State v. Rosa
| Decision Date | 31 August 2020 |
| Docket Number | NO. CAAP-18-0000592,CAAP-18-0000592 |
| Citation | 473 P.3d 741 |
| Parties | STATE of Hawai‘i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Keoni I. ROSA, Jr., Defendant-Appellant |
| Court | Hawaii Court of Appeals |
On the briefs:
Nelson W.S. Goo, for Defendant-Appellant.
Brian R. Vincent, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
The principal issue in this case concerns whether the warrantless seizure of the defendant's cellular phone, incident to his warrantless arrest, was a violation of his constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures because his warrantless arrest was illegal under Hawai‘i law. Based on the applicable statutes and case law, we hold that: (1) the defendant's warrantless arrest was unlawful where probable cause for his arrest was established nineteen days earlier, the police knew his identity and the location of his residence and even served him with a subpoena to appear in court, and the police had no obstacles preventing them from making an arrest or obtaining an arrest warrant, but delayed in making the arrest because the lead officer was busy with other cases and for strategic reasons; (2) the fact that probable cause was established by way of evidence other than a police officer's personal observations did not negate the immediacy element of a lawful warrantless arrest; (3) because the defendant's arrest was illegal, the seizure of his cellular phone was not incident to a lawful arrest; and (4) as the trial court did not reach the issue of whether the evidence obtained from the defendant's cellular phone would have been inevitably discovered, it is necessary to remand this case for further proceedings to determine whether that evidence should have been suppressed. We also conclude, for the reasons stated herein, that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's request for a new trial.
Defendant-Appellant Keoni I. Rosa, Jr. (Rosa ) appeals from the Judgment of Conviction and Sentence (Judgment ) entered against him and in favor of Plaintiff-Appellee the State of Hawai‘i (State ) on January 2, 2018, in the Circuit Court of the First Circuit (Circuit Court ).1 Following a jury trial, Rosa was found guilty of one count of Continuous Sexual Assault of a Minor under the Age of Fourteen Years, in violation of Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS ) § 707-733.6 (2014),2 and one count of Sexual Assault in the First Degree, in violation of HRS § 707-730 (2014).3 Rosa was sentenced to two twenty-year terms of imprisonment, to run concurrently, with credit for time served.
On January 6, 2014, the mother (Mother ) of a minor complaining witness (CW ) called the Honolulu Police Department (HPD ) to report an alleged sexual assault. HPD dispatched Officer Darren Ozaki (Officer Ozaki ) to investigate the report, meeting Mother first, and then CW, at their residence. CW was fourteen years old when he met with Officer Ozaki on January 6, 2014; CW was about thirteen years old at the time of the alleged incidents.
Mother and CW reported a history of multiple sexual assault incidents that occurred over the prior year at various locations, identified Rosa as the alleged assaulter, and provided information regarding communications between CW and Rosa via CW's cellular phone and Rosa's cellular phone (Rosa's Phone ). CW also told Officer Ozaki that he and Rosa exchanged naked photos and explicit text messages using their cellular phones. Officer Ozaki learned from Mother that CW had erased all of the naked photos and text messages from CW's phone. At the time of the incidents, CW reportedly used an iPhone from Verizon, but the phone number was no longer in service when he made the police report.
Officer Ozaki documented the information that he received from Mother and CW, and Officer Ozaki prepared an HPD report in the case.
On January 7, 2014, Detective Sergeant Beth Rockett (Detective Rockett ), a detective with HPD's sex crimes detail, was assigned to investigate CW's allegations against Rosa. Officer Ozaki communicated his information to Detective Rockett. At the time she was assigned to investigate the case, Detective Rockett worked Saturdays through Wednesdays, with Thursdays and Fridays off.
An HPD "lockup arrest" (Lockup Case ) is a case in which a suspect has already been arrested. On the weekends, Detective Rockett was one of four or five detectives assigned to cover Lockup Cases for the island of O‘ahu, and her Lockup Cases were not limited to sexual assault cases. Because suspects in Lockup Cases are already in custody, such cases are given priority by HPD detectives, including Detective Rockett.
Detective Rockett was scheduled off from work on January 9 and January 10, 2014. On January 9, 2014, Mother provided HPD Officer Aaron Takeuchi with additional information regarding photographs and videos of her son and other boys on Rosa's Phone. Mother also provided Rosa's phone number and cellular service provider.
