People v. Martinez

• Decision Date: 20 January 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08SA317.,08SA317.
• Citation: 200 P.3d 1053
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Richard MARTINEZ, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

200 P.3d 1053

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Richard MARTINEZ, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 08SA317.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

January 20, 2009.

Bill Thiebaut, District Attorney, Tenth Judicial District, Richard W. Dickerson, Deputy District Attorney, Pueblo, Colorado, Attorneys for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Daniel R. Casias, Pueblo, Colorado, Attorney for Defendant-Appellee.

Justice BENDER delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Introduction

The prosecution brings this interlocutory appeal pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1 and section 16-12-102(2), C.R.S. (2008), seeking to reverse the trial court's ruling suppressing evidence and statements taken by police officers obtained after the investigatory stop of the defendant. The trial court ruled that the defendant was detained without reasonable suspicion that the defendant committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime. We affirm.

The trial court made the following findings. Pueblo police received an anonymous tip that unidentified persons were using narcotics in the driveway of the house where the defendant was arrested. The responding officer could not corroborate the drug activity alleged by the caller. He received permission to enter the house for the limited purpose of speaking with the owner. Once inside, the officer observed neither evidence of drug activity nor other criminal activity by any person inside the house, including the defendant. The officer observed the defendant enter a bathroom in the house. He could see the defendant sitting on the toilet through the crack in the door. He told the defendant to finish and come out. After the defendant emerged from the bathroom, the officer ordered the defendant and the other occupants to a separate location inside the house and ran clearance checks on the defendant and the others to determine whether there were any outstanding arrest warrants. The defendant was not free to leave or disregard the officer's requests.

Thereafter, the police learned of an active warrant for the defendant and arrested him. A search of his person revealed controlled substances. The defendant then made incriminating statements both before and after he received a Miranda advisement.

Under these circumstances, we hold that the police subjected the defendant to an investigatory stop. The stop was not based on a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and therefore constituted an unconstitutional seizure. Because the police learned the defendant's identity after he was seized, his subsequent arrest on the outstanding warrant was illegal, and the evidence found on his person and the incriminating statements he made after the arrest were derived from his illegal seizure and therefore are inadmissible. Hence, we affirm the trial court's order suppressing all evidence obtained after the investigatory detention. Because it was not raised by the prosecution in the trial court and therefore not addressed by the trial court, we do not consider whether either the discovery of the arrest warrant or the Miranda advisement purged the taint of the defendant's initial illegal detention.¹

Facts and Procedural History

The prosecution charged the defendant, Richard Martinez, with numerous felonies, including the possession of a controlled substance. The defendant sought to suppress the evidence seized from him and any and all incriminating statements he made to police officers.

At the suppression hearing, an officer of the Pueblo Police Department testified to the following facts. He was dispatched to a residence to investigate an anonymous call that parties were using narcotics in the driveway. The officer testified that the anonymous caller gave no information about how the caller obtained his or her information:

Q: You said the call that brought you to the house that morning was an anonymous call?

A: Yes, sir.

Q: You had no idea who the source was and how reliable the information you got would be, correct?

A: Correct.

As police approached the residence, a late model car with a temporary tag quickly left the driveway. A white car with its door propped open remained in the driveway.

The officer stopped at the residence and talked with a woman inside the white car. She stated that she did not know who lived in the house or why her companion, the driver, was inside. The woman did not give any specific information about narcotics transactions. The officer testified that, while he found it suspicious the woman did not know anyone in the house or what her companion was doing inside, it did not suggest any criminal activity.

After talking with the woman, the officer knocked on the door of the house to speak with the owner, who answered and agreed to let the officer in to talk with him. Once inside, the officer saw someone go inside the bathroom. The officer went to the bathroom, cracked open the door, and saw the defendant, Richard Martinez, on the toilet. He told Martinez to finish and come out of the bathroom. After Martinez emerged from the bathroom, the officer directed him and the four other people who were in the house to one room. The officer testified that when he directed the defendant and others to a different part of the house, he had no reason other than the anonymous call to believe Martinez had engaged in illegal or suspicious activity:

Q: Other than the initial anonymous call, you had no reason to believe Mr. Martinez was engaged in any suspicious or illegal activity?

A: No, sir.

...

Q: What did you do when you saw him?

A: I let him finish in the bathroom. When he finished, we all went into the big room. It was the biggest room in the house. We went in there, so I could keep my eye on everyone and ran clearances.

Q: Up to that point, you had no reason to believe Mr. Martinez had been engaged in any illegal or suspicious activity?

A: No.

The police then ran clearance checks on those detained and determined that Martinez had an outstanding felony arrest warrant for a parole violation. He was arrested, and a search revealed controlled substances on his person.

A second officer, who arrived at the scene after the defendant's arrest, questioned Martinez and testified that Martinez admitted using cocaine. The officer then gave him a Miranda warning and Martinez made additional incriminating statements.

The trial court ruled that Martinez was detained, and not free to leave, when the officer directed Martinez to finish and come out of the bathroom, and then ordered him to another room where he ran a clearance check. At that point, the court found that the only information held by the officer relating to criminal activity was the report from the anonymous source, which it concluded was not enough to constitute reasonable suspicion that the defendant committed, was committing, or was about to commit any criminal offense. Accordingly, the court granted the defendant's motion to suppress the controlled substance seized incident to the arrest and incriminating statements made thereafter. The trial court reasoned that the evidence and statements were the result of the initial illegal detention.

On appeal, the prosecution challenges this ruling.

Analysis

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects individuals "against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. To determine whether the contact between Martinez and the police officers complied with Fourth Amendment standards, we briefly define and discuss the level of suspicion required for the police to initiate the three types of police-citizen contacts: consensual encounters, investigatory stops, and arrests.

In People v. Thomas, 839 P.2d 1174, 1177 (Colo.1992), we described a consensual encounter as "the voluntary cooperation of an individual to the non-coercive questioning by an officer...." Because the individual is free to leave, or alternatively, can disregard the officer's request for information during a consensual encounter, he is not "seized," and the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures do not apply. Id. at 1177-78; see also Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 498, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983).

Simply asking an individual to identify himself is within the bounds of a consensual encounter. See People v. Paynter, 955 P.2d 68, 75 (Colo.1998). However, when an individual reasonably infers that he cannot leave the area until the officer has the opportunity to check if the individual has any outstanding warrants against him, the contact is elevated to an investigatory stop or detention. Padgett, 932 P.2d at 814 (finding the police officer subjected the defendant to an investigatory stop where the officer told the defendant he could "be on [his] way if [he] didn't have any warrants").

A stop allows an officer temporarily to detain an individual for limited investigatory purposes such that he is not free to leave. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 17-20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Stone v. People, 174 Colo. 504, 508-09, 485 P.2d 495, 497 (1971). When a stop involves more than a brief detention and questioning, it can become an arrest. People v. Rodriguez, 945 P.2d 1351, 1362 (Colo.1997).

Unlike consensual encounters, stops and arrests are seizures that trigger Fourth Amendment protections. People v. Melton, 910 P.2d 672, 676 (Colo.1996). Arrests must be justified by probable cause, i.e., information demonstrating that there is a fair probability the defendant committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). A less rigorous standard is required to justify investigatory stops: the police must have a reasonable articulable suspicion that the defendant is involved in criminal activity. Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990); see also People v. Polander, 41 P.3d 698, 703 (Colo.2001).

In Polander, we examined the extent to which...