Satchell v. Com., 2186-92-2

• Decision Date: 15 August 1995
• Docket Number: No. 2186-92-2,2186-92-2
• Parties: Maurice Clay SATCHELL v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals

Page 253

460 S.E.2d 253

20 Va.App. 641

Maurice Clay SATCHELL v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 2186-92-2.

Court of Appeals of Virginia Richmond.

Aug. 15, 1995.

Craig S. Cooley, Richmond, for appellant.

Kathleen B. Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Stephen D. Rosenthal, Atty. Gen., on brief), for appellee.

Present: MOON, C.J., and BAKER, BARROW ^*, BENTON, KOONTZ, WILLIS, ELDER, BRAY and FITZPATRICK, JJ.

WILLIS, Judge.

In Commonwealth v. Satchell, 15 Va.App. 127, 422 S.E.2d 412 (1992) (Satchell I ), an appeal by the Commonwealth pursuant to Code § 19.2-398, a panel of this Court reversed the trial court's suppression of evidence relating to cocaine found on Satchell's person and remanded the case for trial. In obedience to that mandate, the trial court admitted the cocaine, and a description of its seizure, into evidence. On appeal from his resulting conviction of possession of cocaine and invoking Code § 19.2-409, Satchell contends that the cocaine and the circumstances of its discovery should have been excluded because they derived from an unlawful seizure of his person. We agree and reverse the judgment of the trial court.

This appeal was assigned initially to a three judge panel. However, thinking that the issues concerning the effect of our decision on interlocutory appeals and the review mandate of Code § 19.2-409 required a prompt full-Court decision, on motion of two members of the panel, we decided to consider this case en banc. Code § 17-116.02(D).

The evidence adduced at the pretrial hearing on Satchell's initial motion to suppress disclosed that:

In mid-afternoon on December 18, 1991, Sergeant John Buckovich, who was dressed in plain clothes and traveling in an unmarked police car, saw [Satchell] standing with two other individuals on a Richmond street corner known to Buckovich as an area for narcotics trafficking. Buckovich saw [Satchell] hand money to one man and receive something in return. The three men saw the police car as it approached and immediately started to walk away in separate directions. [Satchell] walked to a door stoop, but was unable to enter the locked door.

From these observations, Buckovich believed that criminal activity was transpiring. Buckovich, who had a badge around his neck, approached [Satchell] on the stoop and identified himself. He asked [Satchell], "What's in your hand, pal?" [Satchell] showed his left hand, which was empty. Buckovich then asked [Satchell] what was in his other hand. [Satchell] opened his right hand, which contained two packages of cocaine. Buckovich arrested [Satchell]. Buckovich testified that until he observed the cocaine and made the arrest, Satchell was free to leave at any time or to ignore Buckovich's questions.

Satchell I, 15 Va.App. at 129, 422 S.E.2d at 413. The trial court ruled that Buckovich's observations were insufficient to establish the level of suspicion required to justify a seizure of Satchell's person. The Commonwealth did not contest that ruling in Satchell I and does not contest it in this appeal.

The trial court found that a person in Satchell's position would reasonably have believed that he was not free to leave or to disregard Buckovich's questions. It ruled that Satchell had been seized and that the seizure, being unsupported by the requisite reasonable suspicion, was unlawful. It suppressed evidence of the cocaine and the circumstances surrounding its discovery.

The Commonwealth appealed the suppression ruling pursuant to Code § 19.2-398. Holding that, under the recited circumstances, Buckovich had not seized Satchell, a panel of this Court reversed the suppression ruling and remanded the case for trial. The panel noted:

[A] law enforcement officer does not violate the fourth amendment by merely approaching an individual in a public place and asking questions of the person if the individual is willing or chooses to remain and answer them. There must be some coercion or show of force or authority by the officer, measured by objective standards, that would cause a person so situated reasonably to have believed that he or she was required to comply with the officer's requests.

