State v. Holland

• Decision Date: 24 June 2015
• Docket Number: No. A14–0427.,A14–0427.
• Citation: 865 N.W.2d 666
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Roger Earl HOLLAND, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

865 N.W.2d 666

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent

v.Roger Earl HOLLAND, Appellant.

No. A14–0427.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 24, 2015.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, Minnesota; and James C. Backstrom, Dakota County Attorney, Phillip D. Prokopowicz, Chief Deputy Dakota County Attorney, Hastings, Minnesota, for respondent.

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Charles F. Clippert, Special Assistant State Public Defender, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for appellant.

OPINION

GILDEA, Chief Justice.

Appellant Roger Earl Holland was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Margorie Holland and her unborn child.¹ On appeal, Holland raises three arguments. First, Holland argues that the district court erred in admitting evidence from his cell phone, which he contends police illegally seized. Second, Holland argues that the district court erred in admitting evidence obtained from the execution of numerous search warrants, because the warrant applications lacked probable cause. Third, Holland argues that the district court improperly dismissed a juror for cause. Because we conclude that police properly seized the cell phone under the plain-view exception, the search warrants were supported by probable cause, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the juror, we affirm Holland's conviction.

On March 7, 2013, Apple Valley police responded to a report of a pregnant woman in cardiac arrest. The caller, appellant Roger Earl Holland, told dispatch that the woman was unconscious, not breathing, and cold. Police were dispatched to an apartment and arrived at approximately 10 a.m. Police met Holland, who yelled, “She is in here, please help.” Police found Margorie Holland (“Margorie”) lying on her back at the bottom of a set of stairs inside the apartment.

Officers noticed several red scratches on the left side of Holland's face and neck. In statements to police, Holland said that Margorie had been suffering from abdominal cramps that morning and that he had rubbed her back to relieve the pain. Holland claimed that Margorie had sat in front of him and that during a cramping episode, she had accidentally scratched him. He said Margorie then told him she was hungry and he went to Taco Bell to get her food. On his way, he said, he received a text message from Margorie asking for McDonald's instead, so Holland said he went to McDonald's. Holland stated that when he returned home, he found Margorie face down on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, and nonresponsive. Holland said he rolled her over and started CPR before calling 911.

Police undertook resuscitation efforts until paramedics arrived. Police noticed that Margorie's hands were darker in color than the rest of her body, and that she had dried blood in both nostrils and on her upper lip and face. Margorie's pants were cut away as part of the life-saving efforts, and police noticed dark bruises on both knees and an abrasion on Margorie's left knee. Margorie also had abrasions that appeared to be friction burns on both elbows and a bruise and scratch on one arm. Officers noticed small reddish-purple dots on Margorie's face that appeared to be petechiae.²

Officer Valerie Holes was one of the first police officers to arrive at the Hollands' apartment. She asked Holland about the text messages he said that he had received from Margorie so that she could determine how long Margorie had been unresponsive. As Holland tried to show Officer Holes the messages, his hand was shaking so badly that Officer Holes could not read the display on the phone. Officer Holes asked to see Holland's phone, and Holland gave his phone to the officer. Officer Holes testified that she did not intend to seize Holland's phone at that time but was trying to gain information that might be helpful for the paramedics. In looking at Holland's phone, Officer Holes saw that Margorie and Holland's phones had exchanged text messages that morning that were consistent with Holland's statements. Officer Holes told the other officers and paramedics that the last text message in the conversation was sent at 9:38 a.m.

Margorie was transported by ambulance to Fairview Ridges Hospital. After attempting life-saving measures, the emergency room doctor pronounced Margorie dead. Margorie's death also caused the death of her unborn child. As part of the examination of Margorie's body, the doctor noticed a faint abrasion or irritation on the front part of Margorie's neck, but the doctor did not see any obvious head injuries.

