State v. Mathews
| Citation | 934 P.2d 931,129 Idaho 865 |
| Decision Date | 20 March 1997 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 20154,21127,s. 20154 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Marcus W. MATHEWS, Defendant-Appellant. Marcus W. MATHEWS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent. Moscow, April 1995 Term |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Idaho |
Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc., E. Maureen Laflin, Supervising Attorney and Megan M. Grant and Sheryl Musgrove, legal interns, argued, Moscow, for appellant.
Douglas Nash, Chief Counsel, Nez Perce Tribal Committee, for Amicus Curiae Nez Perce Tribe.
Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Michael A. Henderson, Deputy Attorney General, argued, Boise, for respondent.
ON REHEARING
Appellant Marcus Mathews (Mathews), arrested and charged with first degree murder under I.C. §§ 18-4001, 18-4002, and 18-4003 for the death of his estranged wife, Holly Morris, in Lewiston, Idaho, appeals an order of the district court denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained in a search of his property on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. Mathews asserts that the search warrant was invalid because it was obtained and executed without prior tribal court approval. Specifically, Mathews argues that the state's jurisdiction to order a search of Indian property in Indian country is precluded by the exclusive and plenary jurisdiction of the federal government over Indian affairs, by federal preemptive legislation, and by tribal sovereignty. This case, State v. Mathews, Docket No. 20154, is on rehearing.
Mathews also appeals an order of the district court denying his motion for postconviction relief. That case is Mathews v. State, Docket No. 21127. Mathews urges this Court to overturn the decision of the trial court that an unsigned warrant is not facially deficient. We first discuss Mathews v. State, Docket No. 21127.
On January 16, 1992, Mathews was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife, Holly Morris (Morris), who was found dead in her home in Lewiston, Idaho. Mathews is an enrolled member of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe, and was living on the reservation at the time of Morris's death. A few days prior to Mathews's arrest, Officer Greene of the Lewiston Police Department prepared two affidavits in support of requests for search warrants for Mathews's home on the reservation and the home of Mathews's sister and brother-in-law, Donna and Bill Henry, also on the reservation. Officer Greene informed Officer Ed Rolfe of the Lapwai office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the warrants. Rolfe contacted Judge Miles of the Nez Perce Tribal Court and informed her that the warrants were being prepared. Judge Miles told Rolfe she would meet the officers at her office prior to the search to review the warrants pursuant to the Nez Perce Tribal Law and Order Code.
On January 13, 1992, Officer Greene took the affidavits for the search warrants to Nez Perce County Magistrates Perry and Elliott. Judge Perry signed the documents regarding the warrant for the Mathews's home and Judge Elliott was given all the documents relating to the search warrant for the Henry residence. Judge Elliott notarized the officer's oath on the Affidavit for Search Warrant and signed all other documents regarding the warrant except the detention order and the search warrant. The warrant and detention order were signed the following day, on January 14, 1992, after they had been executed.
The Lewiston Police Department, accompanied by Deputy Don Taylor of the Nez Perce County Sheriff's Office and a BIA officer, executed the search warrants at the Henry home on the Nez Perce Reservation without obtaining the prior approval of Judge Miles. The Lewiston police did confer with the BIA, with tribal prosecutor Elliot Moffett, and with the Idaho Attorney General and the United States Attorney's office before executing the warrants. As a result of the searches, the Lewiston officers recovered, on execution of the unsigned warrant, the murder weapon and a pair of tennis shoes that matched tracks found at the scene of the crime. Mathews was then arrested and charged with the first degree murder of Morris.
Mathews moved to suppress the evidence obtained from the Henry home on the grounds that the state authorities lacked jurisdiction to execute a warrant in Indian Country. This motion was denied and Mathews entered an Idaho Criminal Rule 11 plea of guilty preserving this issue for appeal.
Concurrent with his appeal from his Judgment of Conviction, Mathews filed a petition On appeal this Court was unable to determine from the record whether or not Ms. Henry, the occupant of the home searched, questioned the validity of the warrant, (i.e. its lacking a signature), before the search was conducted and if Judge Elliott was aware he had not signed the search warrant. This Court on September 3, 1996, remanded this case to the trial court for a determination of these two issues.
for post-conviction relief. The petition asked the district court to vacate Mathews's sentence due to the involuntariness of his plea. The issues raised included the ineffective assistance of counsel and prosecutorial, police and judicial misconduct. Each of the issues raised centered on legal and factual questions based upon the execution of an unsigned search warrant. Thereafter, the state filed a motion for summary disposition and Mathews filed an answer and cross-motion. Oral arguments were heard and the district court issued its opinion denying post-conviction relief. Mathews also appealed this order.
