State v. Crane

• Decision Date: 30 June 2014
• Docket Number: No. 33,014.,33,014.
• Citation: 329 P.3d 689
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff–Petitioner, v. Kevyn CRANE, Defendant–Respondent.

329 P.3d 689

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff–Petitioner,

v.Kevyn CRANE, Defendant–Respondent.

No. 33,014.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

June 30, 2014.

Gary K. King, Attorney General, Nicole Beder, Assistant Attorney General, James W. Grayson, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM, for Petitioner.

Law Works, L.L.C., John A. McCall, Albuquerque, NM, for Respondent.

OPINION

VIGIL, Chief Justice.

{1} With this opinion we address whether, pursuant to Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution, Kevyn Crane (Defendant) had a reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage left out for collection in a motel dumpster. The district court found that Defendant did have such an expectation, and it entered an order suppressing evidence obtained in the dumpster, as well as evidence later obtained by a warrant, which it found was the proverbial fruit of the poisonous tree. The Court of Appeals upheld the district court's ruling, relying on its holding in State v. Granville, 2006–NMCA–098, 140 N.M. 345, 142 P.3d 933, that New Mexicans do have a reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage left out for collection, which requires that the police obtain a warrant prior to searching. We affirm the Court of Appeals' ultimate holding, but on slightly different grounds.

I. BACKGROUND

{2} Defendant was charged with trafficking controlled substances in violation of NMSA 1978, Section 30–31–20(A)(1) (2006)and possession of drug paraphernalia in violation of NMSA 1978, Section 30–31–25.1(A) (2001). These charges were based on evidence obtained by the police, who found evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing in the dumpster of the Choice Inn in Clovis, New Mexico, where Defendant and Christopher Kidd (“Kidd”) occupied Room 316. Prior to trial, Defendant moved for the suppression of evidence found in the dumpster, as well as evidence obtained from Room 316, which was acquired by a search warrant that was based in part on the evidence recovered from the dumpster. He argued that the police's warrantless search of the garbage and subsequent immediate searches violated his constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. The district court granted the motion to suppress and entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court based its reasoning on the following facts.

{3} On July 14, 2008, the Clovis Police Department received an anonymous call from a guest of the Choice Inn who reported a strong chemical odor coming from Room 316. In response, the department dispatched members of the Region V Drug Task Force to investigate. Agent Waylon Rains was the first to arrive, and upon arrival, he immediately investigated the area. He was unable to identify any odor without alerting Room 316's occupants to his presence, but he identified a car he recognized as Defendant's parked outside of the room. Agent Rains then spoke with motel staff, alerting them to the department's suspicions. He learned from the motel registry that Room 316 was rented to Kidd.

{4} While conducting this preliminary survey of the situation, Agent Rains observed a male, whom he later identified as Kidd, leave Room 316 and discard an unsealed box in the motel's dumpster. Once Kidd returned to the room from the dumpster, Agent Rains retrieved the box from the dumpster and hid behind an adjacent cinder block wall to inspect its contents. The unsealed box contained miscellaneous trash and an empty box that previously contained latex gloves. While Agent Rains was behind the cinder block wall, he heard at least two more items being deposited into the dumpster. He was not sure who deposited the items; however, he suspected that they were being thrown out by the same individual from Room 316, as he did not notice anyone else on the property.

{5} Agent Rains then retrieved two sealed garbage bags from the dumpster. He testified that it appeared to him that the bags were black, and that there were also smaller clear bags, the latter of which may have been inside the former. In either case, he did not know what the bags' contents were prior to opening them. Once he did open the bags, Agent Rains noted a strong chemical smell. Notably he could not recall whether he noticed the smell before opening the bags. Agent Rains discovered evidence of methamphetamine production inside the bags, including empty packages of pseudoephedrine pills, an empty can of acetone, empty cans of gas line antifreeze, and several matchbook packages. By that point, Agent Steven Wright had arrived on the scene, and after reviewing the contents of the trash bags with Agent Rains, he left to obtain a warrant to search Room 316.