The medical examiner concluded that Margorie's manner of death was homicide, and the cause was strangulation. The medical examiner concluded that Margorie's injuries, including fractures to the horns of the thyroid cartilage in her neck and the petechiae on her face, were not consistent with a fall down the stairs.

Following an investigation, the State charged Holland with two counts of first-degree murder under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(1) ; 609.2661(1) (2014) and two counts of second-degree murder under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.19, subd. 1 (1); 609.2662(1) (2014) for Margorie's death and the death of her unborn child. On December 17, 2013, the jury found Holland guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The district court convicted Holland of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.See Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a) ; 609.2661. This appeal follows.

I.

We turn first to Holland's contention that the district court erred in admitting evidence obtained from the search of his cell phone. Specifically, Holland argues that police seized his cell phone without a warrant and that the seizure therefore violated the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures. SeeU.S. Const. amend. IV ; Minn. Const. art. I, § 10. Because police illegally seized his cell phone, Holland argues, the evidence obtained from the subsequent search of the phone must be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487–88, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963) (stating that the exclusionary rule prohibits the use of evidence that has been “come at by exploitation of [an] illegality” (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted)). The State concedes that police seized Holland's cell phone, but advances three exceptions to the warrant requirement to argue that the warrantless seizure was lawful: the plain-view exception, consent, and the inevitable discovery doctrine. Before addressing these arguments, we begin with a discussion of the facts surrounding the seizure of Holland's cell phone.

Holland moved to suppress the evidence obtained from his cell phone before trial. The district court conducted an evidentiary hearing at which the State offered testimony from Officer Holes and Detective Sean McKnight.

Officer Holes testified regarding her conversation with Holland, recounted above, and the text messages between Holland and Margorie that she saw. Officer Holes said that the messages were consistent with Holland's description of his activity that morning and related to his trip to “get food for Mar [g]orie, and ... where the food was going to come from.” After telling the other officers and paramedics that the last message was sent at 9:38 a.m., Officer Holes handed Holland's cell phone to Detective McKnight.

Detective McKnight said he came to the scene because of the suspicious nature of Margorie's death. He testified that, after observing the scene, he believed that Margorie's time of death might have been earlier than Holland's statements indicated based on the appearance and condition of her body. Specifically, Detective McKnight testified that, based on his training and experience and the condition of her body, he thought Margorie had been dead longer than 30 minutes. He explained that “the coloration” of Margorie's body was not consistent with “a Caucasian woman who was recently deceased.” Detective McKnight also observed “injuries” on Margorie's body that, based on his training and experience, he did not think she had suffered within 30 minutes of police arriving on the scene. Because of the condition and appearance of her body, Detective McKnight explained “that the time line didn't work that I had initially been told,” and that “further investigation would be needed into” Margorie's death. Detective McKnight also noted that “Holland had scratches on him, ... which he said came from Marjorie Holland, which means that there was some type of altercation or something that went on between them.” And Detective McKnight noted that the position of Margorie's body did not “really work for falling down the stairs because of where she was.” Detective McKnight said that he believed a crime had been committed based on what he observed and heard at the scene, “an assault at a minimum, homicide at the most.”

When Officer Holes gave Holland's cell phone to Detective McKnight, Detective McKnight explained that he put the phone in airplane mode to prevent it from sending or receiving data, and placed it in his pocket until he could obtain a search warrant. Detective McKnight found Margorie's phone on the ground near where she had been found and he also put her phone in airplane mode and into his pocket.³

Subsequently, Officer Holes and Holland were on the way to the hospital together, and Holland stated that he wanted to contact Margorie's family and needed some phone numbers from his phone. Officer Holes received Holland's permission for Detective McKnight to get the numbers from Holland's phone and Detective McKnight gave Officer Holes the information. Other than a review of the text messages offered by Holland at the scene and the retrieval of Margorie's family's phone numbers, police did not obtain any information from Holland's phone before obtaining a search warrant. After obtaining the warrant,...