State v. Hudson
| Decision Date | 18 March 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 34685.,34685. |
| Citation | 209 P.3d 196,147 Idaho 335 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Frederick L. HUDSON, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
Bryce W. Powell of Powell & Reed, Sandpoint, for appellant.
Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General; Rebekah A. Cudé, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent.
Frederick L. Hudson appeals from the district court's order, on intermediate appeal, affirming his judgment of conviction for misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. Specifically, Hudson challenges the magistrate's order denying his motion to suppress. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the district court's order and vacate Hudson's judgment of conviction.
Police responded to a motel based on a report from motel security of marijuana smoke allegedly emanating from one of the rooms. An officer knocked on the door of the room and was greeted by Hudson. When Hudson opened the door, the officer noted a strong smell of marijuana coming from inside the room and observed that Hudson's eyes were red-a possible indicator of marijuana use. The officer asked for Hudson's identification, and Hudson handed the officer his driver's license. The officer began to question Hudson regarding the odor emanating from his motel room. Hudson then grabbed his driver's license from the officer and attempted to close the door, but the officer prevented the door from closing with his foot and pushed it open so he could continue to see Hudson as Hudson retreated into the room. After Hudson refused the officer's request to enter the room, the officer asked to speak with Hudson's girlfriend who was also in the room. While the door thereafter remained open, the officer conversed with Hudson's girlfriend in the hallway awaiting the arrival of a second officer. When the second officer arrived minutes later, Hudson granted permission for the officer to enter the motel room and later consented to a search of the room. During the search, the officers discovered a marijuana roach. Hudson was charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. I.C. § 37-2732(c)(3).
Hudson filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his motel room as the product of an unlawful, warrantless search and seizure. Hudson also argued that his consent to the search was not voluntary. Following an evidentiary hearing, the magistrate held that the officer placing his foot in the door to prevent it from closing constituted an unlawful entry violative of the constitutional prohibition against warrantless searches, but that Hudson's later consent to the second officer's entrance and search was given voluntarily. Therefore, the magistrate denied Hudson's motion to suppress. Hudson then entered a conditional guilty plea and appealed the magistrate's decision to the district court.
On intermediate appeal, the district court held that the magistrate did not impermissibly shift the burden of proof to Hudson when it stated that, in light of the state's evidence that consent was voluntarily given, Hudson would have to show that the consent was not given voluntarily in order to prevail. Additionally, the district court held that the evidence supported the magistrate's finding that Hudson's consent was given voluntarily. Furthermore, the district court held that Hudson's consent was not derived from the officer's unlawful entry into the motel room with his foot because Hudson successfully refused the officer's request to enter and an appreciable period of time passed between the unlawful intrusion and the subsequent granting of consent. Hudson again appeals.
Hudson argues that the district court erred in affirming the magistrate's denial of his motion to suppress because, he contends, the district court disturbed one of the magistrate's findings of fact. Additionally, Hudson asserts that the magistrate impermissibly shifted the burden of proof regarding the voluntariness of Hudson's consent to search. Lastly, Hudson argues his consent to search his motel room was not given voluntarily.
On review of a decision of the district court, rendered in its appellate capacity, we review the decision of the district court directly. State v. DeWitt, 145 Idaho 709, 711, 184 P.3d 215, 217 (Ct.App.2008). We examine the magistrate record to determine whether there is substantial and competent evidence to support the magistrate's findings of fact and whether the magistrate's conclusions of law follow from those findings. Id. If those findings are so supported and the conclusions follow therefrom and if the district court affirmed the magistrate's decision, we affirm the district court's decision as a matter of procedure. Id. We exercise free review over the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found by the trial court. State v. Bowman, 134 Idaho 176, 179, 997 P.2d 637, 640 (Ct.App.2000).
At the hearing on the motion to suppress before the magistrate, the only evidence presented was the testimony of Hudson and the two officers. After hearing the testimony, the magistrate stated its findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows:
I think quite clearly [the first officer's] initial entry into the room, and I say entry I mean sticking his foot in the doorway and that's all it takes to break the threshold, it impacts the Fourth Amendment and that was an unlawful entry under these circumstances. There is no right to do that under these circumstances based on plain view or plain smell. That doctrine does not get you into a room, you have to be there lawfully to begin with before you can then rely on that doctrine as a search exception. However, ... notwithstanding that there was an initial Fourth Amendment violation by putting the foot in the door jam and even propping the door open ... that does not mean that the entire case is irretrievably tainted. It's clear from even the defendant's own testimony that he subsequently twice gave [the second officer] permission to search after giving him separate permission to enter the room and it was during the course of that search that the contraband was found which prompted basis for the charge before the court. The only way for the defense to prevail under those circumstances is to show to the court's satisfaction that the consent, the subsequent consent that was expressly given was not given voluntarily; and the fact that [Hudson] was given a Hobson's choice between cooperating or going straight to jail which was actually more of the nature of a bluff under the circumstances, that does not invalidate the consensual or the voluntary nature of this...
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