State v. Edmonds

• Decision Date: 26 July 2012
• Citation: 47 A.3d 737,211 N.J. 117
• Parties: STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Shareef EDMONDS, Defendant–Respondent.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

211 N.J. 117

47 A.3d 737

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Shareef EDMONDS, Defendant–Respondent.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Jan. 18, 2012.

Decided July 26, 2012.

Joie D. Piderit, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for appellant (Bruce J. Kaplan, Middlesex County Prosecutor, attorney).

John G. Koufos, Longbranch, argued the cause for respondent (Koufos and Norgaard, attorneys).

Frank Muroski, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for amicus curiae Attorney General of New Jersey (Jeffrey S. Chiesa, Attorney General, attorney).

Mark K. Silver, Morristown, argued the cause for amicus curiae Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (Coughlin Duffy, attorneys; Mr. Silver and Michael J. Sullivan, of counsel and on the brief).

Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The police responded to an unverified 9–1–1 call reporting “a domestic dispute possibly involving a handgun” at a Carteret residence. Outside her apartment, Kamilah Richardson told the police that there was no problem in her home and that her eleven-year-old son was inside alone. Against her will, the police entered the apartment to assure the safety of the young boy. The police found him unharmed, without any visible injuries or signs of distress and no indication of a domestic disturbance inside the apartment. The police removed defendant Shareef Edmonds from an adjoining room, where he was watching television, and frisked him. Without evidence to corroborate the earlier domestic-violence report and without first securing a warrant, the police searched the area where defendant had been seated. A handgun was found under a pillow. Defendant, who was charged with the unlawful possession of the gun, claimed that the warrantless search yielding the weapon was unconstitutional.

The trial court agreed, determining that the search of the home without a warrant was objectively unreasonable and could not be justified by either the emergency-aid or community-caretaking exception to the constitutional warrant requirement. The court suppressed the gun, and the Appellate Division affirmed.

We now hold that sufficient credible evidence in the record supports the trial court's ruling. The search of a home without a warrant is presumptively unreasonable. Once the police determinedthat there was inadequate evidence to corroborate the report of domestic violence, and the parties' safety was not an issue, there was no objectively reasonable basis to conduct a search under either the community-caretaking or emergency-aid doctrine. At that point, to conduct a search of Ms. Richardson's home, the police had to apply for a warrant based on probable cause.

I.

A.

Defendant Shareef Edmonds was charged in separate indictments with second-degree unlawful possession of a .38 caliber handgun, N.J.S.A. 2C:39–5(b), and second-degree possession of the same handgun by a person previously convicted of a crime, N.J.S.A. 2C:39–7(b). Defendant moved to suppress the gun, claiming that it was seized during an unconstitutional search of the apartment where he had been visiting.

The Honorable Frederick P. De Vesa, P.J.Cr., conducted a suppression hearing. The State and defendant agreed that the facts were not in dispute and stipulated to the factual recitation in the report of Carteret Police Officer Marcus Rosario. No witnesses were called at the hearing. The evidence of record reveals the following.

Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on January 16, 2008, the Roselle Park Police Department received a 9–1–1 call from a person who identified himself as “John Smith.” ¹ He stated, “I'm calling for my sister. I believe that her boyfriend is beating her up and he got a gun.” “Smith” gave his sister's name as Kamilah Richardson and her address as 22 Mary Street in Carteret. He claimed to have no telephone number where he could be contacted, and ended the conversation saying, “My brother-in-law is picking me up. I'm on my way out there now.” ² The record does not indicate that “Smith” ever arrived at the scene.

At 12:54 a.m., Carteret Police Officer Marcus Rosario and three other officers were dispatched “to 22 Mary Street 2nd floor to investigate a domestic dispute possibly involving a handgun.” Officer Rosario's report notes that the “third party caller” made a report to the Roselle Park Police Department and claimed to be “John Smith[,] the victim's brother.”

