Saavedra v. State

• Citation: 622 So.2d 952
• Decision Date: 03 June 1993
• Docket Number: No. 77886,77886
• Parties: , 18 Fla. L. Weekly S317 Tommy SAAVEDRA, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida

Page 952

622 So.2d 952

62 USLW 2047, 18 Fla. L. Weekly S317

Tommy SAAVEDRA, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. 77886.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 3, 1993.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 3, 1993.

Wm. J. Sheppard, Elizabeth L. White and Michael R. Yokan of Sheppard and White, P.A., Jacksonville, for petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen. and Bradley R. Bischoff, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent.

HARDING, Justice.

We have for review Saavedra v. State, 576 So.2d 953 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991), based on conflict with Padron v. State, 328 So.2d 216 (Fla. 4th DCA), cert. denied, 339 So.2d 1172 (Fla.1976). ¹

The issue for review is whether a minor may consent to a police officer's warrantless entry into a parent's home. We hold that a minor may provide valid third-party consent to a warrantless entry if the State can show: 1) the minor shares the home with an absent, nonconsenting parent; ² 2) the police officer conducting the entry into the home reasonably believes, based on articulable facts, that the minor shares common authority with the parent to allow entry into the home; ³ and 3) by clear and convincing evidence that the minor's consent was freely and voluntarily given under the totality of the circumstances.

The State charged Tommy Saavedra (Saavedra) and Donald Teater (Teater), with burglary, armed kidnapping, and three counts of sexual battery which occurred when they broke into their next-door neighbor's home, forcibly removed a twelve-year-old girl and repeatedly assaulted her in a nearby park.

K.A., the victim, testified that on the evening of June 24, 1987, at approximately 10:30 p.m., there was a power failure in the neighborhood and that she and her sister sat on their front porch. Next door, K.A. saw her brother and cousin speaking to Saavedra, Teater, Tommy Saavedra, Jr. and his cousin Robbie Methvin. When the power was restored, K.A. went next door and got her brother and cousin, returned home, and shortly thereafter went to bed. At approximately 2:00 a.m., K.A. stated that she was awakened by a sharp object sticking in her side. She saw Saavedra, who was kneeling beside her bed dressed in a black karate suit, and another man, who was also dressed in a black suit and hood, standing behind him. Saavedra threatened to kill K.A. if she made any noise. As the men forced her outside, the hood fell off the other man and K.A. recognized him as Teater.

Saavedra and Teater led the victim to a nearby park, tore off her t-shirt and underwear, pushed her to the ground and forced her to have intercourse with each of them. The men then led her to a slide in the park and again forced her to have intercourse. Teater then unsuccessfully attempted anal intercourse. Finally, the men led her to a concrete circle in the middle of the park and forced her to have intercourse again. After these attacks, which lasted over an hour, Saavedra told K.A. that "the next-door neighbors can't help you now." Saavedra and Teater fled the park and left K.A. behind. K.A. then gathered her clothing, went home and told her brother about the attacks.

At approximately 3:30 a.m., the police arrived at K.A.'s house after receiving a report of a sexual battery. When K.A. identified her attackers as her next-door neighbors, Saavedra and Teater, Officer Robert Benfield went to Saavedra's home and knocked on the door. Two other officers began looking into the windows with their flashlights. One of the officers testified that he saw two persons lying in the bed, and thus he began to knock louder in order to arouse the occupants.

Officer Benfield testified that he went to the back door and began to knock. A young boy, later identified as Saavedra's fifteen-year-old son, answered the door. According to Officer Benfield, he identified himself and told the boy that he needed to speak to an adult. The boy then gave him permission to enter the home. Officer Benfield entered the home and walked past the boy to a nearby bedroom where he arrested Teater. Two other officers entered the home and arrested Saavedra in an adjacent bedroom. The officers then placed Saavedra and Teater in the back of the police car, and K.A. identified them as her attackers. The next morning the police obtained Saavedra's consent to search his home where they found two pairs of black pants, one of which was located in Saavedra's room, as well as a black hood. Both pants were soiled, and one was wet with sand.

