State v. Ware
| Decision Date | 04 November 2021 |
| Docket Number | 2020AP1559-CR |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Wisconsin |
| Parties | State of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Laverne Ware, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. |
APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Dodge County, No 2016CF408 BRIAN A. PFITZINGER, Judge. Affirmed.
Before Fitzpatrick, Graham, and Nashold, JJ.
¶1 Laverne Ware appeals a judgment of the Dodge County Circuit Court convicting him of first degree intentional homicide hiding a corpse with intent to conceal a crime, incest, and possession of a firearm as a felon. Ware was arrested at his residence after law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call from another resident of the home who reported seeing a large amount of blood in the garage. After Ware was taken into custody, one of the officers searched the garage at the residence and discovered a body. In the circuit court, Ware moved to suppress evidence stemming from the search of the garage on the ground that the evidence was the product of an unconstitutional warrantless search. The court denied Ware's motion concluding that the search was justified under the community caretaker exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. This matter went to trial, and a jury found Ware guilty on all counts.
¶2 Ware appeals the circuit court's ruling regarding the search. We affirm, but for a reason different than that given by the circuit court. After the circuit court's ruling the United States Supreme Court held that the community caretaker exception does not authorize the warrantless search of a residence. Caniglia v. Strom, 141 S.Ct. 1596, 1600 (2021). Nonetheless, we conclude that the circuit court properly denied Ware's motion to suppress because the search was justified under the emergency aid exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.
¶3 The following facts are mostly taken from the transcript of the suppression hearing and are not in dispute.
¶4 Vernon Mickey called 911 to report a possible homicide at his residence in Fox Lake, Wisconsin. Mickey stated on the call that he lived at the residence with his girlfriend and her son, Ware. Mickey continued that he had observed a large amount of blood in the garage and that he believed the blood was that of Ware's girlfriend, S.D.[1] Mickey suspected that there was a body in the garage, although he admitted in the call that he had not seen a body. He also stated that S.D. had been missing since the previous night. Mickey informed the 911 operator that he was currently at a gas station near the residence.
¶5 Deputy Homan and Sergeant Nicholas of the Dodge County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to the address of the residence, and Officer White of the Randolph Police Department was dispatched to meet with Mickey at the gas station. At the residence, Marjorie Jones-Mickey's girlfriend and Ware's mother-answered the door and briefly conversed with Deputy Homan. Jones confirmed that Ware was her son, but stated that Ware was not in the residence at that moment. Deputy Homan asked if he could inspect the garage and perform a brief walk-through of the residence, but Jones responded that Homan could do so only when Mickey returned.
¶6 Sergeant Nicholas then remained outside the residence while Deputy Homan drove to the gas station where Mickey and Officer White were still located. At the gas station, Mickey informed the two officers that he had looked through a door into the garage at the residence and observed blood coming from the truck parked in the garage, but that he had not seen a body. Mickey said he believed that "something bad" happened to S.D. because he had seen S.D. the previous night, but he had not seen or heard from her since that time. Mickey indicated that Ware and S.D. had recently been arguing and "going at it." Mickey continued that both Jones and Ware were presently at the residence, and that Ware had been drinking and had access to a firearm.
¶7 Deputy Homan, Officer White, and Mickey drove back to the residence where Sergeant Nicholas was waiting outside. Jones opened the front door of the residence and allowed Mickey and the three officers to enter. The officers stood in a portion of the living room near the front door and began conversing with Jones. Jones reiterated that Ware was not at the residence. Sergeant Nicholas asked Jones for her consent to search the residence, and Jones refused to consent to a search. Nicholas informed Jones that a search warrant would be sought and that Jones would have to leave the residence so that the officers could secure the premises.
¶8 While the officers and Jones were talking in the living room, Ware suddenly appeared in the living room from around a corner. Dressed in a three-quarter length mink coat and holding his arms out from his body at shoulder height with a cigarette in one hand, Ware stated "I am the one you are looking for." Deputy Homan and Officer White handcuffed Ware and placed him in Homan's squad car. After placing Ware in the squad car, Officer White remained outside while Deputy Homan returned to the living room to ensure that Jones exited the residence.
¶9 Leading up to the time Ware was taken into custody, the officers had not observed any indications that Mickey, Jones, or Ware had been involved in a struggle or that any other problem had occurred in the residence. Until that point, the officers had received conflicting information from Jones and Mickey regarding Ware's current location and were therefore not sure if Mickey's information regarding the location of a crime was accurate. However, as Sergeant Nicholas testified, Ware's sudden appearance in the living room corroborated Mickey's version of events and increased the likelihood that the residence was the site of criminal activity. As a result, Nicholas believed that there could be a potential victim in the garage of the residence and decided to conduct a search of the garage.
¶10 While Ware was being taken to the squad car, Sergeant Nicholas and Mickey walked from the living room to the kitchen. The kitchen is connected to the garage through an entryway with a windowless metal door. Nicholas asked Mickey to show him where he had looked into the garage, and Mickey responded by opening the metal door. There was a screen door behind the metal door on the same door frame. Looking through the screen door, Nicholas observed a pickup truck parked in the garage and a dark red substance pooled on the floor below the passenger door. Nicholas then entered the garage and observed a deceased person in the front passenger seat of the truck. Nicholas exited the garage, directed that Mickey and Jones be removed from the residence, and searched the main floor of the residence to check for any persons who may have been hidden.
¶11 Sergeant Nicholas did not obtain a search warrant or Jones' consent to search the garage before entering the garage.
¶12 The State charged Ware with one count of first degree intentional homicide, one count of hiding a corpse with intent to conceal a crime, one count of incest, [2] and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Ware moved to suppress evidence obtained from the search of the garage on the ground that the evidence stemmed from a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.[3] The court denied Ware's motion and determined that the search of the garage did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the search was justified under the community caretaker exception to the warrant requirement.
¶13 The matter went to trial, and a jury found Ware guilty on all counts. Ware appeals his judgment of conviction; more specifically, Ware challenges the circuit court's ruling denying his motion to suppress.
¶14 In Ware's brief-in-chief and the State's response brief, the parties primarily dispute the applicability in this situation of the community caretaker exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. However, before Ware could file his reply brief, the United States Supreme Court in Caniglia, 141 S.Ct. at 1600, held that the community caretaker exception cannot justify a warrantless search of a residence.[4] In response to Caniglia, the State filed a letter of supplemental authority in which the State conceded that the community caretaker exception cannot justify the search of the garage at issue in this action. See Wis. Stat. § 809.19(10). The letter also advises that the State retains the substance of its community caretaker argument from its response brief, but will "relabel[]" that argument as an analysis under the emergency aid exception. In his reply brief, Ware agrees that the garage search cannot be justified under the community caretaker exception, and he disputes the State's argument that the emergency aid exception justifies the search.
¶15 Because the community caretaker exception cannot justify the warrantless search of a home under Caniglia, we frame our analysis using the related-but conceptually distinct-emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.[5]
¶16 Ware argues that Sergeant Nicholas' search of the garage was not justified under the emergency aid exception, contending that "there was no indication of any ongoing medical emergency that would justify the application of the emergency aid doctrine." For its part, the State argues that the search was justified under the emergency aid exception because Sergeant Nicholas was concerned that there was a person in the garage who needed aid in the form of medical treatment.[6]
¶17 We begin by setting forth our standard of review and governing principles regarding the emergency aid exception.
¶18 "On...
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