On their arrival, the officers were met by Ms. Richardson at the downstairs door. She told the officers “that there was no problem at the residence” and refused to give consent to their entering her apartment. The officers were apparently insistent on entering her home, and she became “noticeably agitated,” repeatedly stating that she did not want the police in her apartment and “that there was no problem.” In response to a question from Officer Rosario, Ms. Richardson claimed that only her eleven-year-old son, Elijah, was in the apartment. The officers advised Ms. Richardson that they “were going to check her residence for any other possible occupants,” even though she was blocking their way. Ms. Richardson started walking upstairs, saying that she wanted to talk to her son before the police entered. She was advised that “due to the nature of the call” the police would have to enter the apartment first. Officer Rosario, who proceeded up the stairs with two other officers, discovered that the door was locked. Again, Ms. Richardson denied that anyone other than her son was in the apartment. Elijah was told to unlock the door, and he did so.

When Officer Rosario stepped into the residence, Elijah was standing in the living room. At that time, Officer Rosario observed a television playing in a room to his left. With his gun drawn, he entered that room and observed a person known to him as Shareef Edmonds. Defendant “was sitting in a chair in front of the television,” and to his left a mattress was on the floor. Officer Rosario ordered defendant “to stand up, put his hands up, and exit the room.” Defendant was patted down for weapons, but none were found. Two officers then stood by defendant as Officer Rosario returned to the adjacent room and searched the “immediate area” where defendant had been watching television. Under a pillow lying on the mattress, Officer Rosario discovered a loaded .38 caliber revolver. Officer Rosario secured the weapon, stepped back into the living room, and asked who owned the gun. Defendant immediately replied, “[I]t's mine.” Defendant then was arrested for unlawful possession of the weapon.

While still at the apartment, Ms. Richardson explained that she had been having ongoing problems with her ex-boyfriend, G.S. According to Ms. Richardson, just a day earlier, G.S. had left a telephone message threatening to kill both her and her son. She insisted that defendant had not engaged in any act of domestic violence. Ms. Richardson was arrested for obstruction of justice.³

B.

Based on the record, Judge De Vesa determined that: the officers had a duty to go to the Richardson residence in response to the 9–1–1 call reporting possible domestic violence; the officers were not required to accept Ms. Richardson's representation that there was “no problem” at the residence; and the officers acted reasonably by further investigating and entering the apartment to ensure the safety of eleven-year-old Elijah. However, viewing the “totality of the circumstances,” Judge De Vesa determined that the warrantless search of the room where Officer Rosario found the gun exceeded the permissible scope of the emergency-aid doctrine as discussed in State v. Frankel, 179 N.J. 586, 598, 847 A.2d 561,cert. denied,543 U.S. 876, 125 S.Ct. 108, 160 L.Ed.2d 128 (2004). He came to that conclusion for a number of reasons.

After Elijah opened the apartment door, the officers did not report that the boy appeared injured or in distress in any way. Nothing in the police report suggests that the officers questioned Elijah before defendant was secured, led from the other room, and patted down. The frisk of defendant yielded no weapons. Additionally, “there was no demonstrable evidence of ... domestic violence” inside the apartment. Thus, the objective evidence “began to dispel the existence of an emergency.”

Judge De Vesa observed that before conducting a search of the apartment, if the officers had “further concerns they could [have] simply escorted Mrs. Richardson or the boy[ ] outside from the home and questioned them.” Judge De Vesa also considered it significant that the 9–1–1 operator “made no attempt to ... corroborate the nature of call” that led to the dispatch of the officers to the Richardson residence and that the officers never asked Ms. Richardson if she had a brother named “John Smith.” To Judge De Vesa's mind, “a certain level of diligence” is required before searching a home without a warrant.

Judge De Vesa acknowledged that the officers had acted “reasonably up to a point.” However, after the frisk of defendant failed to uncover a weapon, and without corroborative evidence of domestic violence, Judge De Vesa ruled that the officers could not “reasonably conclude that there was an emergency that required them to search the home” without a warrant. That was so because Ms. Richardson and her son could have been moved to another location for their protection while the police attempted to secure a warrant. Viewing the totality of the circumstances, Judge De Vesa concluded that the police were “looking for evidence” of a crime after defendant was frisked and secured. Because the police were acting outside of the scope of the emergency-aid doctrine, Judge De Vesa ordered the suppression of the gun.

C.

The Appellate Division granted leave to appeal and, in an unpublished opinion, concurred with Judge De Vesa's “conclusion that the search was not justified under the emergency aid doctrine.” The panel, however, remanded to the trial court to consider whether the warrantless search was permissible...