State v. Wright
| Decision Date | 19 December 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,CA-CR,2 |
| Citation | 125 Ariz. 36,607 P.2d 19 |
| Parties | The STATE of Arizona, Appellant, v. Robert Ray WRIGHT, Appellee. 1799. |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
This is an appeal by the state from an order granting a motion to suppress evidence. The state contends that the trial court erred in concluding that there were no exigent circumstances which would have allowed the police officers to enter the defendant's motel room. We agree.
The testimony of Officers Hernandez and Cochran of the Tucson Police Department was as follows. On December 12, 1978, Officers Hernandez and Cochran went to the Sun Valley Motel in Tucson, Arizona in response to a report of a disturbance. When they arrived they found two persons, Mr. Asaro and Mr. Andrews outside of Room 208. They told the officers that they had been trying to rouse their friend in the room because they wanted to obtain some property from him that they had left earlier that evening. They stated that they had pounded on the door several times and knocked on the window but had been unable to rouse the occupant. They also told the officers that they had been drinking beer earlier in the evening with their friend who had drunk quite a bit. Officer Hernandez went to get the key to the room. In the meantime, Officer Cochran talked with the occupant of Room 209 who had called in the complaint about the noise. He told Officer Cochran that Asaro and Andrews had been pounding on the door for about 15 minutes and their voices became loud. They had awakened him from a sound sleep.
When Officer Hernandez returned to the room with a key, the officers tried to look in the window but were unable to see inside because the curtains were drawn. They also noticed that no sound was coming from the room. They knocked on the door for about two or three minutes and then used the key to enter. They did so because they believed that appellee may have lapsed into unconsciousness from his drinking of intoxicating beverages. The officers found defendant lying face down on the bed unconscious. His pulse was weak and attempts at shaking and yelling failed to arouse him from his state of unconsciousness. A paramedic unit was called and it arrived within seven minutes. The paramedics failed to revive defendant by physically shaking him and yelling at him but after several ammonia capsules were broken under his nose, he finally regained partial consciousness and was removed in an ambulance to a hospital. On the table in the motel room, in plain view, were open pill bottles that were the subject of the motion to suppress.
The only witness at the suppression hearing was Asaro. In relation to what the officers saw and heard, 1 his testimony did not contradict theirs except that he stated that he could see defendant lying face up. He never denied that he told the officers that defendant had drunk quite a bit.
Among the well established legitimate reasons for a police officer to be present on privately occupied premises is in response to an emergency. State v. Jones, 2 Kan.App. 38, 573 P.2d 1134 (1978). Necessity often justifies action which would otherwise constitute a trespass, as where the act is prompted by the motive...
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