People v. Staton

• Decision Date: 23 September 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96SA113,96SA113
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Andrew Thorpe STATON, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 127

924 P.2d 127

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Andrew Thorpe STATON, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96SA113.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

Sept. 23, 1996.

Peter F. Michaelson, District Attorney, Fifth Judicial District, Jeffrey S. Ryan, Deputy District Attorney, Breckenridge, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

David F. Vela, Colorado State Public Defender, Frances Smylie Brown, Chief Appellate Deputy, Denver, for Defendant-Appellee.

MULLARKEY, Justice.

The People bring this interlocutory appeal under C.A.R. 4.1 to challenge the trial court's suppression of evidence seized pursuant to an automobile search warrant issued in North Carolina. The defendant-appellee, Andrew Thorpe Staton (Staton), was charged with one count of first degree felony murder, section 18-3-102(1)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1986), and one count of first degree murder after deliberation, section 18-3-102(1)(a), 8B C.R.S. (1995 Supp.). Staton moved to suppress all evidence obtained from the automobile search based on the insufficiency of the search warrant and supporting affidavit. ¹ The trial court granted the motion holding that the warrant failed to meet the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement. We hold that: (1) the warrant's defects were cured by the supporting affidavit which was incorporated by reference into the warrant; (2) under the particular circumstances presented here, the validity of the search did not depend upon whether the curative affidavit accompanied the warrant at the time the search was executed; and (3) the supporting affidavit stated with sufficient particularity the property to be seized. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's order suppressing the evidence seized from Staton's automobile.

I.

The statement of facts which follows is taken from the affidavit in support of the search warrant and from the trial court's findings of fact in the suppression hearing.

On the morning of March 25, 1995, Janice and Ron Drake discovered a body at the northeast corner of the intersection of West LaBonte and West Buffalo Streets in Dillon, Colorado. Janice Drake immediately contacted the Dillon police and Officers Joan Boss and Wendy Kipple responded to her call. There, Officer Kipple found identification on the body (a "Ski the Summit" photo identification pass) indicating that the deceased was John Hickok. Officer Kipple observed pools of blood on the roadway next to the body and a six inch rock, covered with blood, nearby. Officer Kipple further observed drag marks leading from an adjacent undeveloped lot to the area where the body and bloody rock were located. Based on the autopsy, Dr. Ben Galloway testified that Hickok died from a trauma caused by a blunt instrument.

Later on that day, Luis A. Segura brought a blue fanny pack to the Dillon Police found by him at the intersection where Hickok's body was discovered. The fanny pack contained a pair of gloves, a flashlight, and several empty plastic bags. Segura told the police that he believed the gloves were soaked in blood or possibly paint. ² Later, the police learned that Hickok typically carried his money in plastic bags inside a blue fanny pack.

Gerald D. Sandberg (Sandberg), an investigator with the Office of the District Attorney, Fifth Judicial District of the State of Colorado, and Susan Kitchen, an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, learned that Hickok had spent the early morning hours from 12:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. at a drinking establishment in Dillon, known as "Alice's," playing pool. There, witnesses noted that Hickok had a substantial amount of cash on his person. According to the supporting affidavit, Hickok's mother had sent him $1,000 for a trip to Yellowstone National Park. No money was found on the deceased.

Witnesses told Sandberg that Hickok left Alice's with an individual identified as "Drew." Sandberg also learned that someone, known as "Andrew," had caught a ride hitchhiking early on March 25, 1995, and had been dropped off at his trailer in the Cottonwood Trailer Park in Silverthorne, Colorado. ³ The hitchhiker had blood on his hands and a cut on his finger bandaged with a t-shirt. The two men who had picked him up noted that the hitchhiker had a number of folded twenty dollar bills in his shirt pocket and later identified "Andrew," from a photograph, as Staton. Consequently, Sandberg's investigation focused on Staton.

