State v. Lopez

• Decision Date: 27 June 2005
• Docket Number: No. 28,016.,28,016.
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Richard LOPEZ, Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

116 P.3d 80

2005 NMSC 018

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Richard LOPEZ, Defendant-Respondent.

No. 28,016.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

June 27, 2005.

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Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Anita Carlson, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM, for Petitioner.

John B. Bigelow, Chief Public Defender, Trace L. Rabern, Assistant Appellate Defender, Santa Fe, NM, for Respondent.

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} Defendant Richard Lopez was charged with trafficking cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and forfeiture of cash. Pursuant to a plea bargain, the State reduced the first charge and dropped the remaining charges. As a result, Defendant pleaded no contest to possession of cocaine,¹ reserving the right to appeal the district court's denial of his suppression motion. The district court granted a conditional discharge, requiring eighteen months of probation. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's denial of Defendant's motion to suppress, concluding that the police officers violated the knock and announce rule, in a memorandum opinion. This Court granted the State's petition for writ of certiorari. We reverse the Court of Appeals and affirm the district court.

I. Facts and Background

{2} The police officers obtained a search warrant for a mobile home in Lincoln County that authorized seizure of illegal and/or stolen firearms, controlled substances, and distribution equipment. The warrant was based on the allegation that a resident of the house, Ramon Sanchez, was involved in the sale of illegal drugs and that he "has/sells stolen firearms to include fully automatic Mini-14's and sawed-off shotguns." A confidential informant provided the basis for the information in the warrant and had been present at the residence within the past few days. Defendant had a room in the house. Police officers had conducted prior surveillance. The officers expected to find between two and four people in the residence.

{3} The officers, wearing uniforms or vests that identified them as law enforcement, executed the warrant at approximately 3:00 p.m. Four officers knocked and announced their presence, identity, and purpose. Another group of officers were positioned at the other side of the residence with directions to cover the other door. The officers did not hear anything from inside the residence following their knocking. Approximately three seconds after knocking and announcing, the officers opened the unlocked door and entered the residence. While entering the home, the officers continued to announce and identify themselves, stating that they had a search warrant.

{4} The officers found Sanchez coming out of the bathroom and Defendant in his bedroom with the door closed. A loaded Ruger Mini-14 was in Defendant's bedroom closet, and the closet door was open. Defendant was arrested. The police officers found thirty-three marijuana plants, distribution equipment and paraphernalia. They seized the Ruger Mini-14, thirty-three boxes of ammunition, a plastic bag containing a substance that field-tested positive for cocaine, a green leafy substance in a plastic container, and a digital scale from Defendant's bedroom, as well as $513 in cash in his pocket.

{5} Defense counsel moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the officers failed to satisfy the requirements of the knock and announce rule because they did not wait long enough after knocking. Defense counsel also asserted that there was insufficient evidence that the residents of the home were violent or were going to use the firearms. The prosecutor argued that the officers had reliable information that the resident was a drug and weapons dealer or was in possession of weapons, which created the factual basis for the officers of a risk of danger justifying a quick entry for their safety. The district judge denied Defendant's motion to suppress, deciding "[f]or the reasons set forth by the State of New Mexico, I am going to find that the three (3) seconds was adequate time in which to knock and announce because of the exigent circumstances of the reasonable suspicion of firearms being within the house."

{6} Defendant raised two issues in the Court of Appeals: first, he argued that the police officers had violated the knock and announce rule, and second, he argued that the affidavit did not provide sufficient information to establish the confidential informant's credibility and reliability. The Court of Appeals reversed the district court's denial of Defendant's motion to suppress on the first issue and did not reach the second claim. The Court of Appeals concluded that the three-second wait did not satisfy the requirement that the police officers wait a reasonable time before entering and noted that the wait was "not a reasonable amount of time . . . to allow a person to react to a knock and announce and get up from a chair to answer the door."

