State v. Markland

• Decision Date: 15 April 2005
• Docket Number: No. 20040190.,20040190.
• Citation: 112 P.3d 507,2005 UT 26
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Petitioner, v. David Roger MARKLAND, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

112 P.3d 507

2005 UT 26

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Petitioner, v. David Roger MARKLAND, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 20040190.

Supreme Court of Utah.

April 15, 2005.

Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Jeffrey S. Gray, Asst. Att'y Gen., Michaela Andruzzi, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.

Linda M. Jones, Nisa J. Sisneros, Salt Lake City, for defendant.

On Certiorari to the Utah Court of Appeals

DURRANT, Justice:

¶ 1 In this case, we must determine whether David Roger Markland's constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when a police officer detained him in order to run a five-minute warrants check. At issue is whether Markland's detention was justified by a reasonable suspicion that Markland had engaged, was engaged, or was about to engage in criminal activity. The district court concluded that Markland's detention was justified. However, in a 2-1 opinion, the Utah Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the detention was unlawful because the facts in the record did not support the conclusion that the detaining officer possessed the requisite degree of suspicion prior to initiating the detention. We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision. We now reverse.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 At 3:14 a.m., Deputy Edward Spotten received a call from dispatch informing him that someone was "screaming or crying out for help" near the eastern end of the Bridgeside Landing apartment complex. Deputy Spotten arrived at the apartment complex within five minutes after hearing the report. Upon his arrival, Deputy Spotten proceeded to drive down a dead end street located on the east side of the complex. At that time, he observed Markland walking toward the dead end of the poorly lit street. Markland was carrying two over-the-shoulder cloth bags and was the only individual Deputy Spotten noticed in the area.

¶ 3 Deputy Spotten pulled his patrol car alongside Markland, exited the vehicle and, after informing Markland that there had been a report of screaming in the area, asked whether Markland had heard anything. Markland responded in the negative. Deputy Spotten then asked Markland where he was headed. Markland replied that he was walking home, which he stated was approximately twenty blocks away. Aware that the street on which Markland was traveling reached only a dead end, Deputy Spotten reasoned that Markland's present course would not lead him home.

¶ 4 At that point, Deputy Spotten asked Markland for some identification and proceeded to run a brief warrants check. That check revealed an outstanding warrant for Markland's arrest. Deputy Spotten therefore arrested Markland and, in a search incident to that arrest, discovered drug paraphernalia, methamphetamine, and marijuana.

¶ 5 The State charged Markland with two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Markland, arguing that his detention during the warrants check was unlawful, moved to suppress the drugs discovered after his arrest. After a hearing, the district court denied the motion to suppress, and Markland appealed.

¶ 6 In a 2-1 decision, the court of appeals reversed the district court's ruling and held that Deputy Spotten's detention of Markland for the purpose of running a warrants check was not supported by a reasonable suspicion that Markland was connected to criminal activity. State v. Markland, 2004 UT App 1, ¶ 9, 84 P.3d 240. The State petitioned this court for a writ of certiorari, which we granted. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code section 78-2-2(5) (2002).

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 7 "On certiorari, we review the decision of the court of appeals and not that of the district court." State v. Brake, 2004 UT 95, ¶ 11, 103 P.3d 699. Our review is for correctness, and we grant no deference to the court of appeals' opinion. Grand County v. Rogers, 2002 UT 25, ¶ 6, 44 P.3d 734. As an essential component of this correctness review, we must determine whether the court of appeals applied the proper standard of review when considering the district court's ruling. Brake, 2004 UT 95 at ¶ 11, 103 P.3d 699.

¶ 8 In the present case, the court of appeals reviewed the district court's ruling for correctness, but it conducted that review "with a measure of discretion given to the trial judge's application of the legal standard to the facts." State v. Markland, 2004 UT App 1, ¶ 2, 84 P.3d 240 (internal quotation omitted). Subsequent to the court of appeals' decision in Markland, we released our opinion in Brake, which resolved apparent confusion as to the appropriate standard of review in the search and seizure context and expressly adopted non-deferential review in such cases. Brake, 2004 UT 95 at ¶ 15, 103 P.3d 699 ("We abandon the standard which extended `some deference' to the application of law to the underlying factual findings in search and seizure cases in favor of non-deferential review.").

