State v. Benson
| Decision Date | 21 July 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 24575.,24575. |
| Citation | 983 P.2d 225,133 Idaho 152 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Kevin Ronald BENSON, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
Alan E. Trimming, Ada County Public Defender; David J. Smethers, Deputy Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. David J. Smethers, argued.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Michael A. Henderson, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Michael A. Henderson, argued.
Kevin Ronald Benson appeals from the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a third-party consensual search of the garage he was staying in. For the reasons stated below, we reverse and remand.
Boise City police dispatch received an anonymous phone call stating that someone in a residence located at 5019 Wylie Lane was "cooking methamphetamine." The caller also indicated that the woman who rented the home was named Laura Hilton. Boise City detectives checked their records and confirmed that Laura Hilton actually lived at 5017 Wylie. Thus, the detectives focused their investigation on the residence located at 5017 Wylie.
On October 17, 1997, at approximately 10:30 p.m., detectives Michael Harrington and Dave Turnbough responded to the tip. During the course of surveilling the location, the detectives ran a license plate check on a vehicle parked at the home and discovered that the vehicle was registered in Trisha Stafford's name.
When their surveillance of the residence revealed no unusual conduct, the detectives knocked on the door and were greeted by Laura Hilton. The detectives told her they were investigating a phone call about a possible methamphetamine laboratory in her home and she invited them inside. The detectives asked Hilton who else was living at the residence and were informed that Hilton's four grandchildren also lived with her in the house.1 In addition, she advised the detectives that her daughter, Trisha Stafford, lived in the detached garage, located about fifteen feet away from the home.
Thereafter, the detectives accompanied Hilton to the garage. Hilton knocked on the door and asked for Trish to come out. A younger woman exited the garage and closed the door behind her. Detective Harrington asked her if she was Trish Stafford and she responded affirmatively. The detectives identified themselves, told Stafford they were investigating a tip they had received about a possible methamphetamine laboratory on the premises and, for safety reasons, asked her if anyone else was in the garage. Stafford informed the detectives that her boyfriend was sleeping inside.2
While the detectives were talking to Stafford, she became very upset and made numerous requests that they leave the premises, stating that they had no right to be there on the property. After the detectives had spoken with Stafford for about two minutes, Stafford's boyfriend, Kevin Benson, exited the garage. Immediately thereafter, Benson indicated that he was sick and sat down against the garage. Detective Harrington then observed a clear baggie with a green substance that appeared to be marijuana in Benson's shirt pocket. The detectives identified themselves and told Benson they were there to investigate a tip of a possible methamphetamine laboratory on the premises. In response, Benson stood up and became irate that the detectives were on the property. Benson was then arrested for possession of marijuana.
Because Stafford was screaming at her mother not to talk to the detectives and Benson was still angry, the two were separated for officer safety reasons while the detectives waited for back-up assistance to arrive. Detective Harrington testified that Stafford was screaming at her mother "that we did not have a warrant and not to give us permission to search." He next took Hilton aside and asked her if the garage area was hers, if she had access to it and if she had "stuff" inside. After receiving affirmative responses, Detective Harrington asked for and received Hilton's consent to enter and search the garage. Neither Stafford nor Benson was asked for or gave the detectives permission to enter and search the garage.
Benson was charged by criminal information with one count of manufacturing a controlled substance (methamphetamine) and one count of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance (marijuana). Benson filed a motion to suppress all evidence seized as a result of Hilton's consent to search. The district court held a hearing and issued a written decision denying the motion, concluding that Hilton had common authority over the garage and thus actual authority to consent to a search thereof. Alternatively, the court held that even if Hilton did not have actual authority to consent, the detectives were reasonable in relying on Hilton's apparent authority to consent to a search. Thereafter, pursuant to an Idaho Criminal Rule 11 plea agreement, Benson entered a conditional guilty plea to one count of felony manufacturing a controlled substance and one count of misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, reserving his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion. The court sentenced Benson to serve a unified seven-year sentence, with four years fixed, and retained jurisdiction for 180 days.3
In reviewing a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we employ a bifurcated standard. State v. Abeyta, 131 Idaho 704, 708, 963 P.2d 387, 391 (Ct.App.1998). We defer to the trial court's findings of fact if they are supported by substantial evidence and therefore not clearly erroneous, but we freely review the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. State v. Hawkins, 131 Idaho 396, 400, 958 P.2d 22, 26 (Ct.App.1998). Whether a search comports with Fourth Amendment reasonableness requirements is a question of law over which we exercise free review. Id.
Benson argues that the facts adduced at both the preliminary and suppression hearing demonstrate that Hilton did not have common authority over the garage and the district court erred in concluding otherwise. The state declines to address this issue, arguing instead that the only relevant inquiry on appeal is whether the detectives could have reasonably believed Hilton had authority to consent to a search of the garage. However, because the district court's denial of Benson's motion to suppress was based foremost on Hilton's common authority over the garage, and alternatively on her apparent authority, we evaluate both bases of the district court's order.
Detective Turnbough testified that Hilton told him Stafford and Benson were living in the detached garage. When Hilton walked the detectives back to the garage, she knocked on the door and informed Stafford that the police were there to speak with her. Once Stafford stepped outside, Hilton testified that she returned inside her residence but overheard Stafford tell the police to go away because they did not have a search warrant.
Stafford testified that she lived in her mother's garage and babysat her brother's children in lieu of paying rent. The existence of this agreement was corroborated by Hilton: "My daughter stayed in the garage and took care of the four children in lieu of rent so that I could work." Stafford used a padlock to keep the garage locked in her and Benson's absence. Only she and Benson had keys to the padlock and hence access to the garage at all times. Because Hilton did not have a key to the padlock and the garage was always locked when Stafford and Benson were away, Hilton could not access the garage without obtaining Stafford's or Benson's permission. Hilton testified that although she stored holiday decorations and a freezer in the garage, she considered the garage to be her "daughter's residence."
Based upon this evidence, the district court found that Hilton possessed sufficient common authority over the garage to consent to a search thereof. We disagree. When the state seeks to justify a warrantless search by proof of voluntary consent, it bears the burden of demonstrating "that consent has been given, and that the person giving the consent had authority to do so...." State v. Johnson, 110 Idaho 516, 522, 716 P.2d 1288, 1294 (1986). In proving the validity of the consent given, the state "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, 249 (1974) (footnote omitted); Johnson, 110 Idaho at 522-23,716 P.2d at 1294-95. Such authority rests "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." Matlock, 415 U.S. at 171 n. 7,94 S.Ct. at 993 n. 7,39 L.Ed.2d at 250 n. 7.
In Johnson, the Idaho Supreme Court recognized the doctrine of common authority as set forth in Matlock, but rejected the state's contention that a landlord had common authority over his tenant's home such that he could validly consent to a search thereof. Absent the state's ability to demonstrate that the landlord had mutual use of the property such that the tenant assumed the risk his landlord might permit the apartment to be searched, the landlord lacked authority to consent to a search of his tenant's residence. The Court cited, with approval, cases where a lessor or landlord was deemed to be without authority to consent to a search of a rental home, Chapman v....
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