State v. Christy

• Decision Date: 25 March 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-394,92-394
• Citation: 138 N.H. 352,639 A.2d 261
• Parties: The STATE of New Hampshire v. Sean CHRISTY.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 261

639 A.2d 261

138 N.H. 352

The STATE of New Hampshire v. Sean CHRISTY.

No. 92-394.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

March 25, 1994.

Jeffrey R. Howard, Atty. Gen. (Jane E. Young, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief and orally), for the State.

Albert E. Scherr, Asst. Appellate Defender, Concord, by brief and orally, for defendant.

HORTON, Justice.

The defendant, Sean Christy, was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to dispense, and possession of psilocybin with intent to dispense. The Superior Court (Hollman, J.) denied the defendant's motions to suppress evidence, and the defendant was found guilty by the Superior Court (Sullivan, J.) upon an agreed stipulation of facts. On appeal, the defendant argues that his arrest, which was effectuated without a warrant and in reliance on information from an anonymous informant, was unconstitutional, and that evidence seized following his arrest should have been suppressed. We affirm.

On February 15, 1990, an anonymous caller telephoned the New London "Crimeline" to report that the defendant was selling cocaine from his apartment on Main Street in New London. According to the Crimeline's notes of the call, about once every two weeks the defendant, whom the caller referred to as "Shawn," rode the Amtrak train from White River Junction, Vermont, to New York City to purchase cocaine. The defendant usually stayed in New York City for two days at a time and purchased cocaine worth approximately $2,000. Upon returning to New Hampshire, the defendant sold the cocaine in one gram or half gram quantities, using high school students as sales agents. The caller said the defendant drove a black Subaru, and described him as a twenty-eight-year-old white male, approximately five feet, nine inches tall, weighing 165 pounds, with curly black hair and blue eyes. The caller promised to contact the Crimeline when the defendant next traveled to New York City. On February 20, 1990, the caller telephoned the Crimeline and said that the defendant was scheduled to return to White River Junction from New York City on February 22, 1990. Although the caller said the defendant's train would arrive at 5:00 p.m., police officers concluded from their own knowledge of the Amtrak train schedule that the New York train arrived in White River Junction at 5:00 a.m. The caller said that she planned to meet the defendant at the train station and would be driving his Subaru. She added that they would return to New London on the interstate highway. The caller said she would be wearing a black skirt and sweater, and described herself as five feet, eight inches tall, weighing 125 pounds, with light brown hair and green eyes.

Prior to the Crimeline calls, State and local police had received several reports of drug activity involving the defendant. During the summer of 1989, an anonymous source called Trooper Mathews at the New Hampshire State Police and reported that the defendant was selling drugs from his apartment on Main Street in New London. The source said that the defendant owned a black Subaru, and that he traveled to New York City on the Amtrak train to purchase the drugs. A second anonymous source called Trooper Mathews later that summer to report that the defendant was selling drugs from his Main Street apartment. Trooper Mathews was familiar with the defendant. Earlier in 1989, while undercover, he had attempted to arrange a drug transaction with an individual who was driving the defendant's Subaru and who claimed that he could obtain drugs from the defendant. After receiving the two anonymous reports, Trooper Mathews corroborated that a black Subaru was registered to the defendant, and that the defendant lived on Main Street in New London.

A few months later, in October 1989, the State police received a telephone call from a clerk at the New London District Court who resided in the same apartment building as the defendant. The clerk said that she and other residents in the building had recently observed a suspicious pattern of activity around the defendant's apartment. For periods lasting approximately a week at a time, the clerk said, a constant flow of people could be seen coming and going from the defendant's apartment at all hours of the day and night. The people generally arrived by car and remained with the defendant for only a few minutes. After the clerk's call, the State police received an anonymous report from an individual who said he had heard that the defendant's roommate, Robert Levasseur, was selling drugs from the Main Street apartment.

In November 1989, a confidential informant went to the New London Police Department and reported having observed seventeen people enter and exit the defendant's apartment during one ninety-minute period. A short time later, this informant again went to the New London Police and said that the defendant had told him that over the course of a few days he had made $6,400 selling cocaine. Finally, on January 25, 1990, an anonymous caller reported to the New London Police that the defendant had illegal drugs in his apartment. Police officers spent several hours observing the defendant's apartment but saw no evidence of suspicious activity.

