State v. Wright

• Decision Date: 14 February 1995
• Docket Number: No. 15472,15472
• Citation: 119 N.M. 559,893 P.2d 455,1995 NMCA 16
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Derilee WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

Page 455

893 P.2d 455

119 N.M. 559

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Derilee WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 15472.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

Feb. 14, 1995.

Certiorari Denied March 23, 1995.

[119 N.M. 561] Gary C. Mitchell, Gary C. Mitchell, P.C., Ruidoso, for defendant-appellant.

Tom Udall, Atty. Gen. and Margaret McLean, Asst. Atty. Gen., Santa Fe, for plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

DONNELLY, Judge.

Defendant appeals her convictions for conspiracy to traffic cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. The central issue presented on appeal is whether the trial court properly denied Defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized following a warrantless search of a bedroom occupied by Defendant and her boyfriend in the home of another person. In addressing this issue, we consider whether Defendant had standing to challenge the validity of the search, whether the third-party consent underlying the search was valid, and whether the search and seizure were validated by reason of the officers' protective sweep of the premises. For the reasons discussed herein, we reverse.

FACTS

On the evening of May 8, 1992, Defendant and her boyfriend, John A. Corman III, followed Deidre Wertz to the trailer home owned by Mark Allen. Corman, accompanied by Defendant, and Wertz drove in two separate cars. The trailer home was located in a mobile home park in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Shortly after they arrived at the trailer, at approximately 6:00 p.m., Wertz introduced Defendant and Corman to Allen, who lived in the trailer. Defendant and Corman asked Allen if they could use the back bedroom. Allen gave them permission and, according to Defendant, invited them to spend the night. Shortly thereafter, Defendant and Corman went to the bedroom and closed the door.

Defendant and Corman had occupied the bedroom for approximately five or ten minutes when two police officers, Al Marchand and Ted Eldridge, arrived at the trailer. Marchand had gone to the residence in response to a Crime Stoppers tip indicating that cocaine and marijuana had been delivered to the trailer home and were being divided up for sale. After observing that several vehicles were parked outside the trailer, Marchand called Eldridge and asked Eldridge to assist him in following up on the tip. Following Eldridge's arrival, the two officers approached the front door of the trailer, and before they had the opportunity to knock, Wertz opened the door and said, "Hi." At the time, neither officer knew who owned the trailer or the vehicles parked in front of the residence. Marchand showed Wertz his badge and identified himself and Eldridge as police officers. Marchand asked Wertz if they could come inside and talk. Wertz gave no verbal response but opened the door wider and stepped back inside the trailer. Marchand testified that he assumed Wertz's nonverbal behavior indicated that she consented to the officers' entry.

After entering the trailer, Marchand stated that he became concerned about his safety because there were several vehicles parked outside the trailer, yet, at that point, Wertz was the only person he had seen inside the residence. He asked Wertz if anyone else was in the trailer, and she said that only she and her two children were there. Wertz opened the door of the bedroom where her children were sleeping, and Marchand saw the children. Marchand testified that he noticed a light coming from under the door of another bedroom, and, concerned for his and Eldridge's safety, he asked Wertz if anyone was in there. Wertz replied that she did not think so, whereupon Marchand asked if he could go look. Wertz said, "Oh, it's not my place, but go ahead." Eldridge started to open the door of the back bedroom, and it was immediately closed from inside. The two officers reopened the door, and saw Defendant and Corman sitting on the bed.

After looking into the room, Marchand noticed what appeared to be drug paraphernalia located near Defendant and Corman. The officers separated Defendant and Corman and placed both of them under arrest. Eldridge found cocaine on Defendant. Thereafter, Marchand went outside to look inside Corman's van and noticed two beer cans that had been converted into crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia. He opened the door of the van and seized the items. Marchand testified that he learned that the van belonged to Corman after he placed Defendant and Corman under arrest.

