State v. Linghor

• Decision Date: 14 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. 20030360.,20030360.
• Citation: 690 N.W.2d 201,2004 ND 224
• Parties: STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Matthew LINGHOR, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

690 N.W.2d 201

2004 ND 224

STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Matthew LINGHOR, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 20030360.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

December 14, 2004.

Nicole E. Foster, State's Attorney, Williston, ND, for plaintiff and appellee.

Kevin J. Chapman, Chapman Law Office, Williston, ND, for defendant and appellant.

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] Matthew Linghor appealed from a jury conviction for conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance — methamphetamine, a class A felony. Linghor claims evidence discovered during a traffic stop should have been suppressed and that the State's retrial of his case violated the prohibition against double jeopardy. We affirm Linghor's conviction.

[¶ 2] Williams County Deputy Sheriff Terry Sherven made a traffic stop of an automobile in which Matthew Linghor was a passenger. Deputy Sherven detected an odor of anhydrous ammonia coming from the automobile and, in plain view in the backseat, saw what he determined to be paraphernalia used to make drugs. Deputy Sherven called for assistance. While waiting for assistance to arrive, Deputy Sherven questioned the driver of the automobile, William Ostwald. Ostwald indicated a can of paint thinner, which was part of the alleged drug paraphernalia located in the backseat, belonged to Linghor. Although the record is not entirely clear, it appears Ostwald made this statement outside of Linghor's presence. Deputy James Borseth and Special Agent Steven Gutknecht responded to Deputy Sherven's request for assistance. Special Agent Gutknecht viewed the interior of the car, determined that a mobile methamphetamine lab was present, and instructed Deputy Sherven to arrest Ostwald, who had been placed in Deputy Sherven's automobile. As it was cold outside, Special Agent Gutknecht decided to tow the automobile to a law enforcement garage for a thorough search. Deputy Sherven removed Linghor from the automobile. Special Agent Gutknecht performed a quick examination of the automobile's interior, but he ceased this activity to focus on Deputy Sherven's search of Linghor. Following a pat-down search, which did not reveal the presence of a weapon, Deputy Sherven had Linghor empty his pockets. Linghor removed a Wal-Mart receipt from his pocket and the officers noted that items on the receipt, which could be used to manufacture methamphetamine, were present in the automobile. The officers handcuffed Linghor, placed him in Deputy Borseth's automobile, and read him his Miranda rights. While waiting for the tow truck, Special Agent Gutknecht interviewed Ostwald and Linghor and both allegedly confirmed that Linghor purchased certain items listed on the Wal-Mart receipt. These interviews occurred before Linghor's formal arrest, which Special Agent Gutknecht ordered during his comprehensive search of the automobile at the law enforcement center. This formal arrest occurred approximately 20 minutes after discovery of the Wal-Mart receipt. At trial, Linghor asked the district court judge to suppress the Wal-Mart receipt and his statements in which he admitted purchasing items on the Wal-Mart receipt found in the automobile, but the trial judge denied the request. The State introduced this evidence at trial. Linghor's trial resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial. The State tried Linghor again and the second trial, which contained an additional State's witness who resolved factual inconsistencies in the State's case, resulted in a conviction.

I.

[¶ 3] The standard of review for a trial court's denial of a suppression motion is well-established. This Court has stated:

We will defer to a trial court's findings of fact in the disposition of a motion to suppress. Conflicts in testimony will be resolved in favor of affirmance, as we recognize the trial court is in a superior position to assess credibility of witnesses and weigh the evidence. Generally, a trial court's decision to deny a motion to suppress will not be reversed if there is sufficient competent evidence capable of supporting the trial court's findings, and if its decision is not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence.

State v. Kitchen, 1997 ND 241, ¶ 11, 572 N.W.2d 106 (internal citations omitted). "While we defer to the trial court's findings of fact, questions of law are fully reviewable." State v. Hawley, 540 N.W.2d 390, 392 (N.D.1995).

A.