¶ 9 As Brake makes clear, the court of appeals improperly granted deference to the district court's application of the law to the facts. Consequently, when undertaking our own review, we apply the proper, non-deferential standard.

ANALYSIS

¶ 10 The Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures "extend to brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest." United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002). However, it is settled law that "a police officer may detain and question an individual when the officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity." State v. Chapman, 921 P.2d 446, 450 (Utah 1996) (internal quotation omitted).¹ In order to justify such a detention, the officer's suspicion must be supported by "specific and articulable facts and rational inferences," United States v. Werking, 915 F.2d 1404, 1407 (10th Cir.1990), and cannot be merely an "inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or `hunch,'" Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). However, "[a] determination that reasonable suspicion exists ... need not rule out the possibility of innocent conduct." Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 277,122 S.Ct. 744. Indeed, "the likelihood of criminal activity need not rise to the level required for probable cause, and it falls considerably short of satisfying a preponderance of the evidence standard." Id. at 274, 122 S.Ct. 744.

¶ 11 When reviewing a given factual situation to determine if reasonable suspicion justified a detention, "[c]ourts must view the articulable facts in their totality and avoid the temptation to divide the facts and evaluate them in isolation." State v. Warren, 2003 UT 36, ¶ 14, 78 P.3d 590. Courts must also "judge the officer's conduct in light of common sense and ordinary human experience and ... accord deference to an officer's ability to distinguish between innocent and suspicious actions." United States v. Williams, 271 F.3d 1262, 1268 (10th Cir.2001) (internal quotation and citations omitted); accord Warren, 2003 UT 36 at ¶¶ 20-21, 78 P.3d 590 (stating that courts should consider officers' subjective assessment of the facts).

¶ 12 The parties to this appeal do not dispute the articulation of the law outlined above, nor do they dispute the relevant facts. Rather, they dispute whether the facts observed by Deputy Spotten gave rise to a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and that Markland was connected to that activity.

¶ 13 The district court concluded that Deputy Spotten did have a reasonable, articulable suspicion and, in support of that conclusion, found the following facts:

a) [Deputy Spotten] received a report that someone was crying for help five minutes earlier in the area where he found [Markland].

b) It was late at night and the area was not well lit.

c) [Markland] was headed down a dead-end road where he could not get anywhere.

d) [Markland] said he was going home to a location that he could not get to by traveling in the direction in which he was headed.

e) [Markland] was carrying two bags with him.

¶ 14 The court of appeals reversed the district court's ruling, stating that the facts, as found by the district court, were not constitutionally sufficient to justify Markland's detention because "Deputy Spotten did not testify that he had any suspicions of criminal activity concerning [Markland]." State v. Markland, 2004 UT App 1, ¶ 7, 84 P.3d 240. According to the court of appeals, "the officers responded to a suspicious circumstances call, yet they did not observe, have knowledge of, or have suspicions about any crime that had been committed or was about to be committed, let alone any crime [Markland] had committed or was about to commit." Id. at ¶ 8. The court of appeals further noted that the facts observed by Deputy Spotten "were at least as consistent with lawful behavior as with the commission of a crime." Id. at ¶ 7 (internal quotation omitted).

¶ 15 The State argues that the court of appeals misapplied previous case law in concluding that the detention was unconstitutional. Markland disagrees, contending that the court of appeals conducted the appropriate analysis. Markland further argues that, even if we conclude that reasonable suspicion did justify his detention, we can nevertheless affirm the court of appeals by holding that the warrants check exceeded the permissible scope of the detention. We will analyze each contention in turn.

I. MARKLAND'S DETENTION WAS JUSTIFIED BY REASONABLE SUSPICION

¶ 16 Although we consider this a close case, we conclude that Deputy Spotten's detention of Markland was justified by a reasonable, articulable suspicion that crime was afoot and that Markland was connected to that crime. The court of appeals, in reaching the opposite conclusion, unduly emphasized the possibility of an innocent explanation of the facts Deputy Spotten witnessed, and followed an overly formalistic approach to the type of...