People in Interest of R.A.

• Decision Date: 21 April 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96SA453,96SA453
• Parties: 21 Colorado Journal 583 The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner-Appellant, In the Interest of R.A., a juvenile, and concerning M.A., Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 731

937 P.2d 731

21 Colorado Journal 583

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner-Appellant,

In the Interest of R.A., a juvenile, and concerning M.A.,

Respondents-Appellees.

No. 96SA453.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

April 21, 1997.

Jeanne M. Smith, District Attorney, Fourth Judicial District, Gordon R. Denison, Deputy District Attorney, Bryan L. Hunt, Deputy District Attorney, Colorado Springs, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Dianna L. Harris, Colorado Springs, for Respondents-Appellees.

Justice MARTINEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In this interlocutory appeal, the prosecution seeks review of an order by the District Court of El Paso County affirming a juvenile magistrate's order suppressing statements and evidence found in the home of R.A., a juvenile. The magistrate, relying on section 19-2-210(1), 8B C.R.S. (1996 Supp.), ¹ ordered the suppression of all evidence obtained in R.A.'s home because R.A.'s mother was not present. The prosecution petitioned for review of the magistrate's order pursuant to section 19-1-108(5), 8B C.R.S. (1996 Supp.), and the juvenile court affirmed. ² We determine that the magistrate made erroneous and incomplete findings of fact which preclude resolution of the issues raised. Because these errors were not corrected by the juvenile court, we reverse.

I.

On February 15, 1996, Officer Wilkinson of the Colorado Springs Police investigated damage inflicted on a truck and a minivan at a high school parking lot. The damage included red spray paint, flattened tires, sugar in a gas tank and transmission fluid in speakers and air vents. A witness saw someone near the vehicles and provided a name from a photograph in the high school yearbook. The witness said that the suspect was wearing the school's letter jacket and carrying a black backpack. Wilkinson, who was in uniform, then proceeded in a marked patrol vehicle to the address of the individual named as a suspect. Wilkinson knocked on the door and R.A., a fourteen year old juvenile, answered.

Wilkinson testified that he told R.A. he was looking for an individual wearing the school's letter jacket. R.A. responded that the person was his brother, who was not in town. "[I] [a]dvised [R.A.] that I was looking for, there was a name on the, it was a ... letter jacket the suspect was wearing and I advised him that I was looking for this individual which he told me was his brother and his brother was not in town." Wilkinson testified that he then requested permission to enter the home and R.A. gave that permission. "I asked him if I could come in and talk to him about this. He said, yes."

R.A. testified that Wilkinson entered his home without receiving permission. "He came to my door. Asked, he asked if he could talk to me. I said, yes, seeing that he opened the door and walked in my house." According to R.A., Wilkinson asked if they had a letter jacket and then walked upstairs and began searching. "He asked if--if we had a letter jacket.... I told him that I would go look for it. As I was looking for it, he walked upstairs in my house. He picked up a black backpack on the floor. He looked through it and he went in the kitchen and got brown sugar off the refrigerator." R.A. also specifically denied ever giving permission for Wilkinson to enter the home, go upstairs, search the home or search the backpack.

Wilkinson's account is that after R.A. gave him permission to enter the home, they both went upstairs where Wilkinson asked R.A. if his mother or father was at home. R.A. responded that his mother was at work. Wilkinson told R.A. what happened, why he was there, and who he was. "I asked him if I could come in and talk to him about this. He said, yes. We went upstairs. It's a bi-level home to the main level. I asked him if his mother or father were home and he said, no, his mom was at work. And I, at that time, proceeded to tell him exactly what had occurred at the school, why I was there and what I was, who I was looking for."

The magistrate found that Wilkinson asked permission to enter the house to talk, learned that the owner of the jacket was not home and that R.A.'s mother was not home, and then went upstairs:

When [Wilkinson] determined that the owner of the jacket was not home and that mother was not home, his right to the entry of the house ended. After that, however, he chose to apparently go up the stairs, look about the house.

According to the magistrate, Wilkinson learned that R.A.'s mother was not home while still downstairs. This finding is crucial to the magistrate's analysis of the case because he then concludes that Wilkinson's "right" to enter the home ended before Wilkinson went upstairs.

