People v. Moore, 95SA43

• Decision Date: 30 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95SA43,95SA43
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Joseph MOORE, Jr., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 66

900 P.2d 66

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Joseph MOORE, Jr., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 95SA43.

Supreme Court of Colorado En Banc.

June 30, 1995.

Stuart A. VanMeveren, Dist. Atty., Eighth Judicial Dist., Loren B. Schall, Asst. Dist. Atty., Clifford E. Riedel, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty., Fort Collins, for plaintiff-appellant.

David F. Vela, Colorado State Public Defender, Andrew A. Saliman, Deputy State Public Defender, Fort Collins, for defendant-appellee.

Justice VOLLACK delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In this interlocutory appeal, the People seek review of an order of the Larimer County District Court (the district court), which suppressed certain evidence obtained from a search of an automobile in which the defendant, Joseph Moore, Jr. (Moore), was a passenger, and also suppressed a later inculpatory statement made by Moore to the police. We affirm the district court's suppression order as to the statement, and reverse the district court's suppression order as to the evidence found in the car and remand the case for further proceedings.

I.

Moore was charged by information with the unlawful possession of a controlled substance, in violation of sections 18-18-203 and 18-18-405(2)(a)(I), 8B C.R.S. (1994 Supp.). Prior to trial, Moore filed a motion to suppress evidence of cocaine found in a wallet bearing his identification and also sought to suppress a later inculpatory statement that he made to the police. Moore argued that the evidence and statement were obtained in violation of his rights under the United States and Colorado Constitutions. The district court held a suppression hearing, and the following facts were established.

On the evening of October 13, 1994, several police officers and detectives with the City of Fort Collins Police Department executed a search warrant on Moore's apartment as part of an ongoing investigation of narcotics trafficking at the residence. Officer Daniel Murphy assisted with the search until he was directed by the detective in charge, Detective Todd Schneeberger, to locate Moore and his roommate, Ricky Hill (Hill). The police were aware, from surveillance of the apartment, that Moore and Hill had previously left their apartment in a black Volkswagen bug.

About fifteen minutes later, at approximately 10:45 p.m., Officer Murphy observed two men in a black Volkswagen bug. The driver of the vehicle twice failed to signal a right-hand turn, and Officer Murphy pulled the vehicle over. He stopped the vehicle in the parking lot of the apartment complex where the search was in progress, approximately fifty feet away from Moore's apartment.

As Officer Murphy approached the Volkswagen, both the driver and the passenger got out of the vehicle. The officer directed the passenger, whom he later identified as Moore, to stay by the car. Officer Murphy then identified the driver as Hill, conducted a computer check on his license, and told him that he would issue a warning for the traffic infraction. After giving Hill the warning, Officer Murphy asked Hill if he could talk with him about an ongoing narcotics investigation, and asked him if there were any illegal narcotics in the vehicle. Hill replied that there were no drugs in the vehicle but that he had a marijuana cigarette, and he proceeded to produce it from behind his ear.

Officer Murphy then requested and obtained Hill's consent to search the vehicle. According to Officer Murphy's testimony, Hill gave consent willingly and was cooperative. Officer Murphy searched the interior of the vehicle and found a black wallet under the passenger seat.

When he looked inside the wallet, Officer Murphy saw two packages of a substance which he suspected was cocaine. ¹ He also found a driver's license with Moore's name on it inside the wallet. After leaving the vehicle, Officer Murphy handed the wallet to an assisting officer, and asked Hill if the wallet was his. Hill replied that it was not.

