State v. Gill
| Decision Date | 28 August 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 20070365.,No. 20070364.,No. 20070366.,20070364.,20070365.,20070366. |
| Citation | 755 N.W.2d 454,2008 ND 152 |
| Parties | STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Byran Dale GILL, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | North Dakota Supreme Court |
Cynthia M. Feland, Assistant State's Attorney, Courthouse, Bismarck, N.D., for plaintiff and appellee.
Danny L. Herbel, The Regency Business Center, Bismarck, N.D., for defendant and appellant.
[¶ 1] Byran Gill appeals from three district court judgments entered after a jury found him guilty of driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor, driving while license privilege is suspended, and unlawful display of license plate or tab. Gill argues the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained during law enforcement officers' warrantless search of his home on the basis that the officers were acting as community caretakers.
[¶ 2] We hold the district court erred when it denied Gill's motion to suppress. The district court relied on the community caretaking doctrine. The community caretaking doctrine, however, is inapplicable to Gill's case because the scope of an officer's community caretaking function does not encompass a dwelling place. We, therefore, reverse the district court judgments.
[¶ 3] This case stems from law enforcement officers' response to a single vehicle accident in which Gill drove his vehicle into a snowy ditch and left the scene of the accident with a neighbor who drove Gill home. Law enforcement located Gill's home, entered the home without a warrant, and subsequently charged Gill with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor, driving while license is suspended, and unlawful display of a license or tab. Gill moved to suppress evidence obtained during the warrantless entry into his home.
[¶ 4] At a hearing on Gill's motion to suppress, law enforcement officers provided testimony that a passerby witnessed and reported a car accident east of Wilton the afternoon of December 2, 2006. The state radio dispatched that a vehicle went in a ditch and struck a tree. The dispatch said it was unknown whether any injuries resulted from the crash. Two officers responded to the dispatch.
[¶ 5] The first officer to arrive at the scene testified that it appeared the vehicle left the roadway, went in the snowy ditch, was airborne for a short distance, traveled up an embankment, and struck a tree. The vehicle's driver appeared to have attempted to get back on the road, but the vehicle was unable to reenter the roadway because there was too much snow. Nobody was at the scene when the officer arrived. The officer ran the vehicle's registration. The license plates did not match the vehicle. The plates were registered for a red Plymouth owned by one individual, while the vehicle in the ditch was a white Oldsmobile owned by a different individual.
[¶ 6] The passerby returned to the scene and spoke to the officer. The officer testified that the passerby indicated he witnessed the vehicle driving from shoulder to shoulder at forty-five degree angles before it went in the ditch; he pulled to the shoulder of the road because he was scared the vehicle was going to strike his vehicle; he observed one male occupant in the vehicle and someone who picked up the occupant in a two-tone Dodge pickup and left the scene; and he continued driving after witnessing the accident so he could call 911 from Wilton. The officers asked the passerby to make a written statement documenting his observations and send it to the officers.
[¶ 7] Another officer arrived on the scene. The officers began investigating nearby farmhouses. They saw a farm with a two-tone Dodge pickup in the yard. They entered the yard and spoke to an individual who said her husband had given their neighbor a ride home earlier in the evening. She pointed the officers toward Gill's farmstead.
[¶ 8] The officers drove to Gill's farmstead. They observed a light on in the house and pounded on the door for several minutes. Nobody answered the door. They walked past a picture window and could see what appeared to be a male sitting in a chair. They could only see the top of the individual's head from the window because of how the chair was situated. They started knocking on the window, then began pounding on the window when they received no response. The officers testified that they pounded on the window so hard they were concerned the window might break. The person in the chair was not moving at all. One of the officers called their supervisor and advised him of the situation. About one and one-half hours had passed from the time of the initial accident. The officers testified that they were concerned for the individual's welfare and received permission from their supervisor to enter the residence and check on the welfare of the individual.
[¶ 9] The officers testified that they went to the front door, entered the house, and said something along the lines of, "is anybody home?" and "hello, hello, anybody there?" They entered the room where the individual was sitting in the chair. They shook him several times before he became conscious. They noticed an extremely strong odor of alcoholic beverages. The officers asked him his name, and, after some conversation, Gill provided his driver's license to the officers. The officers testified that they asked Gill if he had been drinking. Gill said he blew a tire and went in the ditch. He told the officers he had not had anything to drink after going in the ditch. The officers asked Gill to count backwards, and Gill refused. The officers informed Gill of the implied consent statute. Gill refused testing and asked for an attorney. Gill was arrested for driving under suspension after the officers ran his license. The officers brought Gill outside of the house and gave him the implied consent advisory a second time. Gill agreed to a blood test, and the officers brought him to the hospital.
[¶ 10] At the conclusion of the suppression hearing, the district court judge denied the motion to suppress from the bench. The judge explained,
This is a rather unique issue .... we're usually talking about vehicles, community caretaking involving vehicles. We're not here talking about a felony. What we have here is an accident that the troopers were investigating. Their information is-or was that it was unknown whether there were injuries or not. So they proceeded to do their investigation; decided on a plan, according to the troopers, going to the various homes. They finally end up at the defendant's residence, knock, according to their reports, on the door, the window; according to their testimony, not only knock but pound on the window, pound on the door. They could see there was somebody sitting in the chair. There was absolutely no response. Essentially, their concern at the time was not whether or not they needed to arrest somebody, but since there is no response, they determined that they should check with their sergeant to see if they should go into the home to check on the individual to see if there were injuries or if there is something wrong with this individual, and that's what they did.
And I think it probably could fall under community caretaking in this situation.
As far as any statements are concerned, Trooper Iverson testified that there were no statements made after arrest, and prior to that they were investigating the accident and then determined, once they were in the house, they could smell the alcohol on the defendant, they arrested him for driving under suspension at first and later on, driving under the influence.
So this is an interesting issue. And the motion to suppress will be denied at this point.
After the motion to suppress was denied, a jury trial was held. The jury found Gill guilty of driving under suspension, driving under the influence, and unlawful display of license plate or tab. Gill appeals. He asks that the order denying his motion to suppress be reversed and the cases dismissed because the warrantless entry into his home was constitutionally impermissible. Alternately, he asks that the convictions be reversed and remanded for a new trial, and that the suppression of any evidence obtained subsequent to the entry of his home be suppressed at the new trial.
[¶ 11] After resolving conflicting evidence in favor of affirming a district court decision on a motion to suppress, this Court affirms the district court decision unless there is insufficient evidence to support the decision or the decision goes against the manifest weight of the evidence. City of Jamestown v. Jerome, 2002 ND 34, ¶ 6, 639 N.W.2d 478. This Court accords great deference to district court findings of fact in suppression matters. Id. The district court's legal conclusions are, however, fully reviewable. State v. Huffman, 542 N.W.2d 718, 720 (N.D.1996).
[¶ 12] In his motion to suppress evidence, Gill asserted that any and all evidence gathered from and after the officers' entry into his home should be suppressed because the evidence was obtained unlawfully. He asserted the officers' entry into his home violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, section 8 of the North Dakota Constitution, which prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures of individuals' homes.
[¶ 13] The Fourth Amendment provides, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." A "`physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.'" Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 585, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) (citation omitted). "Warrantless searches are unreasonable unless they are within one of the few...
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