Wilkinson testified that after he questioned R.A. about the letter jacket, R.A. went into the bedroom and retrieved a letter jacket. Wilkinson observed a red substance that resembled spray paint on the jacket. Wilkinson also said he noticed a black backpack lying on the floor and observed the plastic cap of a transmission fluid bottle lying on top of the backpack. Wilkinson said he observed a knife sheath inside the pack's opening after he picked the pack up and placed it on the dining room table. R.A. said Wilkinson was following him around the house and looking around. The magistrate found that "these things were in plain view but the question is was he legally where he was supposed to be to have the plain view?" The magistrate concluded that:

Consent to enter was given but not to search. The officer himself testified he did not obtain consent from anybody including the juvenile to search.... The officer should have either left the residence and waited outside for the mother to return or simply waited inside the doorway for the mother to return if the weather was inclement.

Wilkinson testified that he advised R.A. that he could not ask R.A. questions without R.A.'s mother present, and that he asked R.A. to call his mother at work and ask her to come home. ³ Wilkinson also testified that he asked R.A. if he was the owner of the backpack and requested that R.A. turn his hands up for inspection, all before R.A.'s mother arrived at the house some forty-five minutes later. When R.A. displayed his hands, Wilkinson observed what appeared to be red spray paint on them.

At some point after R.A. and Wilkinson went upstairs, a neighbor, Fred Martinez, came over to the house. Martinez testified that he was present when Wilkinson asked to see R.A.'s hands, and that the officer showed him the backpack, letter jacket and red cap. Martinez also testified that he observed Wilkinson in both the living room and kitchen of the home. When asked about R.A.'s demeanor, Martinez stated that "[h]e was crying. He was very upset and that's why I decided to stay."

The magistrate found that R.A. was upset, but he did not address the manner in which items were discovered and seized other than to state that "these things" were in plain view, and that Wilkinson should not have been upstairs at all because he learned that R.A.'s mother was not at home while still downstairs. The magistrate concluded, relying on section 19-2-210(1), 8B C.R.S. (1996 Supp.), that "once the officer determined that the mother was not present, he should have stopped any investigation at that time and waited for her to arrive." The magistrate granted R.A.'s motion in its entirety.

Pursuant to section 19-1-108(5), 8B C.R.S. (1996 Supp.), the prosecution timely petitioned the juvenile court to review the magistrate's ruling. ⁴ Without explanation, the juvenile court affirmed. The prosecution then filed this interlocutory appeal. See C.A.R. 4.1(a).

II.

Our review of the record in this case indicates that the findings of the juvenile magistrate are insufficient for appellate review. Moreover, a critical factual finding made by the magistrate is clearly erroneous. Because the juvenile court failed to alter this finding and failed to conduct further proceedings to resolve the legal issues in this case, we reverse and remand the case to the juvenile court. See People v. H.J., 931 P.2d 1177, 1183 (Colo.1997) (where trial court fails to make appropriate factual findings, our appellate function is hindered); People in Interest of A.R.M., 832 P.2d 1093, 1095 (Colo.App.1992) (remanding juvenile case because "the lack of findings by the commissioner ... did not provide a sufficient record to support [the district court's] affirmation of the commissioner's order.") We also direct the juvenile court to remand the case to the magistrate or another magistrate for further proceedings, or to conduct its own proceedings to correct the magistrate's errors and make sufficient factual findings to resolve the legal issues presented in this case. ⁵

A.

The record does not support the magistrate's findings that Wilkinson learned R.A.'s mother was not home when Wilkinson was downstairs and that Wilkinson subsequently went upstairs to the living room. The juvenile court failed to correct this crucial and clearly erroneous finding. The magistrate concluded that, once Wilkinson proceeded upstairs after entering the juvenile's residence, his presence was unlawful because his purpose for entering the home had already been satisfied. Contrary to this finding Wilkinson's testimony was that he learned R.A.'s mother was not at home only after he had entered the upstairs area of the house, and R.A.'s testimony was that Wilkinson walked into the home without permission, proceeding upstairs after asking only for the letter jacket. The magistrate's conclusion that Wilkinson's presence upstairs was invalid because Wilkinson knew the mother was not home--critical to his determination that evidence subsequently seized was inadmissible--was thus based on a clearly erroneous finding of fact. The magistrate apparently combined the very different versions of the facts told by Wilkinson and R.A. to create a third version which is without support in the record. Although the magistrate may believe...