When back at work on January 11, 2014, Detective Rockett contacted CW to arrange an interview the next day. On January 12, 2014, Detective Rockett conducted a video- and audio-recorded interview with CW. CW alleged that Rosa's assaults began around the time CW was a sixth-grader in elementary school. CW alleged multiple assaults at multiple public locations. CW also alleged that Rosa showed CW pornographic images on Rosa's Phone, and that Rosa requested CW take explicit photos on his phone and send them to Rosa's Phone. Detective Rockett presented CW with a photographic lineup; the photographic lineup consisted of six photographs, including a photograph of Rosa. CW positively identified Rosa as the individual who sexually assaulted him. Detective Rockett later testified that, following the interview with CW, she "knew that [she] had to eventually get a search warrant, do admin subpoenas, locate the scenes, take pictures of those scenes, that kind of stuff." Detective Rockett testified that she did not feel ready to locate and arrest Rosa after the interview with CW on January 12, 2014. However, Detective Rockett also testified that she had probable cause to arrest Rosa following her interview with CW on January 12, 2014. After the January 12, 2014 interview, Detective Rockett printed out a record of a vehicle registered to Rosa, which included Rosa's Wai‘anae residential address.
On January 14 and 15, 2014, Detective Rockett received and prioritized working on a Lockup Case in which the suspect was in custody and needed to be charged within forty-eight hours. Detective Rockett was scheduled off from work on January 16 and 17, 2014. On January 18 and 19, 2014, Detective Rockett received two additional Lockup Cases that took priority over her other cases and required her attention until January 20, 2014.
On January 21, 2014, Detective Rockett made arrangements to visit and photograph locations of alleged assaults on the following day. On January 22, 2014, Detective Rockett visited scenes of the alleged offenses and photographed various bathrooms and business establishments. Detective Rockett was scheduled off from work on January 23 and January 24, 2014.
On Saturday, January 25, 2014, along with HPD Detective Michelle Phillips (Detective Phillips ), Detective Rockett attempted to locate Rosa at his residence to arrest him. When they arrived, a vehicle was parked on the premises, but the gate was locked. Detective Rockett called out, but there was no answer and Rosa did not appear to be present. On January 26, 2014, Detective Rockett served two administrative subpoenas, one on Verizon (the cellular phone service provider for CW), and the other on AT&T (the cellular phone service provider for Rosa). The subpoenas requested phone call and text message logs for each phone number. On January 27, 2014, Detective Rockett located and photographed Rosa's car, which was parked in the driveway of Rosa's house. Detective Rockett emailed the photograph of the vehicle to CW, and CW identified Rosa's car as the vehicle CW rode in with Rosa.
Detective Rockett learned at some point that on Friday, January 31, 2014, Rosa was scheduled to appear at a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO ) hearing in Honolulu District Court.4 Since Rosa was likely to appear for the TRO hearing, Detective Rockett decided to make the arrest on that date. On January 31, 2014, at about 8:50 a.m., Detective Rockett located and arrested a male at the Honolulu District Court building, who identified himself as Rosa. After arresting Rosa, Detective Rockett conducted a search incident to arrest and recovered a white Apple iPhone from Rosa's waist area. Detective Rockett submitted the phone into evidence, pending the approval and issuance of a search warrant. Rosa was then transported to the Central Receiving Division of the Main Police Station for booking and processing.
Detective Rockett also prepared a post-arrest Affidavit in Support of Warrantless Arrest, which was signed and notarized on January 31, 2014, and later submitted into evidence at a March 3, 2015 pre-trial hearing on a motion to suppress. The affidavit stated that Detective Rockett believed that she had probable cause for Rosa's arrest and probable cause to support the extended restraint of Rosa's liberty. The facts and circumstances described in Detective Rockett's probable cause affidavit were all known to Detective Rockett on or before January 12, 2014.
Later in the afternoon of January 31, 2014, the Honorable Paul B. Wong reviewed and approved a search warrant for Rosa's residence.
On February 5, 2014, the State presented the case to an O‘ahu Grand Jury. Rosa was indicted on one count of Continuous Sexual Assault of a Minor Under the Age of Fourteen Years and one count of Sexual Assault in the First Degree, for the incidents involving CW. On February 10, 2014, Rosa was arraigned on the instant charges and entered a plea of...
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