Id. at 131, 422 S.E.2d at 415 (citation omitted). The panel analyzed the facts as follows:

Sergeant Buckovich approached Satchell in midday in public and asked him what was in his hand. The officer made no show of authority other than his presence, he was not in uniform, he displayed no weapon, he was a lone officer, and, insofar as the record reflects, he made no command nor adopted a threatening tone. A question, as directed by Buckovich, is less coercive than a demand, as made by the officer in Baldwin [v. Commonwealth, 243 Va. 191, 413 S.E.2d 645 (1992) ]. In Baldwin, the police officer's demand, coupled with the shining of a floodlight and a request for identification, was held not to constitute a seizure. The Court found that a reasonably prudent person under those circumstances would not have believed his freedom of movement was restrained. In this case, the trial court ruled that a reasonably prudent person in Satchell's position, when approached by an officer and asked what was in his hand, would have believed he was not free to leave.... Absent factors of coerciveness or factors that would have confined Satchell, we find no evidence to support the ruling by the trial judge.

Id. at 132, 422 S.E.2d at 415.

At trial upon remand, the trial court reopened the admissibility issue concerning the cocaine and the circumstances of its discovery. The evidence at trial established, in addition to the scenario described in Satchell I, that four officers exited the police vehicle, that Buckovich walked swiftly toward Satchell and followed him onto the porch of a nearby building, that Satchell attempted to enter the building but was prevented from doing so by a locked door, and that Buckovich, although wearing plain clothes, displayed a visible firearm. Buckovich testified that he "hoped" Satchell would comply with his request. He said that he would have pressed Satchell for compliance, although "if he wanted to leave there was no way that I could keep him. I didn't have any right to hold him...." Buckovich acknowledged that he was attempting to conduct an investigative detention. Adhering to its previous factual findings and reaffirming its earlier conclusion that a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave under the circumstances, the trial court ruled, "I am fully aware of my obligation to follow the holdings of the Court [of Appeals], and for that reason I deny [the objection to the evidence]."

Before addressing the merits of the case, we confront three threshold questions: (1) the reviewability of the issue decided in Satchell I, (2) the context of review, and (3) the standard of review.

Reviewability

Relying on Commonwealth v. Burns, 240 Va. 171, 173-74, 395 S.E.2d 456, 457 (1990), and Robinson v. Commonwealth, 13 Va.App. 540, 543, 413 S.E.2d 661, 662 (1992), the Commonwealth contends that the holding in Satchell I is stare decisis as to the admissibility issue raised in this appeal. We find this argument unpersuasive. Burns and Robinson concerned rules of law developed in the normal appellate process. The holding in Satchell I addressed the admissibility of specific items of evidence, not in the context of the normal appellate process, but in the context of a special, prospective, interlocutory, and limited appellate review.

Code § 19.2-408 provides:

The decision of the Court of Appeals shall be final for purposes of an appeal pursuant to § 19.2-398 ... and no further pretrial appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court.

No provision is made for rehearing en banc. Code § 19.2-409 provides, in pertinent part:

Such finality of the Court of Appeals' decision shall not preclude a defendant, if he is convicted, from requesting the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court on direct appeal to reconsider an issue which was the subject of the pretrial appeal.

The purpose of Chapter 25 of Title 19.2 of the Code (§§ 19.2-398, et seq.) is to afford the Commonwealth a limited right of appeal under certain carefully specified circumstances. Those appeals are pre-trial, and the statutory scheme plainly contemplates that rulings on such appeals are interlocutory and reversible, as are the reviewed trial court rulings. This conclusion is made plain by the early finality and limitation of appellate review set forth in Code § 19.2-408 and by the express provision for reconsideration on direct appeal set forth in Code § 19.2-409. Thus, the holding in Satchell I is not stare decisis as to the admissibility issue raised in this appeal, and that issue is fully reviewable.

The Context of Review

Although we consider in this appeal the same issue of admissibility considered in Satchell I, this case is not a rehearing of Satchell I. The error assigned is to the trial court's admission of the questioned evidence at trial, following remand under Satchell I. Thus, our inquiry is not confined to the facts before the trial court when it made its initial suppression ruling. Rather, we consider all the facts underlying the ruling admitting the evidence. Had the trial court heard no further evidence on the subject but simply admitted the evidence in obedience to the mandate of Satchell I, our inquiry would, of necessity, address only the circumstances underlying the holding in Satchell I. However, because the trial court heard further evidence on the matter, our inquiry must address the full context in which the trial court ruled, and we must consider the additional evidence adduced at trial.

The Standard of Review

Upon review of an evidentiary suppression ruling, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party prevailing below, granting to it all reasonable inferences fairly deducible therefrom. See Commonwealth v. Grimstead, 12 Va.App. 1066, 1067, 407 S.E.2d 47, 48 (1991).

This well-established standard is based on deference to the...