State v. Jackson

• Decision Date: 29 April 2016
• Docket Number: No. 14–0067.,14–0067.
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Marvis Latrell JACKSON, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

878 N.W.2d 422

STATE of Iowa, Appellee,

v.Marvis Latrell JACKSON, Appellant.

No. 14–0067.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 29, 2016.

Amended May 2, 2016.

Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Rachel C. Regenold (until withdrawal) and Theresa R. Wilson, Assistant Appellate Defenders, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Sharon K. Hall, Assistant Attorney General, Janet M. Lyness, County Attorney, Anne M. Lahey, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

Alan R. Ostergren, Muscatine, for amicus curiae Iowa County Attorneys Association.

WIGGINS, Justice.

A police officer conducted a warrantless search of a closed backpack belonging to the defendant. The officer relied on a third party's consent in conducting the search. The third party possessed actual authority to consent to a search of the bedroom the backpack was in but lacked actual authority to consent to a search of the backpack itself. The defendant moved to suppress the evidence found in the backpack and the fruits of the search on the ground that the third party had neither actual authority nor apparent authority to consent to the search of the backpack. He argued the warrantless search violated his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. The district court denied the motion.

The defendant now seeks further review of a decision by the court of appeals affirming his convictions on two counts of robbery in the second degree. We conclude the warrantless search violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution because the third party who consented to the search of the bedroom lacked apparent authority to consent to the search of the defendant's backpack. Therefore, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals, reverse the judgment of the district court, and remand the case to the district court for a new trial.

I. Background Facts.

On our de novo review, we find the following facts. At 12:35 a.m. on December 31, 2012, the Iowa City Police Department dispatched Officer Michael Smithey to Gumby's Pizza after receiving a report an armed robbery had just taken place. When Officer Smithey arrived on the scene, the robbery victim met him outside the restaurant. The victim reported he had been alone working in the kitchen when two black males entered the restaurant wearing dark clothes, black hats, and black bandanas over their faces. One of the men had a gun and pointed it at the victim. The men ordered the victim to open the cash register. The victim complied and gave the men approximately $125 in small bills. After the men ran out of the store and headed northbound on Gilbert Street, the victim locked the door and called the police.

As Officer Smithey stood outside the restaurant speaking with the victim, a man approached and asked if there had been a robbery. The man stated he had just been standing outside smoking a cigarette when he observed two black males wearing dark clothes walk by. He noted one of the men appeared to be holding a fistful of cash. He also stated when the men saw him, they took off running between some houses.

Officer Smithey drove the witness to the location where he had last seen the men on foot. There was fresh snow on the ground, and Officer Smithey saw what appeared to be tracks in the snow. He then requested backup from a canine unit.

When the canine unit arrived, the handling officer and the canine tracked the suspects to the southeast corner of the building on South Gilbert Street. Officer Smithey followed, joined by Officer Alex Stricker. The officers observed the lower floor of the building was a retail location, but the second story contained apartments with outside doors accessed by a common stairwell in the rear of the building. As the officers visually surveyed the exterior of the building, they saw the lights were on in one of the apartments and a tall black male who appeared to be very interested in what the officers were doing was looking out the window. The officers noticed the man appeared to match the descriptions of the suspects and quickly ducked out of sight when he saw the officers look up at him. The officers decided to approach the apartment. When they arrived at the front door to the apartment, they noticed someone had turned the lights off inside. As they stood outside the apartment door, they heard it lock from the inside. Officer Smithey then knocked on the door and announced the officers' presence.

A tall black male named Wesley Turner answered the door. The officers explained why they were there, and Turner allowed them inside. The officers entered the living room where they encountered Turner's girlfriend, Alyssa Miller, who also lived in the apartment. Turner and Miller indicated the only other person in the apartment was their roommate, Gunner Olson. Turner told the officers Olson was asleep in his room but agreed to wake him so the officers could speak with him. After Turner knocked on the bedroom door, Olson, who was also a black male, emerged from his room.