The trial court denied Saavedra's motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his home after his warrantless arrest. The jury convicted him of burglary, armed kidnapping, and three counts of sexual battery. The First District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court's denial of Saavedra's motion to suppress as well as his three convictions for sexual battery. Saavedra, 576 So.2d at 963. In affirming the trial court, the district court held that a minor could grant valid consent to enter a home and concluded that under the totality of the circumstances Saavedra's son granted valid consent. Id. at 959. In reaching its decision, the district court rejected the Fourth District Court of Appeal's holding in Padron, 328 So.2d at 217. In Padron, the Fourth District Court of Appeal made a per se rule that a minor did not share common authority with a parent over the home, and thus the minor could not grant valid consent for the police officers to enter the home. ⁴ 328 So.2d at 217.

Saavedra raises two issues for our review: 1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained following the police officer's warrantless entry into his home and arrest; and 2) whether the trial court properly convicted him of three separate charges of sexual battery.

The first issue we address is the police officer's warrantless entry into Saavedra's home and his subsequent arrest. In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), the United States Supreme Court held "that the Fourth Amendment ... prohibits the police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest." Id. at 576, 100 S.Ct. at 1374-75 (citations omitted). As the Court stated:

The Fourth Amendment protects the individual's privacy in a variety of settings. In none is the zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home--a zone that finds its roots in clear and specific constitutional terms: "The right of the people to be secure in their ... houses ... shall not be violated." That language unequivocally establishes the proposition that "[a]t the very core [of the Fourth Amendment] stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion." Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 683, 5 L.Ed.2d 734. In terms that apply equally to seizures of property and to seizures of persons, the Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant.

Id. at 589-90, 100 S.Ct. at 1381-82. Thus, the rule of law is that absent consent or exigent circumstances, the police may not make a warrantless entry into a suspect's home in order to make a felony arrest.

The issue here is whether a minor may grant consent for a police officer to enter a home that the minor shares with a parent. ⁵ We hold that the State must show by clear and convincing evidence from the totality of the circumstances that the minor gave free and voluntary consent. ⁶ Cf. Norman v. State, 379 So.2d 643 (Fla.1980). In addition, because the minor shares the home with a parent, the consent must satisfy the third-party-consent test. This Court has stated that "[t]he test for a valid third-party consent to a warrantless search is whether the third party has joint control of the premises." Ferguson v. State, 417 So.2d 631, 634 (Fla.1982). Furthermore, a joint occupant or one sharing dominion and control over the premises may provide valid consent only if the party who is the target of the search is not present or if the party is present and not does not object to the search. Silva v. State, 344 So.2d 559, 562 (Fla.1977). In cases of third-party consent, the United States Supreme Court has stated:

[W]hen the prosecution seeks to justify a warrantless search by proof of voluntary consent, it is not limited to proof that consent was given by the defendant, but may show that permission to search was obtained from a third party who possessed common authority over or other sufficient relationship to the premises or effects sought to be inspected.

United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 171, 94 S.Ct. 988, 993, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974). The Supreme Court then explained in a footnote that:

Common authority is, of course, not to be implied from the mere property interest a third party has in the property. The authority which justifies the third-party consent does not rest upon the law of property, with its attendant historical and legal refinements but rests rather on mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes, so that it is reasonable to recognize that any of the co-inhabitants has the right to permit the inspection in his own right and that the others have assumed the risk that one of their number might permit the common area to be searched.

Id. at 171 n. 7, 94 S.Ct. at 993 n. 7 (emphasis added) (citations omitted).

The validity of the minor's consent hinges on the determination of whether it is reasonable to recognize that a minor may permit, in his or her own right, a police officer's entry into the home. The only Florida case to address this issue is Padron, which adopted a per se rule that minors do not share common authority with parents over the home, and thus cannot consent to an entry. Other states which have addressed this...