State v. Gillespie, 99-1514.

• Decision Date: 16 November 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-1514.,99-1514.
• Citation: 619 N.W.2d 345
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Jerry Lee GILLESPIE, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

619 N.W.2d 345

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Jerry Lee GILLESPIE, Appellant.

No. 99-1514.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

November 16, 2000.

Timothy McCarthy II of McEnroe, McCarthy & Gotsdiner, P.C., West Des Moines, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary E. Tabor, Assistant Attorney General, and Alan M. Wilson, County Attorney, for appellee.

Considered en banc.

LAVORATO, Chief Justice.

The defendant, Jerry Lee Gillespie, appeals from the judgment and sentence entered upon his conviction of receipt of a precursor substance with intent to use such substance to manufacture a controlled substance. See Iowa Code § 124B.9(2) (1997). He challenges a district court ruling denying his motion to suppress evidence seized following a search of his vehicle. We conclude that, because there was no probable cause for the search, the district court erred in denying the motion. We reverse and remand.

I. Facts.

On June 17, 1998, at approximately 12:30 a.m., officer Chad Butler was on patrol for the Seymour Police Department in Wayne County, Iowa. He was patrolling the area around an anhydrous ammonia facility owned by Fowler Elevator. Butler knew there had been at least four anhydrous thefts at the facility during the month of June. Because of his experience with drug trafficking, Butler was aware anhydrous ammonia was used in the production of the controlled substance, methamphetamine.

As he was driving, Butler saw headlights shining to the east. The source of the headlights was stationary and appeared to Butler to be located on the road near the entrance to the plant. Although Butler could not see any vehicle, he did notice that the lights were shining on the trees to the east and not on the tanks located at the facility. The only structures in the area are the anhydrous ammonia tanks. Pasture and cornfields surround the facility. Butler knew no employees would be there at that time of the morning and could think of no good reason why someone would be there at that time.

Upon seeing the headlights, Butler approached the area to investigate. Thereafter, Butler saw a vehicle leave the area traveling east at a high rate of speed. Butler pursued the vehicle, hoping to view its license number. He wanted to verify if, in fact, an employee may have been at the plant for some reason.

Butler reached speeds of at least seventy miles per hour. He continued pursuing the vehicle as it turned south on level B county road 250. At this point, Butler was close enough to determine the vehicle was a pickup truck. Up to this point, Butler had not activated his vehicle's siren nor its flashing lights because he was concerned that the pickup would accelerate even more, and he would have no chance to get a plate number or catch up with the vehicle.

The pickup continued southbound until it reached Edison, a county road that runs east and west. The pickup turned west on Edison and slid around a corner. At one point in the slide, the entire rear end of the pickup had slid around.

The pickup continued westbound after coming out of the slide and then south on county highway S-60 with Butler in pursuit. Upon entering S-60, Butler activated his vehicle's flashing lights. Butler saw the pickup do a U-turn on S-60 and then proceed west on county road Birch. The pickup pulled over and stopped just onto Birch.

It was not until the last thirty seconds of the pursuit that Butler finally activated the flashing lights. Once the lights were activated, the pickup traveled approximately one-quarter of a mile to a mile before stopping. Before activating the flashing lights, Butler made no other attempt to pull the pickup over or indicate to the driver that Butler was in fact a police officer. For example, Butler neither used his vehicle's siren nor its loudspeaker, though his police cruiser was equipped with both. Butler approached the pickup and discovered Jerry Lee Gillespie and a female companion inside. Butler determined that the two were from Des Moines. Butler asked Gillespie what they had been doing at the facility. Gillespie said they were not at the facility. In response to Butler's questions about Gillespie's driving, Gillespie said a vehicle had run them off the road near the facility, and he thought Butler's vehicle might have been that vehicle. Gillespie also told Butler that he and his companion were headed to Worthington, Missouri. According to Butler, if Gillespie were indeed going to Worthington, Missouri, he was headed in the wrong direction.

