State v. Williams

• Court: Montana Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: TRIEWEILER; TURNAGE
• Citation: State v. Williams, 904 P.2d 1019, 273 Mont. 459, 52 St.Rep. 1085 (Mont. 1995)
• Decision Date: 25 October 1995
• Docket Number: No. 95-054,95-054
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Billy Dale WILLIAMS, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 1019

904 P.2d 1019

273 Mont. 459

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Billy Dale WILLIAMS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 95-054.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs Aug. 17, 1995.

Decided Oct. 25, 1995.

J.B. Wheatcroft, Miles City, for Appellant.

Joseph P. Mazurek, Attorney General, Brenda Nordlund, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Coleen Magera, Powder River County Attorney, Broadus, for Respondent.

TRIEWEILER, Justice.

The defendant, Billy Dale Williams, was charged by complaint in the Justice Court of Powder River County with driving under the influence of alcohol in violation of § 61-8-401, MCA. On June 1, 1994, following a nonjury trial, Williams was convicted of the charge against him. He appealed his conviction to the District Court for the Sixteenth Judicial District in Powder River County. However, after his motion to suppress blood alcohol test results was denied, he entered a guilty plea on the condition that he be allowed to appeal the denial of his suppression motion.

We affirm the order of the District Court.

The issue on appeal is:

Did the District Court err when it denied Williams's motion to suppress his blood alcohol test results?

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On Saturday, October 16, 1993, at approximately 11 p.m., Billy Dale Williams was involved in a single vehicle accident in Powder River County. Powder River County Undersheriff Brett Tabolt and Deputy Sheriff Dave Lancaster arrived at the scene ten minutes after the accident was reported and discovered Williams's car in the ditch. Williams was seated in the passenger seat of the vehicle.

In an effort to determine the extent of Williams's injuries, Tabolt spoke with him at the accident scene. He observed that Williams's eyes were red and watery and "could smell an odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath." During the course of their conversation, and on several other occasions, Tabolt asked Williams to extinguish his cigarette and admonished him not to light another one. Several of these requests were unheeded.

After he spoke with Williams, Tabolt requested assistance from the Montana Highway Patrol. In response to that request, Patrolman Paul Hazelton arrived at the accident scene. Tabolt reported his observations to Hazelton, "including the observation of the odor of an alcoholic beverage."

By the time Hazelton arrived at the scene of the accident, Williams had already been transported by ambulance to the Miles City Holy Rosary Hospital. Hazelton radioed the Miles City Police Department and requested that an officer be dispatched to inform Williams of the Montana implied consent law and to obtain a blood sample. Hazelton concluded his investigation and left the accident scene at 12:55 a.m.

On Sunday October 17, 1993, at approximately 12:50 a.m., Officer Kevin Krausz of the Miles City Police Department arrived at the Holy Rosary Hospital and met with Williams. Krausz identified himself and told Williams that he was acting at the request of Officer Paul Hazelton of the Montana Highway Patrol. During his conversation with Williams, Krausz "did detect alcohol on [Williams's] breath." Krausz read the implied consent form to Williams, and Williams consented to a blood alcohol content (BAC) test. A registered nurse in the hospital emergency room drew the blood sample.

Hazelton arrived at Holy Rosary Hospital at 1:50 a.m. and interviewed Williams. At that time, Hazelton also "could smell an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Mr. Williams's breath." Williams admitted that he had consumed three to four beers prior to his accident. Hazelton issued Williams notices to appear for driving under the influence of alcohol and for failure to wear a seatbelt, and signed the request for blood test form.

At 3 a.m., Hazelton went to the Miles City Police Department, where he signed the implied consent law advisory form as the arresting officer and collected Williams's blood sample from Krausz. Test results indicated that two hours after his accident, Williams's blood alcohol level was .09 mg./100 ml. blood.

Prior to his trial before the Powder River County Justice Court, Williams filed a motion to suppress the results of his blood alcohol test. In his supporting brief, Williams contended that Hazelton and Krausz had not complied with the implied consent procedures as set forth in § 61-8-402, MCA, and that the BAC sample was, therefore, improperly obtained. Specifically, Williams argued that Krausz had not had jurisdiction over the matter because the accident had not occurred within the city limits of Miles City or within five miles thereof, and that there was not probable cause to make a warrantless arrest. These two errors, Williams asserted, violated Montana's implied consent law.

That motion was denied, and the court found Williams guilty as charged on June 1, 1994.

Williams appealed his conviction to the Sixteenth Judicial District Court where all issues raised by the charge against him were considered de novo. Williams renewed his motion to suppress, based on the same two issues of jurisdiction and probable cause. The District Court found that there had been probable cause and authority to arrest Williams and to administer the BAC test pursuant to the implied consent law, and denied the motion. The court accepted Williams's conditional guilty plea, and stayed imposition of sentence pending Williams's appeal to this Court.

DISCUSSION

Did the District Court err when it denied Williams's motion to suppress his blood alcohol test results?

The standard of review for a district court's denial of a motion to suppress is whether the court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous, and whether those findings were correctly applied as a matter of law. State v. Flack (1993), 260 Mont. 181, 188, 860 P.2d 89, 94. In this case, the parties submitted stipulated facts to the District Court. Therefore, our review is plenary and we must determine only whether the court's conclusions of law were correct as a matter of law. Flack, 860 P.2d at 92.

Williams contends that the District Court's denial of his motion to suppress was erroneous for three reasons. First, he claims that the BAC results should have been suppressed because he was never arrested by Krausz, as required by Montana's implied consent law, § 61-8-402, MCA. Second, Williams contends that Krausz lacked probable cause to make a warrantless arrest. Finally, Williams argues that Krausz did not have jurisdiction to arrest him.

FAILURE TO ARREST

In his motion to suppress before the Powder River County Justice Court, Williams contended that Officer Krausz of the Miles City Police Department did not have jurisdiction to obtain a BAC test because his accident had not occurred within the city limits or within five miles thereof, as required by § 7-32-4301, MCA. Williams also contended that there was not probable cause to make a warrantless arrest. Williams filed the identical motion and supporting brief in District Court.

On appeal, Williams raises a third argument for suppression of the blood test. Williams now asserts that the BAC test should have been suppressed because he was never placed under arrest by Krausz, as required by the implied consent law. He asserts that the mere act of reading the implied consent advisory form did not constitute an arrest pursuant to Montana's warrantless arrest statutes contained in Title 46, Chapter 6, Part 3, MCA, and therefore, that the implied consent law was inapplicable.

We decline to hear Williams's failure to arrest argument because he did not raise it at the district court level. Although the State referred to the matter of Williams's arrest in its brief to the District Court, Williams had not placed his arrest at issue, and the District Court did not address that question when it denied Williams's motion. Williams's failure to...