{7} Defendant appears to argue to this Court that the basis of the warrant was not sufficient to support the presence of weapons in the residence. Defendant contends that there was only probable cause for illegal drugs. Defendant also appears to rely on the items actually found by police, rather than the items listed in the warrant. The State argues that Defendant erroneously describes the record when he claims that there was a mere assertion that firearms were in the residence, attempting to argue that there was insufficient evidence showing the informant's basis of knowledge regarding the existence of firearms at the residence. The State contends that the issue regarding the informant is not before the Court because Defendant did not file a petition for certiorari on this issue, and that, even if Defendant had done so, that issue was not raised in the Court of Appeals. Thus, the State argues that these are two separate issues, the informant's basis of knowledge regarding the presence of firearms and the veracity of the informant, and that neither is properly before this Court. As the State argues, only the knock and announce issue is before this Court. We address only the issue raised in the petition, whether the district court properly denied Defendant's motion to suppress based on a finding that partial compliance with the knock and announce rule was excused because of exigent circumstances.

II. Discussion

{8} In State v. Attaway, 117 N.M. 141, 150, 870 P.2d 103, 112 (1994), this Court held that law enforcement officers are required to knock and announce their identity and purpose prior to executing a search warrant. However, "[w]e expressly endorse[d] the widely accepted, general exception to the rule of announcement based on an officer's objectively reasonable belief that full or partial compliance with the rule of announcement would increase the risk of danger to the officers effectuating the warrant." Id. at 151, 870 P.2d at 113.

A. Standard of Review

{9} "The standard of review for suppression rulings is whether the law was correctly applied to the facts, viewing them in a manner most favorable to the prevailing party." State v. Jason L., 2000-NMSC-018, ¶ 10, 129 N.M. 119, 2 P.3d 856 (quotation marks and quoted authority omitted). "[A] trial court is to be given wide latitude in determining that an historical fact has been proven." Attaway, 117 N.M. at 144, 870 P.2d at 106. The appellate court reviews "these purely factual assessments" for substantial evidence, id., and "[t]he appellate court must defer to the district court with respect to findings of historical fact so long as they are supported by substantial evidence." Jason L., 2000-NMSC-018, ¶ 10, 129 N.M. 119, 2 P.3d 856. "[A]ll reasonable inferences in support of the [district] court's decision will be indulged in, and all inferences or evidence to the contrary will be disregarded." Id. (quotation marks and quoted authority omitted) (alteration in original); accord State v. Vargas, 1996-NMCA-016, ¶ 8, 121 N.M. 316, 910 P.2d 950. Thus, we must draw all reasonable inferences in support of the district court's denial of Defendant's motion to suppress and defer to the district court's determination of the facts.

{10} The United States Supreme Court has expressed that neither the language of the Fourth Amendment nor the Court's precedent require specification in the search warrant of the manner in which the warrants must be executed. "On the contrary, it is generally left to the discretion of the executing officers to determine the details of how best to proceed with the performance of a search authorized by a warrant—subject of course to the general Fourth Amendment protection `against unreasonable searches and seizures.'" Dalia v. United States, 441 U.S. 238, 257, 99 S.Ct. 1682, 60 L.Ed.2d 177 (1979) (footnote omitted). The Supreme Court "held that the common law knock-and-announce principle is one focus of the reasonableness enquiry," and that "although the standard generally requires the police to announce their intent to search before entering closed premises, the obligation gives way when officers have a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances, would be dangerous or futile, or . . . would inhibit the effective investigation of the crime by, for example, allowing the destruction of evidence." United States v. Banks, 540 U.S. 31, 36, 124 S.Ct. 521, 157 L.Ed.2d 343 (2003) (quotation marks and quoted authority omitted) (omission in original). Thus, we measure an officer's reasonable belief under a reasonable suspicion standard. "This standard—as opposed to a probable cause requirement—strikes the appropriate balance between the legitimate law enforcement concerns at issue in the execution of search warrants and the individual privacy interests affected by no-knock entries." Richards v. Wisconsin, 520 U.S. 385, 394, 117 S.Ct. 1416, 137 L.Ed.2d 615 (1997) (rejecting a blanket rule that any...