Upon further investigation of Staton, Sandberg ascertained that on March 26, 1995, Staton purchased a green 1975 Chevrolet van from a woman in Breckenridge. Staton told the woman he would be taking the van to North Carolina to take care of some "business." Upon questioning, Staton's roommates told Sandberg that Staton had left town instructing them to tell anyone who asked of his whereabouts that he had gone to California, but that in actuality, he was going "back East." Sandberg also learned that Staton had been employed at the Sunshine Cafe in Silverthorne but left without retrieving his last pay check.

Sandberg went to North Carolina and, after interviewing Staton at his attorney's office, arrested him. During the course of the interview, Staton told Sandberg that he purchased the green van, drove it to North Carolina, and that most of his belongings were still in the van.

Thereafter, Sandberg, with the assistance of the local authorities, in particular, Detective Dennis P. Pridgen (Pridgen) of the Wilmington Police Department, applied for a search warrant for the van, then located in Wilmington, North Carolina. In essence, the supporting affidavit stated that the evidence sought was clothing items containing traces of blood. The application was approved on April 6, 1995, by Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Fullwood sitting in New Hanover County, North Carolina. The search, conducted that same day, led to the seizure of approximately eighteen items of property including clothing, three hair samples, a blue and tan bag, a plastic bag containing a newspaper, contraband (marijuana, drug paraphernalia), and bedding (mattress pad, bed sheets, and pillow cases).

Staton was charged with one count of felony murder and one count of murder after deliberation. The People gave notice of intent to seek the death penalty. On August 14, 1995, Staton filed a motion to suppress evidence resulting from the North Carolina search warrant. ⁴ The motion was premised on the following grounds: (1) the warrant was based on false and inaccurate information; (2) without the false information there was no probable cause to support the warrant; (3) the warrant and attached affidavit were nonspecific and general; and (4) the seizure of the evidence was unreasonable, overbroad, and constituted an impermissible exploratory search.

The suppression hearing was conducted on November 13, 1995, November 15, 1995, December 14, 1995, and March 13, 1996, some months after the search of the van. Both Sandberg and Pridgen testified at the hearing. ⁵ Sandberg testified on the logistics of the search which was conducted under his supervision. Specifically, Sandberg explained that he directly supervised the search, instructing the officers who were assisting him to seize certain items. During his testimony, Sandberg was questioned about every item he directed to be seized. However, he was unable to recollect if all of the items seized had traces of blood. His answers generally indicated that since blood stains are not readily detectible to the naked eye, he seized all of the clothing, as well as the bedding and the bag. ⁶ Sandberg also seized evidence other than clothing and bedding that he perceived would be material in a subsequent prosecution. Sandberg seized three hair samples, two that he found on t-shirts and one found on a sock. While none of these three clothing items contained blood traces, Sandberg seized these items because he knew that Hickok died by a blow to the head and thought there might have been a transfer of hair and blood during the murder. ⁷ He seized a copy of the Summit Daily Journal, a Summit County newspaper, which contained an article about the homicide because it linked Staton to the area during the time in question. He also seized contraband.

The trial court found that, pursuant to the warrant and supporting affidavit, there was probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed, that Staton was the perpetrator, and that there would be evidence of the crime found in Staton's van. Nevertheless, the trial court granted Staton's motion to suppress, finding that:

The warrant fails to state with any particularity property to be searched for, seized or inspected, and the nonspecific reference to blood traces contained in the Affidavit itself is insufficient to cure that defect and provide the type of direction to one conducting a search, which is not only constitutionally required, but required pursuant to Rule 41 and 16-3-301.

In so holding, the trial court ruled that it was bound by the "four corners of the search warrant." The trial court particularly noted Sandberg's testimony and ruled as follows:

[Sandberg's] testimony reflects clearly that he was unable to state with particularity the observation of any type of stain which he believed might be blood. He further testified that he took some of these items for other investigatory purposes than just to determine if they contained blood. The Court would note that his testimony disclosed and the application for the Search Warrant indicates that he has twelve years of law enforcement experience, having attended 10 to 20 homicide investigation classes and schools and approximately four classes in blood evidence. If he's done that and he can't say whether he believes or thinks that something might have blood on it, then that representation would be a misrepresentation of his knowledge to the Court.

II.

Under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in order to issue, a warrant must "particularly describ[e] the place to be...