[¶ 4] The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, and Art. I, § 8 of the North Dakota Constitution, protect individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. State v. Boline, 1998 ND 67, ¶ 19, 575 N.W.2d 906. To realize this protection of individual rights, all evidence obtained by unreasonable searches and seizures is inadmissible against the defendant at trial. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) (applying the exclusionary rule to state courts); see also State v. Handtmann, 437 N.W.2d 830, 837 (N.D.1989)

("The fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree doctrine is an extension of the exclusionary rule and prohibits the indirect use of information obtained in illegal searches and seizures."). A warrantless search is unreasonable unless it falls within a recognized exception to the warrant requirement. State v. Kunkel, 455 N.W.2d 208, 209-10 (N.D.1990).

[¶ 5] A search incident to a valid custodial arrest is one exception to the warrant requirement, and the U.S. Supreme Court defined the scope of this exception in Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) (holding that an officer making a lawful custodial arrest may search the arrestee and the area within the arrestee's immediate control). In certain circumstances, a search can even precede an arrest. State v. Overby, 1999 ND 47, ¶ 8, 590 N.W.2d 703. Where the search precedes arrest, however, it must be shown that (1) probable cause to arrest existed before the search, and (2) the arrest and search were substantially contemporaneous. Id. (citing Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 111, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980)). Another exception to the warrant requirement is the doctrine of inevitable discovery. State v. Phelps, 297 N.W.2d 769, 774 (N.D.1980). The inevitable-discovery exception establishes that evidence derived from an unlawful search is not inadmissible under the fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree doctrine if it is shown the evidence would have been uncovered without the unlawful action. Id.

B.

[¶ 6] Linghor asserts probable cause to arrest must be particularized with respect to each person arrested and that a person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search a person. Linghor contends his presence in the automobile, which he did not own, was not enough for law enforcement to suspect him of criminal activity or search his person. Linghor asserts the pocket search was not conducted incident to his arrest. He argues the police had no probable cause to arrest him until they uncovered the Wal-Mart receipt, and the fruits of this illegal search cannot retroactively provide the probable cause to arrest him. Linghor notes the 20 minute delay between the discovery of the Wal-Mart receipt and his formal arrest, which allegedly allowed police time to compare the items on the receipt with the items in the automobile, and argues it highlights the lack of pre-search probable cause to arrest. Linghor also takes issue with the district court's determination that he was under arrest at the time of the pocket search. Finally, Linghor labels as fruit of the poisonous tree his statements in which he allegedly admitted purchasing certain items from the Wal-Mart receipt. The State counters that the search of Linghor's person was valid under two exceptions to the warrant requirement for searches and seizures, the search-incident-to-arrest exception where the search precedes the arrest and the inevitable-discovery doctrine.

C.

[¶ 7] We conclude the officers had probable cause to arrest Linghor at the time of the pocket search and, when viewed objectively, had placed Linghor under arrest by the time of the search. Deputy Sherven's search is therefore justified as a search performed incident to Linghor's arrest.

[¶ 8] Under North Dakota law an officer is authorized to arrest a person, without a warrant, for a public offense committed or attempted in the officer's presence; when the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in the officer's presence; and when a felony in fact has been committed and the officer has reasonable cause to believe the person arrested to have committed it. N.D.C.C. § 29-06-15(1)(a-c). Upon seeing the methamphetamine paraphernalia in plain view in the automobile, the officers had probable cause to believe that some drug-related crime was either committed or attempted. Therefore, this statute, either as a whole or in part, provided the officers with the requisite authority to arrest the responsible parties without first obtaining a warrant. The primary question is whether officers had probable cause to believe Linghor committed this crime.

[¶ 9] The case of Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366, 124 S.Ct. 795, 157 L.Ed.2d 769 (2003), is dispositive of this issue. In Pringle, a police officer stopped an automobile for speeding and obtained the driver's consent to search the car. Id. at 798. The car had three occupants. Id. The search revealed the presence of a large amount of cash in the glovebox and five plastic baggies containing cocaine behind the back-seat armrest. Id. Pringle was a front-seat passenger in the car. Id. None of the automobile occupants admitted ownership of the drugs and all three were arrested. Id. The Maryland Court of Appeals held that, "absent specific facts tending to show Pringle's knowledge and dominion or control over the drugs, `the mere finding of cocaine in the back armrest when [Pringle] was a...