Butler issued Gillespie a citation for careless driving to which Gillespie later pleaded guilty. Pursuant to the citation, Butler and Wayne County deputy sheriff David M. Lewis (who had been called to the scene as backup for Butler) searched the pickup. They found four lithium batteries, twenty bottles of pseudoephedrine, a set of scales, two glass tubes, and aluminum foil in the passenger compartment. They also found a three-gallon Spartan brand canister in the bed of the pickup. (Lithium batteries and pseudoephedrine are precursors for the manufacture of methamphetamine.)

Deputy Lewis thereafter returned to the anhydrous ammonia facility and found footprints matching footwear worn by Gillespie and his companion. Along one of the roads involved in the pursuit, Butler and Lewis also recovered a three-gallon Spartan canister containing anhydrous ammonia that matched the canister found in the pickup truck.

II. Proceedings.

The State charged Gillespie in a two-count trial information with (1) receipt of a precursor substance with intent to use such substance to manufacture a controlled substance (count I) and (2) possession of methamphetamine (count II). See Iowa Code §§ 124B.9(2), 124.401(5). Later, the State amended the trial information by substituting for count I the charge of possession of analogs of methamphetamine capable of producing more than five grams of methamphetamine. See Iowa Code § 124(1)(b)(7). The State also alleged the amended two counts as second offenses. See Iowa Code § 124.411.

Gillespie thereafter filed a motion to suppress the evidence the police obtained in searching the pickup. At the hearing on the motion at which Butler testified to most of the foregoing facts, Gillespie acknowledged that a search incident to citation was legal under Iowa law but argued that in this case there was no basis for the stop. He further argued that, because there was no basis for the stop, the stop and subsequent search were illegal. Additionally, Gillespie reserved the right to raise the constitutionality of the search incident to citation at a later time pending resolution of Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998).

The district court denied the motion. The court ruled that Gillespie's careless driving gave Butler sufficient reason to stop the pickup, and the subsequent search was lawful as a search incident to citation.

Meanwhile, the United States Supreme Court determined in Knowles that the issuance of a citation in lieu of an arrest does not, in and of itself, provide officers authority to conduct a full search of an automobile. The Court held that the "search incident to citation" under the circumstances of the case violated the Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution and refused to create a "bright line rule" permitting such searches. Knowles, 525 U.S. at 119, 119 S.Ct. at 488, 142 L.Ed.2d at 499.

Gillespie filed a motion requesting the district court to reconsider its ruling in light of Knowles. At the hearing on the motion, the State argued that Knowles was inapplicable to this case because there was probable cause for the search. The State also argued that the exclusionary rule should not apply because the two officers were acting in good faith based on the current status of Iowa law at the time, which allowed a search incident to a citation.

Gillespie argued that the good-faith exception did not apply. He further argued that probable cause for the search was lacking because police officers are bound by the true reasons for their stop and search. In this case, Butler testified that he searched Gillespie's pickup pursuant to a citation issued to him. The State asserted that the inquiry should not focus on what the officer believed at the time of the stop and search, but rather should focus on "whether, under the totality of the circumstances, probable cause existed."

Relying on Knowles, the district court ruled that the search could not be upheld as one incident to a citation. The court further ruled that, although there were grounds for the stop, there was no probable cause to search. The court based this ruling on the fact that at the time of the search Butler did not believe there was probable cause for the search and instead searched the car only in conjunction with the issuance of the citation. Nevertheless, the district court refused to reverse its prior ruling and suppress the evidence. The court ruled that, while the search was unlawful, the fruits of the search were still admissible pursuant to the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule.

The State then amended count I to reinstate the charge of receipt of a precursor substance. Following the amendment, the district court found Gillespie guilty in a trial based on stipulated minutes. Later, the district court sentenced Gillespie to an indeterminate term of ten years and fined him $5000.

III. Issues.

Gillespie continues to argue on appeal that, because the challenged evidence was obtained by virtue of a search incident to a citation, such evidence must be suppressed pursuant to Knowles. He also argues that the search cannot be justified on the basis of probable cause because Butler did not rely on this ground for the search. Finally, he challenges the district court ruling that the challenged evidence was still admissible pursuant to the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule.

The State concedes that the search here could not be sustained as one...