State v. Meeks

• Decision Date: 02 September 2008
• Docket Number: No. M2006-01385-SC-R11-CO.,M2006-01385-SC-R11-CO.
• Citation: 262 S.W.3d 710
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Randy Lee MEEKS et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

262 S.W.3d 710

STATE of Tennessee v. Randy Lee MEEKS et al.

No. M2006-01385-SC-R11-CO.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Nashville.

May 28, 2008 Session Heard at Cookeville¹.

September 2, 2008.

Robert T. Carter and Eric J. Burch, Tullahoma, Tennessee, for the appellants, Randy Meeks and Ernest L. Snyder, Jr.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Mark A. Fulks, Senior Counsel; C. Michael Layne, District Attorney General; and Felecia Walkup, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, CORNELIA A. CLARK, and GARY R. WADE, JJ., joined.

This appeal involves the warrantless search of a motel room containing an actively operating methamphetamine laboratory. After the occupants of the room were indicted for manufacturing methamphetamine and for possessing methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, they filed a motion in the Circuit Court for Coffee County seeking to suppress the evidence found in the motel room. The trial court granted the motion to suppress and dismissed the indictment. The State appealed, and the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the trial court's decision to suppress the evidence and vacated the order dismissing the indictment. State v. Meeks, No. M2006-01385-CCA-R3-CO, 2007 WL 1987797 (Tenn.Crim.App. July 10, 2007). We granted the defendants' Tenn. R.App. P. 11 application for permission to appeal to address more fully the principles applicable to warrantless searches of actively operating methamphetamine laboratories when the State asserts that the officers were acting to avert a serious and immediate risk of injury to themselves or others. Like the Court of Criminal Appeals, we have determined that the trial court erred by granting the motion to suppress and by dismissing the indictment.

I.

At approximately 11:45 p.m. on March 6, 2005, one of the occupants of Room 109 of the Park Motel in Manchester, Tennessee telephoned the Manchester Police Department to report a strange odor in her motel room. When Officer Scott Peterson returned the call, the caller told him that the odor appeared to be coming from an adjoining room and that the odor was causing her and her mother to have burning eyes and headaches.

The caller also asked Officer Peterson "[w]hat does a meth lab smell like? What does making methamphetamine smell like?" Officer Peterson informed her that an actively operating methamphetamine laboratory has a distinct odor that is difficult to describe. After talking with the caller for approximately five minutes, Officer Peterson decided to follow up on the call. Even though the Manchester Police Department had received other similar calls that ultimately did not involve a methamphetamine laboratory, Officer Peterson was aware that other methamphetamine laboratories had been found at the Park Motel.

Officer Peterson met with the caller in Room 109 of the Park Motel. Upon entering the room, he discovered that the odor, particularly in the bathroom area, was instantly recognizable and unmistakable. The odor indicated that the occupants of Room 110 were manufacturing methamphetamine. Officer Peterson also noted that the caller and her elderly mother were still complaining of burning eyes and headaches—symptoms consistent with the effects of the toxic fumes produced when methamphetamine is being manufactured.

Officer Stuart Caldwell arrived at the Park Motel shortly after Officer Peterson. Officer Caldwell is certified as an expert regarding the production of methamphetamine. He has examined more than two hundred laboratories making methamphetamine, and he has been involved in more than one hundred and fifty methamphetamine prosecutions. Simply by standing in front of the door to Room 110, Officer Caldwell "could smell what [he] knew to be a meth lab."

Officers Peterson and Caldwell decided to knock on the door of Room 110 to speak with the occupant or occupants of the room. The officers received no response to their knocks, but with every knock, the odor intensified because the door was quite flimsy. In fact, the odor was so strong that Officer Peterson was forced to stand beside, rather than directly in front of, the door in order to avoid the fumes. While Officers Peterson and Caldwell were knocking on the door, they were joined by Corporal Ronny Gray who also immediately noticed the extremely strong odors of the ongoing manufacture of methamphetamine. The occupants of Room 110 did not respond to the officers' knocking, but the officers heard someone's voice inside the room and also heard the sound of breaking glass.

