State v. Lester

• Citation: 874 N.W.2d 768
• Decision Date: 10 February 2016
• Docket Number: No. A14–0431.,A14–0431.
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Appellant, v. Jimmy Dawayne LESTER, Respondent.
• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)

874 N.W.2d 768

STATE of Minnesota, Appellant,

v.Jimmy Dawayne LESTER, Respondent.

No. A14–0431.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Feb. 10, 2016.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Kelly O'Neill Moller, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Bridget Kearns Sabo, Assistant State Public Defender, Saint Paul, MN; and Jonathan P. Schmidt, Kathryn M. Short, Special Assistant State Public Defenders, Briggs and Morgan, P.A., Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.

OPINION

WRIGHT, Justice.

In this appeal from a judgment of conviction of third-degree possession of a controlled substance, respondent Jimmy Dawayne Lester argues that the heroin seized from the car he was driving must be suppressed because the police unlawfully searched the car. Although the district court denied Lester's motion to suppress the heroin, the court of appeals reversed after concluding that the police did not have probable cause to arrest Lester or to search the car he was driving. State v. Lester, No. A14–0431, 2015 WL 1608701 (Minn.App. Apr. 13, 2015). We hold that the warrantless search of Lester's car was lawful under the automobile exception because there was probable cause to believe that contraband would be found in the car. Therefore, we reverse the decision of the court of appeals and remand to that court to address any remaining issues on appeal.

I.

Appellant State of Minnesota charged Lester with second-degree sale of a controlled substance, Minn.Stat. § 152.022, subd. 1(1) (2014), and third-degree possession of a controlled substance, Minn.Stat. § 152.023, subd. 2(a)(1) (2014), after police found heroin in a rental car that Lester was driving. Prior to trial, Lester moved to suppress the heroin on the ground that the police unlawfully searched the car without a warrant.

Testimony at the pretrial omnibus hearing established the following. On October 26, 2011, Officer Kyle Ruud, who has served with the Minneapolis Police Department for more than 18 years, received a tip from a confidential reliable informant (CRI). Officer Ruud had worked with this particular CRI for two months. In prior investigations, Officer Ruud had corroborated the CRI's information, had determined it to be truthful, and had used it to recover contraband. Charges were filed as a result of these prior tips. In this case, the CRI told Officer Ruud that a man, nicknamed J., "was going to be delivering a quantity of heroin to the area of Broadway Avenue North and Washington Avenue North" in Minneapolis within "approximately ten minutes" of the CRI's tip. The CRI described J. as "a black male, 28 to 30 years old, approximately five nine, five ten in height, medium build and medium light complexion." The CRI stated that he had personally observed J. "in possession of heroin on several occasions within the past month and also selling heroin to customers within the past month."

Within three minutes of the tip, Officer Ruud set up surveillance at the corner of Broadway and Washington and observed a Dodge Charger parked on Washington. A male in the front passenger seat matched J.'s description. Police officers brought the CRI to this intersection, and the CRI positively identified the passenger in the Charger as J. The driver of the Charger was later identified as Lester. The CRI did not say anything about Lester, the Charger, or where J. stored drugs. Officer Ruud confirmed that all he knew was that "J was going to be delivering a quantity of heroin to Broadway and Washington Avenue North within about ten minutes." A few minutes later, Lester and J. drove to a nearby SuperAmerica gas station and parked near the gas pumps. Lester and J. went inside the gas station and returned to the Charger a few minutes later. Lester got inside the Charger, but J. walked toward a sidewalk on Broadway, north of the gas station. Meanwhile, Lester pulled away from the gas pumps and parked the Charger on the north side of the gas station parking lot.

While on the sidewalk, J. "was talking on the phone, looking back and forth." Officer Ruud believed, based on his experience and training, that J.'s behavior indicated that J. "was waiting for a potential [narcotics] customer to come in the area." J. walked across Broadway into a McDonald's parking lot and "met up with a white male who was in a silver Pontiac Grand Am." Based on what Officer Ruud witnessed, he inferred that "the potential customer that J[.] had been waiting for had arrived in that vehicle and now [J.] got into that vehicle and they met up." Officer Ruud also inferred that Lester, who remained parked at the gas station, appeared to be "waiting for J[.] to return" to the Charger. Officer Ruud explained that, in his experience, it is "typical" for two people to work together with a vehicle to deal narcotics. Often one person "stay[s] with the vehicle" to "keep[ ] watch on the narcotics" hidden in the vehicle, Officer Ruud testified, while "the other person makes the transactions." Based on the CRI's tip and Officer Ruud's observations and experience, Officer Ruud believed that Lester was using the Charger to facilitate narcotics dealing with J. and that police "would find heroin" in the Charger.

After J. got into the Grand Am and it headed east on Broadway, Officer Ruud ordered other police officers to stop the Grand Am and to arrest all occupants of both the Grand Am and the Charger. The police searched the Charger and found several plastic baggies ("bindles") of suspected heroin concealed behind a panel in the Charger's center console. The bindles field-tested positive for heroin.

The district court denied Lester's motion to suppress the heroin, concluding that Lester's arrest was supported by probable cause and that the vehicle search was lawful under both the automobile exception and the search-incident-to-arrest exception. The district court determined that, based on the CRI's tip, the circumstances Officer Ruud observed that were consistent with drug dealing, and Officer Ruud's inferences drawn from his narcotics investigation training and experience, there was probable cause to believe that "there were felony drug sales being committed"; that "[Lester] was acting as a partner with J." in the drug deal; that "[Lester] was aiding and abetting the sale of heroin"; and that "[Lester's] vehicle contained contraband."

After a bench trial, the district court found Lester guilty of third-degree possession of a controlled substance. However, the district court acquitted Lester of second-degree sale of a controlled substance. The court of appeals reversed Lester's conviction, concluding that the district court erroneously denied Lester's motion to suppress because the police did not have probable cause to arrest Lester or to search his car. State v. Lester, No. A14–0431, 2015 WL 1608701, at *6 (Minn.App. Apr. 13, 2015). We granted the State's petition for review.

II.

The State argues that the district court properly denied Lester's motion to suppress. The State contends that the search of Lester's car was lawful under the automobile exception because there was probable cause to believe that contraband would be found in Lester's car. We review de novo a trial court's determination of probable cause as it relates to a warrantless search. State v. Munson, 594 N.W.2d 128, 135 (Minn.1999).

The United States Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution protect against "unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV; Minn. Const. art. I, § 10. A search conducted without a warrant is unreasonable unless it satisfies "one of the well-delineated exceptions to the warrant requirement." Munson, 594 N.W.2d at 135.

One such exception is the "automobile exception," under which the police may search a car without a warrant, including closed containers in that car, if there is "probable cause to believe the search will result in a discovery of evidence or contraband." State v. Search, 472 N.W.2d 850, 852 (Minn.1991) (citing United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982) ). Probable cause exists when "there are facts and circumstances sufficient to warrant a reasonably prudent [person] to believe that the vehicle contains contraband." State v. Johnson, 277 N.W.2d 346, 349 (Minn.1979).

Probable cause is an objective inquiry that depends on the totality of the circumstances in each case. See State v. Williams, 794 N.W.2d 867, 871–72 (Minn.2011) ; State v. Perkins, 582 N.W.2d 876, 878 (Minn.1998). It is a "common-sense, nontechnical" concept that involves "the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent [people], not legal technicians, act." State v. Lee, 585 N.W.2d 378, 382 (Minn.1998) (quoting Ornelas v. United States, ...