People v. Hufnagel

• Decision Date: 09 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 87SA120,87SA120
• Citation: 745 P.2d 242
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Marc HUFNAGEL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 242

745 P.2d 242

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Marc HUFNAGEL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 87SA120.

Supreme Court of Colorado En Banc.

Nov. 9, 1987.

Reid C. Pixler, Dist. Atty., Michael M. Dutcher, Deputy Dist. Atty., Telluride, for plaintiff-appellant.

David F. Vela, Colo. State Public Defender, Anthony Theodore, Deputy State Public Defender, Montrose, for defendant-appellee.

MULLARKEY, Justice.

Pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1, the People challenge the trial court's order granting the defendant Marc Hufnagel's motions to suppress evidence obtained in two searches of his condominium. We reverse the suppression order and remand for further proceedings.

I.

On October 21, 1986, Hufnagel was indicted by the grand jury on charges of selling cocaine and a warrant for his arrest was issued. In the afternoon of the same day, Sheriff Masters, Undersheriff Walters, and Sergeant Berg went to Hufnagel's condominium for the purpose of executing the arrest warrant. The officers did not have a search warrant. When the officers arrived at the defendant's condominium, the door to his unit was open and Undersheriff Walters called out the defendant's name. The defendant, who had been asleep on a sofa in the living area downstairs, responded by calling out "Hello" or "Yo." The officers entered the unit at the top of the stairs leading down to the living area. They saw an eighteen-inch billy club in the entry way and a hatchet downstairs near a fireplace. The officers went downstairs, asked Hufnagel to stand up, and told him that he was under arrest for selling cocaine. He did not overtly resist the arrest, but he was slow to follow their instructions. The officers were in plain clothes and, although armed, did not display their weapons.

Within approximately five minutes after the officers first made verbal contact with the defendant, he was arrested, handcuffed, and led out of the condominium unit. The exact sequence of events within the five minutes is not entirely clear from the record or from the trial court's findings. It is apparent that Hufnagel was patted down for weapons shortly after he stood up and, at that time, he was standing near the sofa and an adjacent, octagonal end table about eighteen inches high. One or two of the officers turned Hufnagel around and handcuffed him with his hands behind his back while Sheriff Masters felt around the edge of the sofa for weapons. As the defendant was being handcuffed, Sheriff Masters saw him look at the end table. Concerned by the defendant's glance, the sheriff flipped open a door in the end table and, inside, he saw a white box. Since the box had no lid, he saw that it contained several baggies, each of which held a white substance which he believed was cocaine. He picked up the box and examined its contents without removing them. He then put the box back into the end table and closed the door.

At approximately the same time that Sheriff Masters searched the sofa and end table, Sergeant Berg made a cursory search of the rest of the condominium to make sure no one else was present. Two of the officers then took the defendant to the sheriff's office; the third remained behind to guard the premises. Later on the same day, Sheriff Masters executed an affidavit for a search warrant, based in part on his observation of the cocaine in the defendant's end table. The warrant was executed, and additional evidence ¹ was found and seized.

II.

The defendant moved to suppress the evidence found during the warrantless search incident to his arrest. He conceded that the arrest had been valid, but argued that because he could not have reached into the end table, the search had not been limited to the area within his immediate control. After a hearing, the trial court found as matters of fact that the defendant had been handcuffed before Sheriff Masters searched the sofa and end table and that the door to the end table had been completely closed prior to the search. Based on his finding that the defendant was handcuffed with his hands behind his back, the judge reasoned that the defendant would not have been able to reach into the end table to remove a weapon or to destroy evidence. Therefore, he concluded that the search violated the fourth amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and granted the defendant's first motion to suppress.

The defendant also moved to suppress the evidence found during the subsequent search conducted pursuant to the search warrant. The trial court determined that, without Sheriff Masters' observations, the affidavit supporting the search warrant did not state probable cause to authorize the search. Accordingly, it also granted the second motion to suppress.

The People appeal from the order granting both motions to suppress and contend that the following findings of fact made by the trial court are clearly erroneous: (1) that Sheriff Masters offered no specific facts to support his belief that the defendant had been under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest, (2) that the defendant had been handcuffed before Sheriff Masters searched the end table, and (3) that the end table door had been completely closed when Sheriff Masters first observed it. In addition, the People argue that even if the trial court's findings of fact are supported by the evidence, its conclusions of law are incorrect. Specifically, the People suggest that the fact that the defendant was handcuffed should not have been dispositive, but should have been only one factor considered by the trial court in determining whether the search was reasonable. The defendant's position is that the trial court's findings of fact are supported by the evidence, and that the People have failed to meet the burden of showing that the warrantless search was reasonable.

III.

We turn first to the People's contention that three of the trial court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous. We will not overturn the trial court's findings of fact if there is adequate support for them in the record; however, if the findings of fact are clearly erroneous and lack support in the record, we must set them aside. See, e.g., People v. Freeman, 668 P.2d 1371, 1378 (Colo.1983); People v. Johnson, 653 P.2d 737, 740 (Colo.1982).

The trial court's statement that Sheriff Masters did not describe any specific facts supporting his belief that the defendant was under the influence of drugs is supported by the record. As part of his explanation of why the situation was not secure when he made the search, the sheriff stated that the defendant appeared to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. He supported his conclusion only by stating that the defendant stumbled around and mentioned Valium. The defendant testified that he was somewhat disoriented when he was arrested because he had been asleep when the officers entered. He also disputed the reference to Valium and stated that he had referred to Enduron, a drug he took for a heart condition. The sheriff was not asked to give a detailed explanation of his observation of the defendant's condition and he did not do so.

Regarding the handcuffing, the evidence in the record indicates that Undersheriff Walters, perhaps with the assistance of Sergeant Berg, was handcuffing the defendant when Sheriff Masters searched the end table. The trial court found that the sheriff's attention was attracted to the end table because the defendant "eyed" it. The court found that the defendant looked at the end table "[a]s the arrest was being completed" but that the sheriff opened the end table door after the defendant was handcuffed. The defendant's testimony can be read to support an inference that he was handcuffed before the sheriff searched the end table and, therefore, we will not disturb the trial court's finding. As will be discussed below, however, unlike the trial court, we do not find this fact dispositive.

The evidence as to whether the end table door was open, slightly ajar, or completely closed prior to Sheriff Masters' search is conflicting. The defendant testified that he did not remember the door being ajar before the officers turned him around and handcuffed him. This testimony supports the trial court's finding that the door was completely closed before Sheriff Masters' search.

Because there is some evidence in the record to support each of the challenged findings, we will not overturn them. We now turn to the legal question raised by the People's appeal.

IV.

As the defendant notes, a warrantless search is generally presumed to be unreasonable and in violation of the fourth amendment. See, e.g., People v. Jansen, 713 P.2d 907, 911 (Colo.1986). The prosecution has the burden of showing that such a search falls within an exception to the warrant requirement. Id. In this case, the People rely on the well-settled rule that, when making a lawful arrest, law enforcement officers may search the arrestee's person and the area within the arrestee's immediate control. See Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 762-64, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2039-41, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). In Chimel, the Supreme Court explained that:

[I]t is entirely reasonable for the arresting officer to search for and seize any evidence on the arrestee's person in order to prevent its concealment or destruction. And the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary items must, of course, be governed by a like rule. A gun on a table or in a drawer in front of one who is arrested can be as dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in the clothing of the person arrested. There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee's person and the area "within his immediate control"--construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.

Chimel, 395 U.S. at 763, 89 S.Ct. at 2040.

The trial court found that the end table door was within "lunging" distance...