The officers then discussed their next course of action in light of the intensity of the odors emanating from Room 110. Officer Peterson understood that methamphetamine manufacturing created dangerous fumes and a risk of explosion. Officer Stuart was aware that the "presence of the chemicals there are dangerous in themselves, but when you start mixing those chemicals, it starts producing phosphine gas, hydrochloric gas, several gases that in just one part per million can kill you." He also feared the possibility of fatalities because the occupants of Room 110 and persons in the vicinity of the room risked inhaling the toxic fumes, explosion, and fire. Corporal Gray agreed that the situation posed a "threat." Collectively, the officers agreed that they should enter Room 110 because of the dangers posed by manufacturing methamphetamine. The officers made this decision approximately five to ten minutes after Officer Peterson first arrived at the Park Motel.

Corporal Gray obtained a key to Room 110 from the motel manager. When the officers unlocked the door, it still would not open completely because of a chain lock on the interior of the door. However, a large cloud of fumes escaped from the room through the partially opened door. The officers identified the fumes as a chemical cloud and concluded that the conditions in the room were extremely hazardous. Officer Peterson indicated that the air inside the room was not something that he "really want[ed] to be breathing" and that it posed a danger to others nearby. Officer Caldwell noted that the chemicals were capable of creating a fire. The officers continued to identify themselves in loud voices and to demand that the occupants of the room come to the door. Despite these commands, the occupants of the room still did not comply.

After receiving no response, the officers kicked in the door to Room 110. A hot plate with a glowing red heating element and bottles of peroxide and other unidentified liquids were near the door. Two men were in the room. Ernest Snyder stood in the bathroom with one of his hands behind his back. Randy Meeks was lying unconscious on the bed. When Mr. Snyder refused to comply with their commands to put his hands up, the officers removed him from the room. The intensity of the fumes in the room prevented the officers from re-entering.

Before removing Mr. Meeks from the room, Officer Caldwell and Corporal Gray donned air suits they had obtained from the fire department. When they re-entered the room, Mr. Meeks was still lying unconscious on the bed. The officers dragged him from the room, and paramedics were able to resuscitate him. Mr. Meeks remained incoherent at the scene and was in intensive care for an extended period of time. Mr. Snyder also required hospitalization. Approximately ten minutes elapsed between the officers' first entry into Room 110 and their removal of Mr. Meeks.

After Messrs. Meeks and Snyder were removed from the room, the officers called a hazardous materials team to the motel and placed an exhaust fan in Room 110. The persons who had been in the rooms adjacent to Room 110, including the person who placed the original telephone call to the police and her elderly mother, were relocated to other motels in Manchester. Later, when he was cross-examined regarding the decision not to evacuate the motel before entering Room 110, Officer Caldwell conceded that failing to remove the other motel occupants was "poor judgment" and that "[w]e should have done that first."

Using the information obtained from their warrantless entry of Room 110, the officers secured a search warrant. When the authorities searched Room 110, they found methamphetamine on the dresser, as well as evidence of a methamphetamine laboratory, including an HCL gas generator, plastic tubing, aluminum foil, a bottle of iodine crystals, a bottle containing muriatic acid, a Mason jar containing separating liquids, a plastic container of ephedrine, a gallon jug of iodine, and disposable plastic gloves.

In April 2005, a Coffee County grand jury indicted Messrs. Meeks and Snyder for manufacturing methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine, and possessing drug paraphernalia. In July 2005, Messrs. Meeks and Snyder filed a motion in the Circuit Court for Coffee County seeking to suppress the evidence seized in Room 110 on the ground that the warrantless entry was not justified by exigent circumstances. Following an October 10, 2005 hearing, the trial court entered an order on November 9, 2005, granting the motion to suppress. Placing great significance on the fact that the officers had not evacuated the occupants of the adjoining rooms before they entered Room 110, the trial court concluded that the State had failed to demonstrate the existence of the sort of exigent circumstances that would justify a warrantless search.

The State sought review of the trial court's November 9, 2005 order by the Court of Criminal Appeals. On July 10, 2007, the Court of Criminal Appeals filed an opinion reversing the trial court's suppression order and vacating the order dismissing the indictment. State v. Meeks, No. M2006-01385-CCA-R3-CO, 2007 WL 1987797 (Tenn.Crim.App. July 10, 2007). Relying on one of its unreported opinions,² the...