On remand, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing and issued Findings on Remand. The trial court found in part:
This Court FINDS that Ms. Henry questioned the validity of the search warrant prior to the time of the search.
The testimony of Corporal Thomas H. Greene, Jr. and Ms. Donna Henry conflict on this issue; however, even assuming that the appellant (Mathews) has the burden of proof, the evidence establishes a preponderance that shortly after the law enforcement officers entered the Henry residence on January 13, 1992, and before any search of that residence, Ms. Henry was shown a copy of the search warrant which contained no Judge's signature. At that time, Ms. Henry questioned the validity of the search warrant by pointing out that the copy was not signed nor dated.
...
Corporal Greene testified that he deceived Ms. Henry by showing her his affidavit for the search warrant with Judge Elliott's signature when she asked why there was no signature on the warrant. Corporal Green intended for Ms. Henry to believe that the affidavit with Judge Elliott's signature was in fact the warrant.
...
This Court FINDS that at the time Corporal Greene and the other officers left his chambers on January 13, 1992, Judge Elliott had found that there was probable cause to search the Henry residence; Judge Elliott intended to sign the search warrant for the Henry residence; Judge Elliott believed he had signed the search warrant for the search of the Henry residence; and Judge Elliott thought the officers would execute the search warrant after they left his office.... The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that Judge Elliott simply made a mistake, i.e., he thought he had signed the search warrant for the search of the Henry residence at the time the officers left his chambers on January 13, 1992, but he had not.
The first issue is whether Mathews's plea was involuntary because he was deprived of his right to effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution in that a reasonably competent defense counsel would have discovered, investigated and moved to suppress the evidence illegally obtained and the failure of Mathews's counsel to do so was deficient and prejudiced Mathews because there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's error, Mathews neither would have pled to, nor would have been found guilty of, first degree murder.
The second issue is whether the action of the state through the prosecutor, police and judge violated Mathews's constitutional right to due process and a fair trial, as mandated by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, §§ 13, 17 and 18 of the Idaho Constitution.
Finally, the third issue is whether the district court erred in summarily dismissing Mathews's petition for post-conviction relief and granting the state's motion for summary disposition, without conducting an evidentiary hearing.
The resolution of the above-stated issues is dependent upon whether the district court erred in summarily disposing of Mathews's post-conviction application, given the search warrant was not signed by a magistrate or district judge.
A summary disposition under I.C. § 19-4906(b) is the procedural equivalent to a summary judgment motion under I.R.C.P. 56. Matthews v. State, 122 Idaho 801, 807, 839 P.2d 1215, 1221 (1992). A post-conviction application may be dismissed summarily where its allegations, even if true, would not entitle the applicant to relief. Id. Summary dismissal may be appropriate, even if the applicant's alleged facts are uncontroverted by the state, because while underlying facts must be regarded as true, the applicant's conclusions need not be so accepted. Phillips v. State, 108 Idaho 405, 407, 700 P.2d 27, 29 (1985). Bald and unsupported allegations recited by a petitioner are insufficient to entitle him to an evidentiary hearing. Pulver v. State, 93 Idaho 687, 692, 471 P.2d 74, 79 (1970), overruled on other grounds by State v. Tucker, 97 Idaho 4, 539 P.2d 556 (1975). A summary dismissal based on the pleadings does not require a hearing; neither does a summary dismissal...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Mathews
...deficient, we need not address the balance of the issues raised on appeal as they are rendered moot. State v. Mathews, 129 Idaho 865, 870, 934 P.2d 931, 936 (1997) (Mathews II). The Court vacated the district court's summary disposition order and remanded the case to the district court for ......
-
State v. Branigh
...by later decisions. An additional case which could be viewed as requiring suppression for a statutory violation is State v. Mathews, 129 Idaho 865, 934 P.2d 931 (1997), where a warrant that was inadvertently left unsigned by the approving magistrate was served and executed in violation of I......
-
State v. Branigh, 36427.
...[313 P.3d 743] An additional case which could be viewed as requiring suppression for a statutory violation is State v. Mathews, 129 Idaho 865, 934 P.2d 931 (1997), where a warrant that was inadvertently left unsigned by the approving magistrate was served and executed in violation of Idaho ......
-
State v. Branigh, Docket No. 36427
...by later decisions. An additional case which could be viewed as requiring suppression for a statutory violation is State v. Mathews, 129 Idaho 865, 934 P.2d 931 (1997), where a warrant that was inadvertently left unsigned by the approving magistrate was served and executed in violation of I......