State v. Walker
| Decision Date | 26 April 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 4142,4142 |
| Citation | 119 Ariz. 121,579 P.2d 1091 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. William Wallace WALKER, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Appellant William Wallace Walker was charged by information with "Attempted Transportation of Marijuana" in violation of A.R.S. § 36-1002.07. Following the denial of a motion to suppress certain physical evidence, appellant waived jury trial and submitted the issue of guilt to the court. He was found guilty on the basis of stipulated documentary evidence, including police reports and transcripts of the preliminary hearing and motion to suppress. Error is alleged in the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress. We have taken jurisdiction of this appeal pursuant to 17A A.R.S. Sup.Ct. Rules, rule 47(e) (5).
On November 24, 1976, Cheryl Jo Brenton and Teresa Klipsch flew from the state of Indiana to Phoenix for the purpose of buying marijuana from appellant. They checked into a local motel and telephoned him. The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, appellant met them at the motel room and sold them a quantity of marijuana for $3,000 in cash. The marijuana was individually wrapped in paper, in kilo-sized units which were rectangular in shape. After the purchase, these packages were placed into the girls' two large suitcases, along with some of their personal effects. Neither suitcase contained any property belonging to appellant. The suitcases, which had the girls' names on them, were locked and carried to the trunk of appellant's automobile, a 1968 Ford LTD. Appellant then drove the two girls and their luggage to Sky Harbor International Airport, to enable them to catch a return flight to Indiana. He parked the car at the curb in front of the appropriate terminal building, but in a three-minute parking zone. Brenton proceeded to the airline ticket counter while appellant and Klipsch brought in the luggage from the car trunk. They were late for the normal check-in procedure; although they were able to purchase tickets for the desired flight, they were informed that their luggage could not be loaded for them but would have to be carried on board. The ticket agent requested appellant to help the girls carry their luggage down to the boarding gate, as there were no airline personnel available to do so at that moment. Appellant agreed, and the three headed toward the boarding area.
Sergeant Robert Henry of the Phoenix Police Department was in charge of the security detail at Sky Harbor on that morning; Henry had about 22 years of police experience and had been working security at Sky Harbor for three and one-half years. At about 9:00 a. m. he noticed appellant and the two girls headed toward the security checkpoint, where passengers and luggage are "screened" before being allowed to proceed to the boarding area. Henry was not acquainted with any of the three, but his attention was drawn to them because of his prior experience with passengers arriving late for eastbound flights, carrying large suitcases. He positioned himself so that he would be able to view the screen when the two suitcases passed along the conveyor through the X-ray machine. Appellant set the two suitcases up on a table, and they were placed on the conveyor and passed through the X-ray. On the screen, Henry viewed numerous dark-colored objects, uniform in size and rectangular shape. These objects were consistent with the appearance of kilo-sized "bricks" of marijuana, which Henry had seen many times before. When the suitcases reached the end of the conveyor, appellant removed one and Henry removed one. Henry then asked appellant whether he could look inside the suitcases. Appellant replied that the suitcases were not his, that they belonged to the girls, that he did not know the girls, and that he was merely carrying the suitcases in conformity with a request from a "Skycap". The girls likewise denied ownership of the locked suitcases. They said that they had no key nor combination for the suitcases, as they were taking them to a friend. Henry then "puffed" the sides of the suitcases and placed his nose near the seams. He smelled a familiar odor and was convinced that the bags contained marijuana. After the girls again denied having a key or combination to unlock either suitcase, Henry arrested all Officer Raymond Gough, an assistant Phoenix Police Department officer, was working traffic control at Sky Harbor Airport on the morning in question. He first noticed appellant's 1968 Ford parked at the curb in front of the terminal building at around 9:15 a. m. The car was parked in a "red, three-minute zone". At approximately 9:30 a. m. he placed a parking violation citation on the windshield of the vehicle. At 11:00 a. m. the vehicle was still parked in the same location. Shortly thereafter, he contacted Sergeant Henry in the security office in regard to the overparked automobile. The usual procedure would be to impound such vehicles if the owners could not be located at the airport. Henry and other police officers then accompanied Gough to the curb in front of the terminal building where appellants's car was illegally parked. There was a parking citation on the vehicle's windshield and the windows were rolled down. As he approached the car Henry could see a piece of light-green, lined paper on the front seat, similar to that which had come from the purse of one of the girls previously arrested with appellant. Henry also testified that he detected the odor of marijuana emanating from the car's interior when he reached the open window and looked inside. There were no keys in the ignition, and none were located in the interior. Henry entered the car and began looking for evidence of ownership, while another officer returned to the building to telephone for a "check" on the car's license plate number. Henry located the automobile registration in the unlocked glove compartment and discovered that the vehicle belonged to appellant. Likewise, the "check" on the vehicle plates revealed appellant's ownership. At that point, because of the parking violation and because of appellant's prior arrest, Henry determined that he would seize and impound the vehicle, and thus began an inventory of the items therein. A search of appellant, and of several areas where he had been at police headquarters, failed to locate the keys to the vehicle. Appellant denied having the keys and stated that he did not know how his automobile got to the airport. Apparently the keys were never located. During the search of the automobile, Henry removed the rear seat in order to inspect the contents of the trunk. He could see a large suitcase in the trunk. The vehicle trunk was pried open; the unlocked suitcase therein contained two more "kilos" of marijuana, $3,000 in cash, two boxes of plastic bags, a box of baking soda, a set of scales, and a notebook made up of the same light-green, lined paper previously observed on the vehicle's front seat and in one of the purses of the arrested girls. Fingerprints of the appellant and one of the girls were found on the scales and on some of the plastic bags. After the inventory, tools and battery cables were removed for safekeeping and the car was in fact towed and impounded. It is undisputed that throughout these events, no search warrant was ever sought nor was one ever obtained by any of the police officers involved.
three for "transporting possession of marijuana" and they were taken to the airport security office. There, about 15-30 minutes after the arrest, the bags were opened in the presence of appellant and the two girls, but without their consent. Contained in the bags were numerous kilo-sized "bricks" of marijuana and some personal articles. The girls' purses contained personal identification, airline tickets to Indiana, keys to the suitcases, and some sheets of lined, light-green writing paper. After receiving so-called "Miranda " warnings, the three gave statements indicating that the two girls had arrived together at the airport in a taxicab, while appellant had received a ride there from a friend. Around 10:00 or 10:30 a. m. the three were transported to police headquarters.
Appellant assigns as error the failure of the trial court to suppress the marijuana discovered in the suitcases belonging to Klipsch and Brenton, which he had carried to the "checkpoint" within the terminal building. Both parties to this appeal have recognized the initial problem regarding appellant's The subject of standing to challenge search and seizures as "unreasonable" and "illegal" under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution has received considerable attention. In Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967), the United States Supreme Court held that "(t)he premise that property interests control the right of the Government to search and seize has been discredited." 387 U.S. at 304, 87 S.Ct. at 1648. Accordingly, in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), it was held that the "trespass" doctrine would no longer be controlling in analysis of governmental search and seizure and that whatever a person "seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected" because "the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places." 389 U.S. at 351, 88 S.Ct. at 511.
standing to challenge the search of this luggage.
For cases in which an essential element of proof for the prosecution was the possession of premises or property, a concept which later became known as "automatic standing" was first announced in Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). The dilemma...
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