State v. Vasquez, 21954
| Citation | 129 Idaho 129,922 P.2d 426 |
| Decision Date | 28 August 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 21954,21954 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Richard VASQUEZ, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Idaho |
Page 426
v.
Richard VASQUEZ, Defendant-Appellant.
Van G. Bishop, Canyon County Public Defender; Phillip B. Heersink, Deputy Public Defender (argued), Nampa, for appellant.
Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Michael A. Henderson, Deputy Attorney General (argued), Boise, for respondent.
LANSING, Judge.
Richard Vasquez entered conditional pleas of guilty to possession of heroin with intent to deliver and possession of methamphetamine. As part of his plea, Vasquez expressly reserved the right to appeal the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence found in Vasquez's possession following police officers' warrantless entry into a residence in which Vasquez was a visitor. We conclude that Vasquez did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the residence and that his Fourth Amendment rights therefore were not violated. Accordingly, we affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
The facts that are relevant to Vasquez's motion to suppress are essentially undisputed. On July 7, 1994, Nampa police officers sent a confidential informant to a Nampa apartment to make a controlled purchase of heroin. The informant was fitted with a body transmitter and was given money to make the purchase. After making the controlled purchase, the informant met with the police officers at a prearranged location where the substance that the informant had purchased was field-tested and determined to
Page 427
be heroin. The informant did not know the name of the person who had sold him the heroin, but was able to give a description of the seller. He also indicated that there were other persons in the apartment. The officers returned to the apartment less than five minutes after the heroin sale occurred and observed people coming to and going from the apartment. This activity, along with the information given by the informant, raised concern among the officers that the seller might leave the premises, making an arrest of the seller and recovery of the buy money more difficult or impossible. The officers then approached the apartment with the intention of making a felony arrest.Vasquez had entered the apartment about five minutes before the police arrived. He was not an owner or resident of the apartment or an overnight guest. When one of the officers knocked on the back door of the apartment, a resident instructed Vasquez to let in whoever was knocking. When Vasquez opened the door, a police officer identified himself. Vasquez immediately attempted to shut the door, but the police officer pushed the door open and entered the apartment. He was followed by other officers. Vasquez turned and ran further into the residence.
Upon entering the apartment, the officers saw two piles of money on a table as well as items of drug paraphernalia. The police officers arrested a man fitting the informant's description of the seller. They also arrested everyone else on the premises for violation of I.C. § 37-2732(d), which makes it unlawful for a person "to be present at or on premises of any place where he knows illegal controlled substances are being manufactured or cultivated, or are being held for distribution, transportation, delivery, administration, use, or to be given away." Following their arrest of Vasquez, the police officers searched him and found that he was carrying twelve individually wrapped packages containing a total of 1.8 grams of tar heroin rocks and some methamphetamine.
Vasquez was charged with possession of heroin with intent to deliver, I.C. § 37-2732(a), and possession of methamphetamine, I.C. § 37-2732(c). He entered pleas of not guilty. Vasquez then filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of his arrest, interrogation, and search, claiming that his constitutional rights against illegal searches and seizures had been violated when the police officers entered the residence without a warrant. In response, the prosecutor argued that, as a short-term visitor, Vasquez had no privacy interest in the apartment that was violated by...
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