State v. Coma

• Decision Date: 28 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 24612.,24612.
• Citation: 133 Idaho 29,981 P.2d 754
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Gary William COMA, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Idaho Court of Appeals

981 P.2d 754

133 Idaho 29

133 Idaho 29

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Gary William COMA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 24612.

Court of Appeals of Idaho.

June 28, 1999.

John M. Adams, Chief Kootenai County Public Defender; J. Bradford Chapman, Deputy Public Defender, Coeur d'Alene, for appellant.

Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.

LANSING, Judge.

Gary William Coma challenges the constitutionality of police officers' entry into his home to place him under arrest pursuant to a misdemeanor arrest warrant. Coma contends that a home entry is not permissible under an arrest warrant where the arrest is for a misdemeanor rather than a felony and, in the alternative, that the officers' entry exceeded that necessary to effectuate his arrest. A motion made on these grounds to suppress evidence seen by officers inside the home was denied by the district court, and Coma appeals.

FACTS

On the evening of June 11, 1997, Detective Turner of the Coeur d'Alene police department observed Gary Coma driving a pickup. Detective Turner recognized Coma as someone he had previously cited for driving without privileges. Turner therefore followed Coma's vehicle while checking with police dispatch on the status of Coma's driver's license. Turner was informed that Coma had obtained a valid license, but also had a bench warrant outstanding for failure to appear for a jail sentence. Turner followed Coma to his home, where a uniformed officer joined the detective. After Coma went inside, the detective and the uniformed officer approached the house. They entered a front porch through a screen door, walked across the porch, and knocked on a second door that separated the porch from the remainder of the house. In his subsequent testimony, Detective Turner referred to this second door as "the main door."

When Coma opened this interior door, Detective Turner put his foot in the doorway to prevent closure of the door and advised Coma that the officers needed to come inside to talk to him. Coma asked why they wanted entry, and Turner responded that they had a warrant for Coma's arrest. Turner then asked that Coma turn around and place his hands behind his back. When Coma did not comply with this request or with a repetition of it, Turner stepped inside the doorway about a foot and a half to handcuff Coma and effectuate the arrest. While thus through the doorway, Turner saw sitting on a sofa a few feet away a plastic baggie and a powdery white substance that Turner believed to be a controlled substance. After Coma was taken into custody, based upon the items Detective Turner had seen during the arrest, Turner obtained a search warrant for Coma's residence. In executing the warrant, police recovered the powder, which was later identified as methamphetamine, and some drug paraphernalia. Coma was then charged with possession of a controlled substance, I.C. § 37-2732(c).

Coma filed a motion to suppress the evidence found in his home, arguing that the officers' initial entry was illegal and that the resulting search warrant was therefore tainted as well. The district court denied the motion. Coma thereafter pleaded guilty, but preserved his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion.

ANALYSIS

On appeal Coma contends his suppression motion should have been granted because the officers' entry of his home to make an arrest violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.¹ When we review a trial court's disposition of a motion to suppress evidence, we defer to factual findings of the trial court unless they are clearly erroneous, but we give free review to the trial court's determination as to whether, based on those facts, constitutional standards have been met. State v. Morris, 131 Idaho, 562, 565, 961 P.2d 653, 656 (Ct. App.1998); State v. Pick, 124 Idaho 601, 603, 861 P.2d 1266, 1268 (Ct.App.1993); State v. Heinen, 114 Idaho 656, 658, 759 P.2d 947, 949 (Ct.App.1988). The reasonableness of a search or seizure is a question of law calling for our independent review. Morris, supra; State v. McIntee, 124 Idaho 803, 804, 864 P.2d 641, 642 (Ct.App.1993); Heinen, 114 Idaho at 658, 759 P.2d at 949.

A. Entry of Home to Execute Misdemeanor Arrest Warrant

Coma's first challenge to his arrest hinges upon the fact that the arrest warrant which the officer came to execute was a misdemeanor warrant. Coma asserts that under the Fourth Amendment, only a search warrant or a felony arrest warrant will suffice to authorize a police officer's entry into a residence, and therefore the officer's intrusion into Coma's house to effectuate his arrest was illegal.

