State v. Seager

• Decision Date: 23 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 68535,68535
• Citation: 341 N.W.2d 420
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. Monte Wendell SEAGER, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 420

341 N.W.2d 420

STATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. Monte Wendell SEAGER, Appellee.

No. 68535.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Nov. 23, 1983.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Michael Jordan, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Michael Riepe, County Atty., for appellant.

John W. Logan and Frank J. Nidey, Cedar Rapids, for appellee.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and McCORMICK, SCHULTZ, CARTER and WOLLE, JJ.

CARTER, Justice.

The State has made application for, and has been granted, permission to pursue by discretionary review an appeal seeking relief from two pretrial rulings of the district court in this criminal case. Both of the rulings for which review has been sought involve the suppression of evidence which the State wishes to offer at the trial of the criminal action.

On August 10, 1981, the defendant, Monte Wendell Seager, was charged by indictment with murder in the first degree in the deaths of Clementine Ann Beavers and Karol Elizabeth Beavers, both of whom were found shot to death in their home in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on October 29, 1978. Several months after his indictment, defendant filed two separate motions to suppress evidence. The first of these motions sought the suppression of all testimony from two prospective witnesses, Sharon Gaylord and Max Beavers. The motion was predicated upon the contention that both of these witnesses, at the behest of the State, had undergone hypnosis in an effort to enhance their memories of events material to the pending homicide investigation. The defendant asserts in his motion to suppress that the effect of such hypnosis renders their prospective testimony so inherently unreliable that its admission would deprive him of a fair trial.

At the hearing on this motion, defendant presented the testimony of Dr. Martin T. Orne, a recognized expert in the field of hypnosis. Dr. Orne testified generally that hypnosis is not a reliable or scientifically accepted means of generating accurate recall on the part of a subject. In addition, he testified that as to matters which have been recalled by a witness prior to hypnosis, the hypnotic process thereafter warps the witness's perception of what really occurred by creating "pseudo memories."

Partially in response to the testimony of the defendant's expert, the State offered the deposition of D. Eric Elster, the hypnotist who had sought to enhance the memories of Sharon Gaylord and Max Beavers. This witness gave his views on the reliability of hypnosis. He indicated the extent of such reliability is directly dependent upon the opportunity for external corroboration of the information gleaned from the subject under hypnosis. He did not testify concerning the dangers of "pseudo memories" resulting from the hypnotic process.

On this record, the district court found that as a result of the continuing effects of hypnosis on their memories, the reliability of the testimony expected from these two witnesses was sufficiently suspect that they should not be permitted to testify at the trial with respect to the subject matter of the pending criminal prosecution or any issue therein. Other facts relevant to the court's ruling on this issue are discussed in connection with the legal issue which we hereafter consider.

The second motion to suppress involved in the present appeal relates to evidence seized during the execution of a search warrant at the residence where defendant resided with his father and stepmother. Defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained during this search and the fruits thereof was granted by the trial court on the ground that the affidavit presented in support of the search warrant had contained intentionally false statements. The facts surrounding the application for the search warrant, the testimony given at the suppression hearing with respect to the source and accuracy of said information, and other matters bearing on the issue are more fully developed in our discussion of the legal issues which have been presented by the State's appeal of that issue.

We separately consider the district court rulings on the two suppression-of-evidence issues. The issue relating to the search and seizure will be considered first.

I. The Search and Seizure Issue.

The trial court granted defendant's motion to suppress all items seized by law enforcement officers from the Seager residence and surrounding premises on July 26, 1979. Also ordered suppressed were the fruits of such search to the extent that additional information was obtained as a result of the evidence seized at the Seager residence. At the time of the search, however, defendant was in jail awaiting trial on another homicide. While defendant was in jail and prior to the issuance of the search warrant, a request by law officers that defendant's father or stepmother voluntarily produce a rifle belonging to defendant was refused. A search warrant for the premises was then obtained and the search in question conducted. The rifle in question was found and seized.