Meanwhile, Moore had left the area and had walked across the parking lot to his apartment, apparently accompanied by another police officer. Moore entered his apartment while the police were still executing the search warrant. Detective Schneeberger testified that he showed Moore the search warrant, advised Moore that he was not in custody, and told him that he was free to leave at any time. Detective Schneeberger told Moore that if he did not leave, he should sit on the couch in the living room, which was about ten feet away from the front door of the apartment. Moore was not handcuffed and there were no officers blocking his exit. ²

Approximately twenty or thirty minutes after Moore first entered his apartment, Detective Schneeberger received the wallet from another officer, looked inside, and saw the driver's license with Moore's name on it along with two plastic baggies of a white powder which he suspected was cocaine. Detective Schneeberger then turned to Moore and asked him what he would find if he looked inside the wallet. Moore replied, "Three eight-balls." ³ Moore was not advised of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), prior to making the statement. After the police concluded the search of Moore's residence, they arrested him.

Moore testified at the suppression hearing on the limited issue of whether he was in custody when he was in his apartment. Moore said that, when he initially entered the apartment, approximately three of the officers present drew their guns on him. Moore said that he put his hands in the air and when he then indicated to the officers that there was another officer with him, the officers holstered their weapons. Moore admitted that the police showed him a copy of the search warrant and told him that he was not under arrest, but testified that he did not feel he was free to leave the apartment because of all the officers standing there with their guns.

The district court took the matter under advisement at the conclusion of the suppression hearing. The district court, by written order, granted Moore's motion to suppress evidence of the contents of the wallet as well as Moore's statement to the police. The district court reasoned that, although the stop of the vehicle was proper, it was unreasonable for Officer Murphy to believe that Hill's consent to search the automobile included consent to the search of the wallet found underneath the passenger seat, particularly since the officer knew that Hill's wallet was in Hill's possession at the time. The district court also found that Moore had not abandoned his wallet because he had no reason to know that the car would be searched when he exited the vehicle. Furthermore, the district court rejected the People's argument that the search of the wallet was justified under New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), since in that case the search was conducted incident to an arrest. The district court did not specifically hold that Officer Murphy lacked probable cause to search the car or the wallet, but nonetheless ruled that the search was unreasonable.

Regarding Moore's statement to the police while in the apartment, the district court held that the statement was a product of custodial interrogation, since a reasonable person in Moore's position would not have felt free to leave the officers' presence. The district court suppressed the statement on two grounds: because it was made without a Miranda warning, and because it was the fruit of the unreasonable search of the wallet.

The People appeal the district court's ruling. We affirm the suppression order as to the statement, and reverse the district court's suppression order as to the contents of the wallet found in the car and remand the case for further proceedings.

II.

We first address the district court's suppression of evidence contained in the wallet. As justification for Officer Murphy's warrantless search of the Volkswagen bug and the wallet, the People argue that the search was supported by probable cause. ⁴ We agree. We find that Officer Murphy's search of the car and the wallet found in the car was based on probable cause to believe that the vehicle contained contraband, and that the district court therefore erred in suppressing evidence of the contents of the wallet.

The United States and the Colorado Constitutions provide that citizens have a right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV; Colo. Const. art. II, § 7; People v. Hopkins, 870 P.2d 478, 480 (Colo.1994). Generally speaking, warrantless searches violate these guarantees because they are presumptively unreasonable. ⁵ People v. Carper, 876 P.2d 582, 584 (Colo.1994). However, there are exceptions to the warrant requirement. People v. Edwards, 836 P.2d 468, 471 (Colo.1992). Among these exceptions is the automobile exception, which allows the police to conduct a warrantless search of an automobile if they have probable cause to believe that the automobile contains evidence of a crime. People v. McMillon, 892 P.2d 879, 882 (Colo.1995); Edwards, 836 P.2d at 471. The police have probable cause to search if they have a reasonable basis for believing that the area being searched contains contraband or evidence of criminal activity. McMillon, 892 P.2d at 882.

Under the automobile exception, as long as the police have legitimately stopped an automobile and have probable cause to search it, they may also search containers within the automobile that might contain the object of their search. United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 825, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 2173, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982); McMillon, 892 P.2d at 883. We recently applied this rule to facts similar to those presented by this case. In McMillon, a police officer lawfully stopped an automobile for a traffic offense, and, after determining that the driver was wanted on at least one outstanding arrest warrant for possession of drug paraphernalia, arrested...