie Lane from State Road 46. Upon doing so, Officer Maddix observed Mercado operating a vehicle northbound on Carrie Lane, heading back toward State Road 46. Ricks was a passenger in Mercado's vehicle. Believing Carrie Lane to be a city street, Officer Maddix initiated a traffic stop on the ground that Mercado was operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license. A driver commits this offense only when he or she operates a motor vehicle on a publicly maintained way. Ind. Code §§ 9-13-2-175 ; -24-19-2 (2020). Officer Maddix then ordered Mercado out of the vehicle and placed him under arrest.

[8] Upon being placed under arrest, Mercado stated that "he was having a panic attack and slowly started falling to the ground." Tr. Vol. 2, p. 43. On the ground, he "was just continually yelling." Id. Officers called for an ambulance to take Mercado to the local hospital for medical clearance. Officer Brandon Decker accompanied Mercado in the ambulance. In the ambulance, Officer Decker observed Mercado "reach with his hands while restrained towards ... the groin area" and "also towards his ... buttocks." Id. at 26. When Officer Decker directed Mercado to cease his movements, Mercado "would start smacking his head" on the bedrail "to the point he got a nose bleed." Id. When Officer Decker "would pay attention to his head," he noticed that Mercado "would start reaching into his pants ... in the front and the back." Id. at 26-27. Officer Decker informed Mercado that the jail has a scanner to search arrestees; Mercado responded that "he would kill himself" before he would "go in the f***ing scanner" and also that "he had COVID." Id. at 28.

[9] Meanwhile, back at Mercado's vehicle, Officer Branch Schrader had arrived on the scene with his K-9 unit, Argo. Officer Schrader had Argo do a free-air sniff around Mercado's vehicle. Argo alerted to the presence of narcotics at the driver's door.

[10] At that point, Officer Maddix applied for a search warrant for Mercado's vehicle. The trial court issued the search warrant, and Officer Maddix seized raw marijuana, more than $1,500 in cash, two cell phones, and multiple credit cards in Mercado's name from the vehicle. Other officers also checked the license plate on the vehicle and learned that the vehicle had recently been reported as stolen. And Ricks, who appeared to exhibit some signs of intoxication, although officers on the scene did not immediately notice it, reported that, "while she was inside the vehicle," Mercado had "hidden [narcotics] in his groin [area] ... before the traffic stop occurred." Id. at 46. Officer Maddix knew it to be "common for people to have ... illegal narcotics concealed on their person as an attempt to frustrate and conceal them from law enforcement." Id. Around that same time, Officer Decker reported Mercado's behavior in the ambulance to Officer Maddix.

[11] Officer Maddix then applied for a second warrant to search Mercado's person. In his probable cause affidavit in support of the second warrant request, Officer Maddix stated the following as the factual basis for his request:

On July 15th, 2020, I was southbound on Carrie Lane in my marked police commission. I observed a black Mercedes passenger car traveling northbound on Carrie Lane.

I looked into the passenger compartment of the black Mercedes passenger car. I observed a black male with a blue baseball hat driving the vehicle. I observed a white female with blonde hair in the front passenger seat.

The black Mercedes turned into the parking lot of [the hotel] from Carrie Lane. I recognized the driver of the Mercedes ... to be Angelito Mercado from prior law enforcement encounters. I recalled Mercado's license status to be suspended.... I know Mercado to be involved with illegal narcotics activities, specifically dealing in meth[ ] and marijuana, from criminal intelligence information.

Given I observed Mercado operate a vehicle upon a public highway with a suspended[ ]license, I activated my emergency lights, initiating a traffic stop. Mercado parked the Mercedes in a parking spot in the hotel's parking lot.

I approached the vehicle and asked Mercado to exit. Mercado was verbally argumentative during the encounter. Mercado exited the vehicle. I placed Mercado in handcuffs ....

Once Mercado was in handcuffs, he immediately began to act like he was going to pass out. Mercado fell to the ground. A medic was called for Mercado's medical welfare.

While waiting on the medic, K9 Officer Branch Schrader arrived on scene with his Police Service Dog, Argo, per my request.

After Mercado was transported by ambulance to the hospital, Officer Schrader had PSD Argo conduct a free-air sniff of the Mercedes .... Officer Schrader informed me PSD Argo indicated a positive alert to the odor of narcotics coming from within the Mercedes ....

After the free-air sniff, Sgt. Robert Mitchell conducted a license plate check on the Mercedes .... The license plate ... returned as an active steal out of Columbus ....

I applied for and was granted a warrant to search the ... Mercedes.... I located raw marijuana in the vehicle. I also located a very large amount of US currency in a bag containing Mercado's Indiana ID card.

While Mercado was at the hospital, [t]he Bartholomew County

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