Robles v. State
| Decision Date | 28 July 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 285S42,285S42 |
| Citation | 510 N.E.2d 660 |
| Parties | Israel T. ROBLES, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Dennis E. Zahn, James H. Voyles, Ober, Symmes, Cardwell, Voyles & Zahn, Indianapolis, for appellant.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Richard C. Webster, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
This case presents novel Fourth Amendment questions concerning a modern phenomenon: the transportation of illegal drugs in airline baggage. Appellant Israel T. Robles was convicted after a bench trial of dealing in cocaine, a Class A felony, Ind. Code Sec. 35-48-4-1 (Burns 1985 Repl.). He was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
In this direct appeal, Robles challenges the admission of two packages of cocaine seized from luggage which he was carrying immediately before his arrest. The evidence showed that he approached the Britt Airways counter at the Indianapolis International Airport about 3:15 p.m. on December 31, 1983. He was carrying a small, light suitcase and seeking to pick up a prepaid ticket for a flight to Chicago, departing at 4 p.m. Robles produced some type of Puerto Rican identification which did not display a photograph. When the Britt agent requested identification displaying a photograph, Robles produced his Florida driver's license listing a Miami address.
Robles asked the Britt agent to check his luggage, although the bag was small enough to carry on board. Testimony showed that carry-on luggage would have passed through an x-ray machine, while checked luggage would not. The luggage was sent to the baggage room, and Robles left the Britt counter.
The Britt agent suspected that Robles might be carrying narcotics because of (1) his Puerto Rican and Florida identification; (2) his checking of the lightweight luggage, and (3) the fact that he had a prepaid one-way ticket to a city so far from his home yet carried only a small bag. The agent conveyed her suspicions to other Britt employees, and one of them brought Robles' bag to the Britt operations office. Britt Operations Manager Kevin Macy opened Robles' bag and found two packages wrapped in duct tape. One package was about the size of a baseball and the other was as large as a football. Macy could not ascertain their contents, so he called the Airport police with a report of "suspicious packages."
Officer Gerald Clinger arrived at the Britt office about 3:40 p.m. Macy showed him the open suitcase with the two packages sitting on top of clothing. Clinger asked what they had. Macy said the ticket agent was suspicious of the man who checked the bag. Clinger picked up the packages and examined them. He later testified he believed a felony might be in progress; he had seen pictures of such packages in law enforcement magazines and in police academy classes and knew that they were commonly used to transport drugs. In response to Clinger's questions, the Britt employees said they did not know where Robles was at the moment, but his flight was scheduled to depart at 4 p.m.
Clinger peeled the tape off the smaller bundle and discovered aluminum foil stuck to the tape. He could see a plastic bag with a white powdery substance under the foil. He conducted a narcotics field test on the white powder and obtained a positive reaction for cocaine. Then he called two other officers, who arrived momentarily. The package was rewrapped and returned to the suitcase. After obtaining a description of Robles, the officers took the luggage and located him at the gate. Robles agreed to accompany police to answer questions concerning the luggage.
After being read his Miranda warnings, Robles twice denied that the bag was his. Clinger asked to see Robles' ticket, which matched the tag on the bag. Robles then admitted that he had been carrying the bag but asserted that it belonged to a friend named "Juan" who asked him to carry it to Chicago. Robles said he did not know Juan's last name. Robles was arrested.
Robles first claims that the cocaine was the product of an illegal search and thus was inadmissible at trial. The State contends that Robles does not have standing to raise this issue. The Fourth Amendment protects from unreasonable searches those areas in which a defendant has an actual or subjective expectation of privacy which society recognizes as reasonable. Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 740, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 2580, 61 L.Ed.2d 220, 226 (1979) (). An individual possesses a privacy interest, cognizable under the Fourth Amendment, in the contents of his personal luggage. United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983). However, mere possession of a searched item does not confer automatic standing to challenge the search on Fourth Amendment grounds, albeit that possession, as in this case, is sufficient to establish criminal culpability. United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980).
Citing United States v. Tolbert, 692 F.2d 1041 (6th Cir.1982), the State argues that a defendant who disclaims ownership in luggage does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bag at the time of the search. In Tolbert, the defendant completely denied ownership of a piece of luggage, and her disclaimer occurred immediately before the search of the luggage by government agents. The Sixth Circuit reasoned that Tolbert had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the luggage because she "affirmatively indicated that she had no interest in preserving the secrecy of the contents...." 692 F.2d at 1045. See also, State v. Machlach (1987), Ind.App., 505 N.E.2d 873 ().
Robles' case differs in important ways. He was not approached by police and questioned about the luggage until after the search. At the time of the search, Clinger had every reason to believe that he was intruding into Robles' privacy interests. He knew Robles had checked the luggage with Britt. How could he have known at that time that Robles later would disclaim ownership?
Moreover, unlike the defendant in Tolbert, Robles admitted he was transporting the bag, although he attributed ownership to the elusive "Juan." While this Court has on occasion denied Fourth Amendment standing to defendants challenging the search of a third person's premises or property, those rulings were grounded on the determination that the defendant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy within the area to be searched. See, e.g., Stout v. State (1985), Ind., 479 N.E.2d 563; Wolfe v. State (1981), Ind., 426 N.E.2d 647. Thus, ownership of the searched property does not by itself define who falls under the protective umbrella of the Fourth Amendment.
In United States v. Posey, 663 F.2d 37 (7th Cir.1981), a defendant driving an automobile owned by his wife was found to have Fourth Amendment standing to challenge a search of that automobile. See also, Pollard v. State (1979), 270 Ind. 599, 388 N.E.2d 496. Robles asserted a possessory interest similar to that of Posey and Pollard--a bailment. Under these circumstances, in light of the recognized privacy interest in luggage, we conclude Robles had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bag and its contents sufficient to allow him to challenge the reasonableness of the search on Fourth Amendment grounds.
The Fourth Amendment proscribes only unreasonable search and seizure by government or its agents; it is wholly inapplicable to a search or seizure conducted by a private individual who is neither an agent of the government nor acting with the participation or knowledge of any governmental official. That employees of a private carrier independently opened the luggage and made an examination that might have been impermissible for a government agent does not render the subsequent official conduct unreasonable per se. The reasonableness of the official invasion must be appraised by the extent to which it exceeds the unofficial invasion. United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984).
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has found that a government officer who removes powder from rubber tubes which airline employees have taken out of a package placed for shipment may do so to determine if the substance in plain view is contraband. This plain view inspection, the Tenth Circuit said, falls within the bounds of the private search by airline employees. United States v. Ford, 525 F.2d 1308 (10th Cir.1975). In light of the more recent Jacobsen decision, we disagree. 1 In this case, it seems more likely that the officer's unwrapping of the package and subsequent field test were searches within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. State does not contend otherwise.
Warrantless searches of sealed packages are...
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