The evidence is conflicting as to when the officers learned that Wertz was not an owner or regular occupant of the trailer. Marchand testified that after Wertz pointed to her children sleeping in the bedroom, he asked her if he could look around the trailer for drugs, and at that point Wertz informed him that it was not her trailer. On cross-examination, however, Marchand said, "Right when I asked [Wertz] if I could come [inside the trailer], she did say, 'This is not my trailer.' That's when she opened the door and stepped back."

Defendant moved to suppress the evidence seized by the officers. The trial court ruled that Defendant lacked standing to object to the search of the bedroom because she failed to prove that she was an overnight guest of the owner. The trial court also determined that the officers, before commencing a search of other portions of the trailer, had sufficient bases to conclude that Wertz had actual or apparent authority to give her consent to a search of the residence.

DISCUSSION

I. Issue of Defendant's Standing

The State contends that Defendant lacks standing to challenge both the officers' entry into the trailer and their subsequent entry into the back bedroom. We need not decide whether Defendant had standing to challenge the officers' initial entry into the trailer, because, on the basis of the undisputed facts before us, we hold as a matter of law that she had standing to challenge the officers' warrantless entry into the bedroom occupied by her.

Once a defendant has established that law enforcement officers have entered the premises of another and conducted a warrantless search and seizure in an area wherein the defendant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, the state has the burden of coming forward with evidence to show that the search and seizure came within a valid exception to the search warrant requirements imposed by the State and United States Constitutions. See State v. Burdex, 100 N.M. 197, 202, 668 P.2d 313, 318 (Ct.App.) (absent obtaining a search warrant or valid consent, intrusion into a private residence must be justified by a showing of exigent circumstances), cert. denied, 100 N.M. 192, 668 P.2d 308 (1983); see also State v. Crenshaw, 105 N.M. 329, 332, 732 P.2d 431, 434 (Ct.App.1986). The state has a heavy burden when it seeks to justify warrantless arrests and searches. State v. Valencia Olaya, 105 N.M. 690, 694, 736 P.2d 495, 499 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 105 N.M. 689, 736 P.2d 494 (1987). Where the state asserts that the search and seizure conducted by law enforcement officers were consensual, "the burden is on the state to show by clear and positive evidence that consent was given without duress, coercion, or other factors which would vitiate the voluntary nature of the consent." Id. Unless the officers' entry into the place where the evidence was seized is found to be lawful, all observations made or things seized by them are subject to exclusion. Crenshaw, 105 N.M. at 332, 732 P.2d at 434.

The State asserts that the trial court in considering the facts before it could reasonably determine that the officers had proper authority to enter the residence, and in any event that Defendant lacked the necessary standing to object to the search and seizure of the evidence in question. In reviewing the propriety of the trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we scrutinize the record to determine "whether the law was correctly applied to the facts, viewing them in the manner most favorable to the prevailing party." State v. Esguerra, 113 N.M. 310, 313, 825 P.2d 243, 246 (Ct.App.1991); see also State v. Munoz, 111 N.M. 118, 120, 802 P.2d 23, 25 (Ct.App.) (a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress will not be disturbed if it is supported by substantial evidence, unless it also appears that the determination of the court was erroneously premised), cert. denied, 111 N.M. 136, 802 P.2d 645 (1990).

In reviewing the State's challenge to Defendant's standing, we begin our analysis by noting that resolution of this issue hinges on whether Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place entered. Esguerra, 113 N.M. at 313, 825 P.2d at 246. Determination of whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy involves two inquiries: First, has the person by his or her conduct shown an actual expectation of privacy; and, second, is the person's subjective expectation one that society recognizes as reasonable. Id. An individual's reasonable expectation of privacy is protected under both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution. In the instant case, Defendant has invoked the protection of both the state and United States constitutional provisions.

The State relies in part upon Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 98-99, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1688-89, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990), for the proposition that Defendant's mere presence in the trailer and lack of evidence that she was an overnight guest was insufficient to confer upon her a legitimate expectation of privacy in a bedroom of the residence. The State correctly points out that Olson holds that a person's status as an overnight houseguest is sufficient to confer standing to challenge the warrantless entry by police in a residence, id.; however, we do not read Olson to make an individual's overnight status as a houseguest a precondition to the right to assert an invasion of a reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Cf...