For this argument, Coma relies upon the United States Supreme Court's decision in Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), where the Court considered whether officers may make a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest. The Court held that such a warrantless intrusion violated the Fourth Amendment. At the same time, the Court rejected the notion that only a search warrant would adequately protect the privacy interest at stake. Rather, the Court said that an arrest warrant would serve the constitutional purpose:

It is true that an arrest warrant requirement may afford less protection than a search warrant requirement, but it will suffice to interpose the magistrate's determination of probable cause between the zealous officer and the citizen. If there is sufficient evidence of a citizen's participation in a felony to persuade a judicial officer that his arrest is justified, it is constitutionally reasonable to require him to open his doors to the officers of the law. Thus, for Fourth Amendment purposes, an arrest warrant founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within.

Id. at 602, 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388, 63 L.Ed.2d at 660, 661. Focusing like a laser on the Court's reference to "a felony" in the foregoing quotation, Coma argues that Payton authorizes home entries with arrest warrants only if the warrant is for a felony, and that misdemeanor arrest warrants may not be executed inside the suspect's home.

We do not read Payton to imply such a limitation. The Supreme Court's focus was on the necessity of a magistrate's probable cause review to serve as a tempering check on zealous law enforcement. This purpose is accomplished when an arrest warrant is issued, whether the underlying offense is a misdemeanor or felony. For this reason, courts considering the question have refused to distinguish between felony and misdemeanor arrest warrants. See, e.g., United States v. Spencer, 684 F.2d 220, 222-223 (2d Cir.1982); Smith v. Tolley, 960 F.Supp. 977, 991-92 (E.D.Va.1997); People v. LeBlanc, 60 Cal.App.4th 157, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 195, 198-99 (1997). Coma cites no authority to the contrary. We therefore conclude that the limited authority recognized in Payton, to enter a suspect's home when police reasonably believe the suspect to be within, is not confined to felony warrants but applies to misdemeanor arrest warrants as well.²

B. Reasonableness of the Entry

Coma argues in the alternative that the officers' intrusion into his home exceeded that which was necessary to effectuate his arrest and therefore exceeded the intrusion authorized by an arrest warrant.

Coma correctly points out that an arrest warrant, although permitting a home entry when necessary to accomplish the arrest, does not give officers unlimited admission. The rule announced in Payton was that a valid arrest warrant carries "limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within." Payton, 445 U.S. at 603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388, 63 L.Ed.2d at 661. (Emphasis added.) In a subsequent case, State v. Peterson, 108 Idaho 463, 465, 700 P.2d 85, 87 (Ct.App.1985), this Court considered the parameters of this "limited authority." We concluded that an officer's right of entry under an arrest warrant is circumscribed by its purpose—to accomplish an arrest—and therefore if an arrest can be effectuated at the threshold of the residence, the existence of an arrest warrant does not sanction an entry. In Peterson, officers armed with an arrest warrant knocked on the door of Peterson's residence. Peterson opened the door and was informed of the warrant. The officers then entered the foyer of Peterson's home without his consent and made a protective sweep of the premises. This Court held the entry to be unlawful, stating:

We believe that where, as in this case, there is no impediment to making an arrest in a doorway, and the arrestee does not attempt to retreat into the house, the officers may not intrude into the house over the objection of the arrestee, simply to complete effectuation of the arrest and put the officers into a position where they can more fully observe the interior of the premises—absent any other reasonable justification for the entry, such as consent to a search, response to an emergency, hot pursuit of a fleeing felon, for safety purposes where a serious and demonstrable potential for danger exists, or to prevent destruction or removal of evidence. See generally, Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). We agree with the trial court that the entry into Peterson's house, without a warrant to search the premises and when he easily could have been arrested on his doorstep, was an impermissible invasion of Peterson's right of privacy and to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure under the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution.

Id. at 465, 700 P.2d at 87. See also United States v. Albrektsen, 151 F.3d 951 (9th Cir. 1998) (holding that, where an arrest could have been effected at the doorway of a motel room, arrest warrant did...