{6} Shortly after Agent Wright departed, Agent Rains observed as Defendant and Kidd exited Room 316 with a large suitcase and put the suitcase in a vehicle that had arrived to meet them. Observing that it appeared that the parties were leaving, Agent Rains made contact and detained them. He asked for identification from all of the parties, and had to escort Kidd back into Room 316 to retrieve his identification. Upon entering the room, Agent Rains immediately noted the same chemical smell as was in the trash bags, but saw no other evidence of the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

{7} Agent Wright later returned with a search warrant for Room 316, the vehicle earlier identified as Defendant's, and the vehicle that arrived to meet them, in which the suitcase was placed. The agents found additional manufacturing items and paraphernalia including digital scales, glass pipes, small plastic bags, muriatic acid, Coleman fuel, acetone, and a jar of bi-layered liquid. They also found personal letters to Defendant stored in a box in the motel room closet. On this evidence, Defendant was charged with trafficking methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

{8} Defendant moved to suppress this evidence prior to trial. He argued that under Granville, the agents' warrantless search of the garbage violated his Article II, Section 10 right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The district court granted the motion, concluding that

[Defendant] had a reasonable expectation of privacy in [ ] Kidd's hotel room, and therefore the police could not search the refuse that Kidd threw into the dumpster which was not visible, and furthermore, that a warrant for Room 316 based in large part on what was observed in the trash bags [was] invalid and the items found because of the search warrant should be suppressed.

The State appealed the district court's ruling and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

{9} The Court of Appeals limited its review, and the parties agreed, “to the reasonableness of a motel guest's expectation of privacy in his or her garbage under the New Mexico Constitution.” State v. Crane, 2011–NMCA–061, ¶ 6, 149 N.M. 674, 254 P.3d 117. The Court of Appeals also acknowledged that Granville departed from the federal analysis with respect to garbage searches. Crane, 2011–NMCA–061, ¶ 21, 149 N.M. 674, 254 P.3d 117. Specifically, it rejected the State's arguments that greater public access to motel dumpsters and lesser control over one's garbage in dumpsters meant that Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Id. ¶ 22. The Court of Appeals characterized the State's reasoning as “little more than the Fourth Amendment public accessibility theory ... that we rejected in Granville.” Crane, 2011–NMCA–061, ¶ 22, 149 N.M. 674, 254 P.3d 117.

{10} The Court of Appeals ultimately reasoned that “[b]y placing his garbage in sealed, opaque bags and depositing it directly in the dumpster provided for motel guests, Defendant's actions demonstrated a reasonable expectation that those bags would remain free from warrantless law enforcement inspection at the place where the garbage is placed for customary garbage collection.” Id. ¶ 24. Further, “[w]ithout the presence of any other exception to the warrant requirement, the warrantless search of Defendant's garbage was unreasonable under the heightened protections of Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution.” Id. The State now asks us to overrule the Court of Appeals, but we decline to do so.

II. DISCUSSIONA. Standard of Review

{11} At issue in this case is whether Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution prohibits a warrantless search of garbage left for collection in a motel dumpster. “We review [questions] of statutory and constitutional interpretation de novo.” State v. Ordunez, 2012–NMSC–024, ¶ 6, 283 P.3d 282 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

B. Article II, Section 10 Provides Greater Protection of Privacy in Garbage Left in a Dumpster than the Fourth Amendment

{12} Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution states that “[t]he people shall be secure in their persons, papers, homes and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures.” Similarly, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” The question before this Court is whether Defendant's expectation that the contents of a garbage bag that was put in a motel dumpster would remain private was reasonable, thereby invoking the protections of Article II, Section 10 to require that police get a warrant before searching the garbage bag. In answering this question, we must first determine whether Article II, Section 10 provides greater protection against warrantless searches of garbage by police than its federal counterpart. To do so, we adhere to the interstitial approach to constitutional interpretation set forth in State v. Gomez, 1997–NMSC–006, ¶¶ 19, 22–23, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1. The framework for the Gomez interstitial analysis covers three primary questions: (1) whether the right asserted by Defendant is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution; (2) whether Defendant preser...