On February 22, 1992, two days after the second call to the New London Crimeline, New London Police Officer David Seastrand went with Trooper Mathews and State Police Lieutenant Healey to the Amtrak train station to await the 5:00 a.m. train from New York City. Earlier that morning, Officer Seastrand had driven past the defendant's apartment and had seen the defendant's Subaru and a second car, a Dodge Omni, parked in front of the building. The Dodge was registered to Anastasia Kerr. Officer Seastrand was familiar with Anastasia Kerr, having earlier arrested her for issuing a bad check. He knew that Anastasia Kerr and her brother, David Kerr, were associates of the defendant. Seastrand brought a photograph of Anastasia Kerr to the train station, and he told Trooper Mathews that he expected she would be meeting the defendant.

A few minutes before 5:00 a.m., the officers saw the defendant's Subaru arrive at the train station. The car was driven by Anastasia Kerr, whom the officers recognized from the photograph provided by Officer Seastrand. She was accompanied by her brother, David Kerr. The New York train arrived on schedule, and the officers watched the defendant leave the train carrying a gray shoulder bag. His appearance generally matched the description provided by the Crimeline caller, except that he had a moustache and a goatee-type beard. The defendant walked to the parking lot and got into the Subaru's passenger seat.

The officers had anticipated that the defendant and his companions would return directly to New London on Interstate 89. After confirming the defendant's arrival on the New York train, Trooper Mathews had arranged for a State police cruiser to stop the Subaru when it entered New Hampshire on Interstate 89. Anastasia Kerr, however, did not drive immediately into New Hampshire. Instead, she drove south through Vermont on Interstate 91. The officers followed the Subaru, and an hour later, when it left the highway and headed into New Hampshire, they radioed the Keene Police Department for assistance. As the Subaru pulled into a convenience store in Keene, two police cruisers arrived displaying flashing lights. The cruisers blocked the Subaru's path, and Trooper Mathews and Lieutenant Healey ordered the defendant and the Kerrs to remain in the car with their hands up. As the officers approached the car with their guns drawn, the defendant pushed open the passenger door and attempted to get out. He was placed face down on the pavement and handcuffed. While Anastasia and David Kerr were removed from the Subaru and handcuffed, Trooper Mathews walked around the car and used a flashlight to look inside. The car doors were open, and the defendant's shoulder bag was lying unzipped on the back seat. Trooper Mathews saw that it held an open brown paper sack containing several small plastic bags, some filled with a white powder which he suspected was cocaine and others filled with mushrooms which he suspected contained psilocybin. Trooper Mathews confiscated the shoulder bag, and the three individuals were arrested and taken to the Keene Police Department. The Subaru was also taken to the police department, and its subsequent search revealed a jacket that belonged to the defendant and contained a vial of cocaine and a handwritten train schedule. The officers also searched the defendant's shoulder bag and found one bag of cocaine, two bags of marijuana, twenty-two bags of psilocybin mushrooms, and drug-related paraphernalia. The defendant was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to dispense, and possession of psilocybin with intent to dispense.

Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of his warrantless arrest. The superior court denied the motions, holding that the police had probable cause to arrest the defendant when they stopped his car, and that the search of his car was permissible as a search incident to a lawful arrest.

On appeal, the defendant challenges only the finding of probable cause, arguing that it was based upon information provided by an anonymous informant of unknown reliability. Accordingly, he concludes that his arrest was illegal under both part I, article 19 of the State Constitution and the fourth amendment to the Federal Constitution, and that evidence obtained incident to his illegal arrest should have been suppressed. We address the defendant's State constitutional claim first, see State v. Ball, 124 N.H. 226, 231, 471 A.2d 347, 350 (1983), citing federal law only to aid our analysis. See State v. Maya, 126 N.H. 590, 594, 493 A.2d 1139, 1143 (1985). Because federal law is not more favorable to the defendant in this area, see id., we need not analyze his...