State v. Williams, A08–2129.

• Decision Date: 09 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. A08–2129.,A08–2129.
• Citation: 794 N.W.2d 867
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent,v.Quenton Tyrone WILLIAMS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

794 N.W.2d 867

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent,

v.Quenton Tyrone WILLIAMS, Appellant.

No. A08–2129.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 9, 2011.

Syllabus by the Court

There was probable cause to arrest appellant for violating Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a (2010), after an officer lawfully stopped appellant in a public place, observed a pistol sticking out of a pocket of appellant's sweatshirt, heard appellant admit he was carrying a pistol, and confirmed the object was a pistol after removing it from appellant's pocket.

Robin M. Wolpert, Erin Sindberg Porter, Special Assistant State Public Defenders, Greene Espel, P.L.L.P., Minneapolis, Minnesota, for appellant.Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Michael Richardson, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for respondent.Faison T. Sessoms, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for amicus curiae Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.Teresa Nelson, St. Paul, Minnesota, for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

OPINION

ANDERSON, G. BARRY, Justice.

In this appeal, we consider whether a police officer had probable cause to arrest appellant Quenton Tyrone Williams after observing Williams possess a pistol in a public place during a lawful investigatory stop related to an armed robbery report. The officer arrested Williams for possession of a pistol in a public place after the robbery victim was unable to identify Williams. At the jail following arrest, Williams surrendered cocaine to the arresting officer. The State charged Williams with fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance and sought the statutory mandatory minimum sentence for a drug offense committed while in possession of a firearm. Before trial, Williams moved to suppress the pistol and cocaine.¹ The district court denied the motion and at trial, the pistol and cocaine were admitted into evidence without objection. The jury found Williams guilty of possessing cocaine while in possession of a firearm. Pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 609.11 (2010), the court imposed a 36–month mandatory minimum sentence. The court of appeals affirmed the conviction. Because we conclude there was probable cause to arrest Williams for possessing a pistol in a public place in violation of Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a (2010), we also affirm Williams's conviction.

On March 26, 2008, Minneapolis Police Officer Jason Andersen and other officers responded to a radio report of a robbery involving a gun. One of the robbery suspects was described as a tall black man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt who was last seen running west from 22nd Street and Emerson Avenue North in Minneapolis. Andersen was in a car about a block away when he and other officers heard the call and drove to the scene. As Andersen turned onto 22nd Street, Andersen saw a man who matched the description running west on 22nd. Andersen got out of the car, pursued the man down an alley, and, as he closed in, called out: “Police. Stop.” After Andersen gave the command to stop, the running man turned to his right. At that point, Andersen saw the butt of a handgun sticking out of the right front pocket of running man's sweatshirt and ordered him to the ground.

The running man, later identified as Williams, complied immediately. Andersen handcuffed Williams and asked if he had a gun. Williams answered, “Yeah, it's in my pocket right here.” Andersen then took a pistol from the pocket and identified it as a loaded .38–caliber revolver. When the robbery victim was brought to Williams, the victim told police he was unable to identify Williams as one of the suspects because the victim “had been assaulted pretty good.” After the victim was unable to identify Williams as a suspect, Andersen arrested Williams because Williams possessed the pistol.

At the jail vehicle entrance, Williams told Andersen that he did not want to be booked into the jail because he was carrying cocaine. Andersen retrieved the cocaine from Williams, who then was booked. During an interview at the jail the next day, March 27, 2008, Williams told Andersen that the cocaine was worth $60 and said he carried the pistol for protection. Nothing in the record indicates whether Williams had a permit for the pistol, whether the police asked Williams to produce a permit for the pistol, or whether the police determined that Williams did not have a permit for the pistol. On March 28, the State charged Williams with fifth-degree controlled substance crime, possession, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 152.025, subd. 2(1) (2008). In the complaint, the State alleged Williams committed the controlled-substance offense while in possession of a firearm. As a result, Williams was subjected to a mandatory minimum sentence of 36 months under Minn.Stat. § 609.11, subd. 5.

