State v. Monroe
| Decision Date | 15 May 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 12532,12532 |
| Citation | 611 P.2d 1036,101 Idaho 251 |
| Parties | The STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Louis Andrew MONROE, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
William F. Gigray, III of Gigray, Miller, Downen & Weston, Caldwell, for defendant-appellant.
David H. Leroy, Atty. Gen., Lynn E. Thomas, Howard Carsman, Deputy Attys. Gen., Boise, for plaintiff-respondent.
The defendant-appellant, Louis Andrew Monroe, here appeals his conviction, on January 17, 1977, of first degree murder, based on two assignments of error: first, the admission of evidence seized as a result of the entry by police officers of the defendant's home early on the morning of June 12, 1976; and second, the admission of a confession given by the defendant that same morning.
On June 12, 1976, at approximately 3 a. m., Canyon County Sheriff's Department and firemen responded to a call reporting a car on fire in a church parking lot on Sunnyridge Road south of Nampa. While the firemen were putting out the blaze they observed a body in the trunk of the vehicle. Sergeant Roy Mullen radioed the dispatcher and summoned the investigator on call, the sheriff, the coroner, and the prosecuting attorney. The license plate on the car was checked and the owner was listed as Lee Monroe, who was reported to live less than half a mile from the parking lot. Lee Monroe had five days earlier reported a burglary of his home to the sheriff's office.
After Detective Anderson, Dr. Donndelinger, Prosecutor James Morfitt, and several sheriff's office personnel arrived at the scene, Anderson instructed Sergeant Mullen and Officer Stout to proceed to the Monroe residence. Mullen and Stout found the house almost completely lit and the interior visible from the outside, since there were no curtains drawn except for one bedroom, which was dark. From the street they could see no movement or anything else of interest on the inside. Outside near the back of the house, however, they observed a smoldering object which appeared to be a mattress. The two officers proceeded to circle the outside of the house in opposite directions. Mullen examined the mattress in the rear of the house, and observed a piece of fabric on top of it, considerably burned. He also observed at the back door bloodstains and the signs that a body might have been taken out the back door. Mullen met Stout at the front of the house and told him not to enter the house; Mullen then returned to the parking lot to confer with other officers. Sheriff Nourse, on his way to the parking lot, stopped at the Monroe residence and was briefed by Officer Stout, who was then told to secure the area.
At the parking lot the body was further examined and a spent .22 caliber projectile found. It was also learned that the Monroe residence was rented from the Stuarts, who lived next door. Morfitt drove to the Stuart residence; he awakened them and asked them to help identify the body. When Mr. Stuart left with Prosecuting Attorney Morfitt to go to the parking lot, Nourse and Detective Prescott proceeded to the Monroe residence. Stout reported that he had seen and heard nothing since Mullen left. The officers knocked loudly at both the front and back doors and announced themselves, but got no answer. They then obtained a key from Mrs. Stuart and let themselves in. After looking briefly at the lighted rooms they knocked on the one bedroom into which they had not been able to see from the outside, and entered, finding the defendant on the bed, apparently asleep. They woke him and told him to get up and get dressed and talk to them in the living room.
There is some conflict at this point between the testimony of Sheriff Nourse and Detective Prescott. Nourse testified at the preliminary hearing that he noticed guns in the bedroom and warned the other officers to be aware of that. Nourse testified that the defendant responded by pointing to a .22 rifle in the closet in plain view and stating, "That is the only gun you will need." Deputy Prescott, on the other hand, testified that this statement came only after the defendant had been taken into the living room and then went back to the bedroom to get some different clothes.
In any event, the defendant was brought into the living room, advised of his Miranda rights, and asked whether he wanted to make a statement. He said that he thought he should see a lawyer before making a statement. The defendant was then placed under arrest and told to get his clothes. When Prescott noticed bloodstains on the clothes defendant had put on, he asked whether he had worn them the day before; defendant said yes, and the clothes were confiscated.
Defendant was handcuffed and searched and again asked whether he wanted to make a statement, and he again said that he would after he had been advised by his attorney. At approximately 6:30 a. m. the defendant was transported to the Canyon County Sheriff's Office, Criminal Investigation Division (CID).
Detective Anderson and Prosecuting Attorney Morfitt then discussed the need for a search warrant to photograph the inside of the house and collect evidence. Anderson then proceeded to photograph the outside of the house.
Jim Muller, another occupant of the Monroe residence, returned home at approximately 8 a. m. and found several police cars outside, and several officers inside the house. He was informed of the events and was transported at about 8:30 to the CID, where the defendant was being held.
In the meantime, at approximately 5:30 a. m. a Sheriff's deputy went to the home of Vernita Monroe (the defendant's mother who lived separately from her husband and son), awakened her, and asked her to come down to the CID. There she talked with Officer Prescott and was told that her husband was dead and that the officers suspected foul play. She was then told for the first time that her son might be involved, and that he was being held upstairs. Mrs. Monroe's testimony, uncontroverted as we read the record, is as follows:
(Mrs. Monroe): ". . . He (Prescott) said he wanted me to talk to Andy and see if I could get Andy to talk to them because he wouldn't talk to them.
After the defendant had had some conversation with his mother, Detective Prescott asked if he were ready to give a statement. He said, "I want a lawyer before I talk to you." Detective Anderson entered the room shortly thereafter, and asked if the defendant would talk. The defendant said he would, and began asking Anderson why Muller, whom he could see just outside the room where he was being questioned, was there. Anderson testified as follows:
"I told him that we were going to be talking to everybody that was remotely involved in this situation and he indicated that Mr. Muller did not know anything about it, did not have anything to do with it; something of that nature, and I then asked him if he would like to give me his side of it or what did take place and he said, 'Yes.' "
Anderson later testified that he was not aware that the defendant had previously requested an attorney.
Defendant then executed a full written Miranda waiver and was interviewed by Anderson, first informally, and then on tape (Exhibit 13). He confessed to shooting his father on the morning of June 11, and that evening putting the body in the car, and finally setting the car on fire. Thereafter the defendant was arraigned on charges of first degree murder. At 10 a. m. on June 12 Sheriff Nourse filed an affidavit in support of a warrant to search the Monroe residence. The warrant was issued and served on Muller at the Monroe residence at 11:30 a. m. A variety of items were then seized, photographed and inventoried, including clothes belonging to the defendant stained with blood and a .22 caliber rifle (the murder weapon).
The defendant moved to suppress all of the evidence which had been obtained as a result of the warrantless search, and also to suppress the confession as both a fruit of the search, and as a violation of 5th and 6th Amendment rights. The trial judge denied the motion to suppress except with respect to the clothing which Officer Prescott had questioned the defendant about before taking him to the stationhouse.
The first question raised in this appeal is whether the warrantless entry and search of the home of the defendant was reasonable, and therefore permissible under the Fourth Amendment. As the appellant has pointed out, warrantless searches are per se unreasonable, unless they fall within one of the defined exceptions to the warrant requirement. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971); State v. Harwood, 94 Idaho 615, 495 P.2d 160 (1972). Here, however, the respondent has invoked the recognized exception for emergencies or "exigent circumstances." Under this exception, in the words of Judge (now Chief Justice) Burger, "(t)he need to protect or preserve life or avoid serious injury is justification for what would be otherwise illegal absent an exigency or emergency." Wayne v. United States, 318 F.2d 205, 212 (D.C.Cir.1963) (Burger, J., concurring). The test to be applied in determining whether or not an emergency exists is whether the facts as then known to the police, together with reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, " 'warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that the action taken was appropriate." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (...
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State v. Fisher
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