State v. Huffman

• Decision Date: 30 January 1996
• Docket Number: No. 950136,950136
• Parties: STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Robert HUFFMAN, Defendant and Appellant. Criminal
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Page 718

542 N.W.2d 718

STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Robert HUFFMAN, Defendant and Appellant.

Criminal No. 950136.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

Jan. 30, 1996.

Monty J. Stensland (argued), Grand Forks, for defendant and appellant.

MESCHKE, Justice.

Robert Huffman appeals from a jury conviction of manufacturing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, a controlled substance. We conclude that an abused spouse retains sufficient common control over the marital home, when she returns for her personal belongings a few days after leaving it, to consent to an official search. We affirm denial of suppression and the conviction.

On July 6, 1994, Janet Huffman (Janet) called Benson County Sheriff Ned Mitzel and told him that her husband, Robert Huffman (Robert), had physically assaulted her. Mitzel went to the couple's rented farm home near Minnewauken and convinced Janet to leave for a safe-home in Devils Lake. On July 8, Janet rented an apartment in Devils Lake and also applied for a protection order.

The next day, Mitzel and another officer agreed to accompany Janet back to the farm home so she could retrieve some personal belongings. Robert was not present, although Janet later testified that she had asked Mitzel for Robert to be there. While Janet moved her personal belongings from the house to her van, Mitzel and the other officer remained in the yard. As she loaded the van, Janet told the officers that Robert was growing marijuana near the garden. When Mitzel told Janet that he could not find any marijuana, she pointed out some of it. Mitzel took two plants.

On July 11, a Ramsey County court issued an Adult Abuse Temporary Protection Order restraining Robert from contacting, harming, or threatening Janet, excluding him from her Devils Lake apartment, and giving Janet temporary custody of their two children. Also on July 11, Mitzel and a North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent executed a search warrant at the farm and seized nearly 400 marijuana plants. Mitzel placed the plants in a large plastic bag, and hid the bag in an unlocked garage near his Minnewauken office. Nine days later, on July 20, Mitzel took the bag to a State laboratory in Bismarck for analysis; the lab confirmed the plants to be marijuana.

Robert was charged with violating NDCC 19-03.1-23 by manufacturing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, marijuana. Robert moved to suppress the evidence seized from the farm, arguing that Janet no longer had authority to consent to the warrantless search that located the marijuana. The trial court denied suppression, finding that Janet could validly consent to the search because of her "common authority over the marital residence." A jury found Robert guilty of the charged crime, and he was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary, with all but 120 days conditionally suspended for three years. Robert appeals. ¹

Robert argues that the trial court erred in denying suppression because Janet no longer possessed enough authority to consent to the warrantless search of the farm. We disagree.

"We affirm a trial court's decision on a motion to suppress unless, after resolving conflicting evidence in favor of affirmance, we conclude there is insufficient competent evidence to support the decision, or unless we conclude the decision goes against the manifest weight of the evidence." State v. Hawley, 540 N.W.2d 390, 392 (N.D.1995). While the court's legal conclusions are fully reviewable, we defer to its factual findings. Id. Here, therefore, we must affirm the trial court's determination that Janet could validly consent to the search because of her "common authority over the marital residence" if there is sufficient "competent evidence" to support that determination, and if that determination is not "against the manifest weight of the evidence."

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches. "A reasonable search occurs when an appropriate person consents to the search." State v. Zimmerman, 529 N.W.2d 171, 174 (N.D.1995). An "appropriate person" includes one who "possesses common authority over ... the premises." Id.; see also State v. Kunkel, 406 N.W.2d 681, 683 (N.D.1987); State v. Swenningson, 297 N.W.2d 405, 407 (N.D.1980). As we explained in Zimmerman, 529 N.W.2d at 174, "[c]ommon authority is based upon mutual use of the premises by persons generally having control over or joint access to the property for most purposes."

Robert asserts that Janet was "no longer a coinhabitant who possessed the right to permit entry to the" farm, and that he had not "assumed the risk that his estranged wife, who no longer was his co[ ]inhabitant, would permit others, including the police[,] to enter any common areas of the farmstead [that] he exclusively controlled," citing Kunkel, 406 N.W.2d at 683. To support this position, Robert urges that by establishing "a new residence at an apartment in Devils Lake," Janet "relinquish[ed] her status as a coinhabitant at the farmstead," and that her application for a protection order "evidences her intention to give up her mutual use of the property." Robert also points out that Janet "specifically testified [at the suppression hearing] that she felt she had no right to control of the farmstead residence, the outbuildings or the yard area for most purposes." Therefore, Robert argues, the "record does not support a finding that [Janet] had 'access or control for most purposes' or such mutual use of the premises that her husband assumed the risk of her consent to search on July 9, 1994." We reject Robert's position.

A spouse is certainly a person having "control over or joint access" to a marital home. Here, Janet fled the marital residence, sought a protective order, and rented a new residence because she was afraid of Robert and feared for her safety if she remained at the farm with him. We refuse to hold that a spouse forfeits all rights to the marital home, including the "common authority" to consent to a search there, when driven out by domestic violence.

A spouse's erroneous belief that she forfeited her rights to the marital home by fleeing is not determinative of whether that spouse actually retained "control over or joint access" to it. Therefore, whether she realized it or not, Janet still possessed "common authority" over the farmstead on July 9, 1994. This record completely supports the trial court's determination that she could validly consent to the warrantless search that discovered the marijuana. ²

Robert also argues the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the bag of marijuana into evidence at trial because the "State failed to prove a proper chain of custody of the physical evidence contained and stored" in the bag. We disagree.

"[A] proper chain of custody is a foundational requirement to account for the whereabouts of physical evidence up until the time it is admitted at trial to ensure that the physical evidence is in substantially the same condition at the time it is admitted into evidence." State v. Haugen, 448 N.W.2d 191, 196 (N.D.1989); see also State v. Bohe, 447 N.W.2d 277, 279 (N.D.1989). The State need not prove an "unbroken chain of custody" before physical evidence can be admitted at trial. Haugen, 448 N.W.2d at 196. As we explained in Haugen, if the "trial court is reasonably satisfied that the item offered is what it is purported to be and that the condition of the item is substantially unchanged, it is properly admissible into evidence."

Robert relies on the testimony of Aaron Rash, the director of the Bismarck...