At a contested Rasmussen hearing, Williams's counsel moved to suppress the pistol, contending that Andersen found the pistol “following an illegal arrest in that at the time the defendant was detained it had been determined that he was not a suspect in a robbery.” ² Andersen's testimony at the Rasmussen hearing included the following statements. After Andersen gave the command to stop, Andersen testified that Williams “turned to his right and saw who I was.... At that point I saw the butt of a handgun sticking out of his right front jacket pocket and obviously I had my gun out and ordered him to the ground.” When Andersen asked if Williams had a gun, Williams answered, “Yeah, it's in my pocket right here.” Andersen then took the pistol from Williams's pocket and identified it as a loaded .38–caliber revolver. Because the victim did not identify Williams as a suspect, Andersen testified, Williams “wasn't charged with the robbery. He was charged with the handgun.” Williams decided to represent himself for part of the Rasmussen hearing and asked Andersen, “What led you to probable cause of arresting me?” Andersen replied: “You had a gun on you.”

Construing Williams's suppression motion as a request to suppress all “the fruits of the arrest,” the district court denied the motion, finding that the police had probable cause to stop Williams when they saw him running near the scene of the robbery:

I do find that the officers were properly investigating a robbery charge, that they were approximately one block away from the site of the robbery when they encountered an individual matching [Williams's] description, who also matched the description of the individual who had been reported to be involved in the robbery. They made efforts to stop that individual. They had probable cause to do so based upon the 911 call and on the descriptions that they were given....

The court noted that Andersen observed the pistol in Williams's sweatshirt pocket during the course of the stop, ordered Williams to the ground, and handcuffed him. Williams then “admitted that he had the gun and [Andersen] recovered a .38 caliber revolver.” The district court further ruled the State could not present evidence suggesting a link between Williams and the robbery because the victim was unable to identify Williams as a robbery suspect. The court's ruling on the robbery evidence prompted a pro se challenge from Williams to probable cause for the arrest of Williams:

THE COURT:.... The charge in front of you is a drug and gun charge, not a robbery, and I'm not going to let the State try to make it look like you committed a robbery when they don't have the evidence that you did.

[WILLIAMS]: The main point is that I should have never been subject to arrest. I have evidence that I was on a bus, got off the bus. I wasn't off the bus for five minutes and then I'm all of a sudden arrested.³ I've never drawn probable cause toward me.

THE COURT: What I just ruled is that the officer had probable cause when he testified that he saw the gun.(Footnote added.)

At trial, the gun and cocaine were received into evidence without objection. The jury found Williams guilty of possessing cocaine while possessing a firearm, and the court convicted Williams and imposed the mandatory 36–month sentence.

On appeal, Williams urged the court of appeals to interpret Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a, in a manner that would require a peace officer to determine proactively that a person does not have a permit before arresting that person for possession of a firearm in a public place. Citing State v. Timberlake, 744 N.W.2d 390 (Minn.2008), the State argued that a peace officer is not required to determine proactively that a person does not have a permit because the failure to obtain a permit to carry is not an element of the gross misdemeanor defined by Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a.

A divided panel of the court of appeals affirmed. State v. Williams, No. A08–2129, 2010 WL 153976, at *6 (Minn.App. Jan. 19, 2010). The majority of the court of appeals panel did not reach the issue of whether a peace officer is required to determine that a person does not have a permit before arresting that person for possession of a firearm in a public place. Id. The majority explained that even if Andersen was required to determine that Williams did not have a permit before arresting him for possession of a firearm in a public place, Andersen's observations supported a reasonable inference that Williams did not possess a permit to carry the pistol. Id. at *5. The dissent argued that probable cause to believe a person violated Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1a, cannot exist unless a police officer makes a lawful demand for the permit. Id. at *6 (Stauber, J., dissenting). In support of that proposition, the dissent cited the statutory language of Minn.Stat. § 624.714, subd. 1b (2010), that makes it a petty misdemeanor for the holder of a permit to fail to produce the permit when carrying a pistol upon lawful demand of a peace officer. Williams, 2010 WL 153976, at *7 (Stauber, J., dissenting). We granted Williams's petition for review.

I.

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