Among the several grounds advanced in the motion to suppress this evidence was the claim that the affidavit offered in support of the State's application for the warrant contained "intentional false or untrue statements." At the hearing on the suppression motion, this claim focused on the following statement contained in the affidavit of August Hagers, an officer of the Mt. Pleasant Police Department:

During the April 16th 1979 search of the 501 S. Jefferson residence [the Seager residence], sheriff Droz observed a locket in a metal box in the upstairs bedroom similar to the one believed missing in the Beavers homicide case.

The earlier search referred to was related to the other homicide investigation in which defendant was suspected.

The quoted statement is the last paragraph contained in the affidavit in support of the warrant application. While the rest of the affidavit is typed, that paragraph is handwritten. It was the testimony of Officer Hagers at the suppression hearing that the affidavit was supplemented by adding this paragraph at the time he appeared before a district judge seeking issuance of the warrant.

When questioned about the source of the information concerning Sheriff Droz' observations of the locket, Hagers testified that while he and agent Goepel of the Division of Criminal Investigation were preparing the warrant application, the sheriff briefly entered the room and asked if a locket was missing in the Beavers investigation. The sheriff then stated that in a search of the Seager premises in connection with another homicide investigation he had discovered a metal box which contained a heart-shaped locket.

Hagers testified at the suppression hearing that he had been present during the previous search when the box had been discovered by the sheriff and had viewed the contents of the box at that time. Hagers did not recall seeing a locket in the box. Agent Goepel testified at the suppression hearing that he was aware of a missing locket in connection with the Beavers' homicides. He vaguely recalled that Sheriff Droz came into the room while he and Hagers were preparing the warrant application. He could not, however, recall the substance of the conversation which took place at that time.

Sheriff Droz testified as follows at the suppression hearing:

Q. Were you at that time or from then on or up until this year aware that any other authorities, and I'm talking about police department, DCI were, in fact, looking for a locket in connection with the Beavers' homicide?

A. Not that I can recall at all, no, sir.

Q. Can you recall them ever giving you a description of a locket for which they were looking?

A. No, sir.

Q. Can you ever recall telling any other law enforcement authorities that you had observed a locket on April 16th, 1979, during the search?

A. No, sir.

Sheriff Droz testified that the first he had learned about the fact that a locket was missing in the Beavers' homicide or that he was claimed to have noticed a similar locket at the Seager residence was when defendant's counsel informed him of these claims prior to his testifying at the suppression hearing.

Based on this evidence, the trial court found that Hagers' statement in the affidavit concerning the sheriff finding the locket was deliberately false. The court invalidated the warrant and ordered suppression of items seized pursuant thereto, together with any fruits of the search.

The trial court's order suppressing this evidence was based upon its belief that this was required by our holding in State v. Boyd, 224 N.W.2d 609, 616 (Iowa 1974). Boyd involved our interpretation of the proper procedures to be employed in challenging the accuracy of search warrant applications under both the federal and state constitutions. In the case of State v. Groff, 323 N.W.2d 204, 206-08 (Iowa 1982), decided after this appeal was taken and after the appellant filed its brief, we recognized that our determination in Boyd was contrary to the current interpretation of the federal constitution in Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2676, 57 L.Ed.2d 667, 672 (1978), decided four years after Boyd. In Groff, we decided that the procedures approved by the Supreme Court in Franks should be applied in determining challenges to search warrant applications under both the federal and state constitutions.

We believe the Franks standards should be applied in determining the validity of the search warrant in the present case even though not expressly argued in the State's brief. That brief was also filed before our decision in Groff which rejected the prior Boyd standards. In addition, we are influenced by the fact that this is an appeal in advance of final judgment. One of the purposes of granting such appeals is to assure that the case is determined under correct legal standards in the trial court. For this reason, we avail ourselves of the opportunity to secure a determination of these important issues according to the legal...