The officers decided to speak to the two men separately. Officer Stricker stepped outside to speak with Turner. During their brief conversation, Turner indicated he had remained in the apartment since arriving home from work around nine and had not seen anything suspicious.

Meanwhile, Officer Smithey stepped into the kitchen to speak with Olson. Olson confirmed he lived in the apartment along with Turner and Miller. Officer Smithey asked Olson if he could peek inside his bedroom. Only then did Olson tell Officer Smithey his cousin Marvis was sleeping in his bed. Olson told Officer Smithey that Marvis arrived sometime after he went to sleep earlier that evening. When asked, Olson indicated he did not know Marvis's last name and explained they were not really cousins. Officer Smithey did not ask Olson if Marvis had been staying in the apartment.

Olson then led Officer Smithey back to his bedroom. Officer Stricker looked on from the hallway, having just finished his conversation with Turner. Inside the room, the officers saw a shirtless black male in green pajama pants lying on the air mattress in the corner. The air mattress was the only mattress in the room. At the officers' request, Olson roused the man by shaking him, but the officers noticed that waking the man appeared to be considerably more difficult than it should have been. The officers also noticed the shirtless man was sweaty, which they thought odd because no one else in the apartment was sweating.

The man identified himself as Marvis Jackson. When asked if he had identification, Jackson indicated he did not. The officers had a brief conversation with Jackson, during which neither officer asked Jackson if he had been staying in the apartment, was an overnight guest, or had any personal belongings in the apartment. When the officers ran a check on Jackson's name, they discovered an outstanding warrant for his arrest for another armed robbery that took place at a gas station in November.¹ Officer Smithey notified Jackson he was under arrest, handcuffed him, and walked him out of the room. By that time, other officers had arrived at the apartment. Officer Smithey passed Jackson off to another officer for transport before returning to the bedroom.

While Officer Smithey was outside the bedroom passing Jackson off for transport, Officer Stricker spoke to Olson. Olson again indicated Jackson had arrived earlier that night after he had gone to sleep. Officer Stricker did not ask Olson if Jackson had been staying in the apartment, but Olson clearly indicated Jackson did not permanently reside in his bedroom. When asked if there were any guns in the room, he replied oddly that there should not be or that he did not know of any.

Officer Stricker then asked to search the bedroom for guns or any evidence of the robbery, and Olson consented to the search. Officer Stricker waited for Officer Smithey to return to the room. When Officer Smithey arrived, Officer Stricker informed him that Olson had consented to the search, and Olson confirmed he did not mind if Officer Smithey conducted the search. Neither officer asked Olson whether any of the items in the room might belong to Jackson. Officer Stricker then stepped outside the room with Olson to accompany him to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Officer Smithey began searching Olson's room. He first searched the area around the air mattress. He searched under the sheets and blankets on top of the air mattress and then under the mattress itself. He then grabbed a backpack sitting a few feet away on the floor along the wall next to or partly inside the closet door, which was partially off its hinges. He placed the backpack on the chair sitting between the closet and the air mattress. The backpack was closed and had no obvious identifying marks or tags on its exterior indicating who owned it. Officer Smithey opened the backpack. He reached inside and located a wallet, which he removed and laid on the chair without opening it. When Officer Smithey reached inside a second time, he located a pair of dark jeans. He noticed the jeans were wet at the hem along the bottom of each leg, which led him to believe they had recently been worn outside in the snow. He then removed the jeans from the backpack. Underneath the jeans, Officer Smithey saw a black handgun.

After removing the jeans and locating the handgun, Officer Smithey stopped removing items from the backpack. He opened the wallet he had placed on the chair a few moments before and saw that it contained identification belonging to Marvis Jackson. Officer Smithey took a photograph of the handgun inside the backpack to use in an application for a search warrant. He then emerged from the bedroom and informed the sergeant who was the supervising officer on the scene it was time to lock down the apartment. The officers conducted a protective sweep of the apartment and transported Olson, Turner, and Miller...