Trowbridge v. State

• Decision Date: 04 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 48S00-9711-CR-00633.,48S00-9711-CR-00633.
• Citation: 717 N.E.2d 138
• Parties: Dustin TROWBRIDGE, Appellant (Defendant), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

717 N.E.2d 138

Dustin TROWBRIDGE, Appellant (Defendant), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 48S00-9711-CR-00633.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

October 4, 1999.

Rehearing Denied November 24, 1999.

Donald H. Hurst, Anderson, Indiana, Attorney for Appellant.

Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General of Indiana, Janet Brown Mallet, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

SELBY, J.

Dustin Trowbridge ("Trowbridge" or "Defendant") was convicted by a jury of murder, rape, robbery, burglary, criminal confinement, aggravated battery, theft, auto theft, and abuse of a corpse. Trowbridge also pleaded guilty to escape. He was sentenced to a term of one hundred and ninety-nine (199) years for all of his crimes. Trowbridge was fourteen years old at the time of the murder, but was waived into adult court. In this direct appeal, Trowbridge argues that the trial court committed reversible error in not granting Defendant's Motion to Suppress on grounds that his constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and Article I, § 11 of the Constitution of the State of Indiana were violated by the State. Trowbridge further argues that the evidence and confession were obtained as a result of an unlawful search and should be held inadmissible under the exclusionary rule. Finally, Trowbridge claims his confession was obtained as a result of a faulty waiver of his right to remain silent and violations of Indiana's juvenile waiver statute.¹ Under Indiana Appellate Rule 4(A)(7), this Court has exclusive jurisdiction over Trowbridge's appeal. We affirm the trial court on all issues raised, but reverse Defendant's rape conviction and reduce Defendant's sentence to a total of ninety-seven (97) years.

Factual and Procedural Background

The facts viewed most favorable to the State are as follows. On the evening of May 2, 1996, Doris Swindell's two sisters, her daughter, and her son-in-law discovered Swindell, age sixty-nine, dead in her trailer. The Anderson Police Department initiated an investigation which uncovered the following chain of events.

In the late afternoon of May 2, 1996, Dustin Trowbridge, age fourteen, went into the woods near his trailer and "huffed"² clear enamel paint. Trowbridge then secretly entered Doris Swindell's trailer, hid in her bedroom, and watched Swindell through the window while she watered her lawn. When Swindell came inside Trowbridge beat her, choked her, forced her to the floor, and ultimately strangled her to death with the swimsuit she was carrying. Trowbridge moved Swindell to her bed and forced intercourse, though the forensic pathologist could not determine whether Swindell was dead or alive at the time. When he was done, Trowbridge threw a blanket over Swindell's body, went home, and took a shower. While Trowbridge was in Swindell's house, he took jewelry, $155 cash, and car keys.

Trowbridge drove Swindell's car that evening, picked up and visited friends, and used Swindell's money to buy fast food, ice cream, and computer duster fluid to "huff" with his friends. At the end of the evening, Trowbridge parked the car in a business parking lot near the trailer park and walked home. Upon returning to his trailer, Trowbridge ate a steak dinner and then hid the various items he had taken from Swindell. Trowbridge watched as police began to arrive at Swindell's trailer and listened to his mother's fiancé's scanner to track developments.

Trowbridge lived with his mother, Marlene Frost, his mother's fiancé, Tim Gill, and two younger brothers. Gill was a police officer with the Town of Edgewood Police Department and arrived home from working second shift at around 11:15 p.m. on May 2, 1996. Gill knew there had been a homicide and, still in his police uniform, walked to the crime scene and inquired as to the investigation. Later that night, Trowbridge seemed nervous, questioned why there were so many police officers at the scene, and carried Gill's scanner around. Trowbridge also asked Gill whether the police could find fingerprints on a body. Gill began to suspect that Trowbridge might have information regarding the crime. On the morning of May 3, 1996, Anderson Police Detective Terry Sollars interviewed residents of the mobile home park where Doris Swindell lived. Sollars did not stay long at Trowbridge's trailer, but noticed that Trowbridge became agitated and paced around after Sollars showed Gill, Frost, and Trowbridge photos of Swindell's car. Soon after Sollars left Trowbridge's trailer, Gill walked to where Sollars was standing with other officers and advised Sollars that he should question Trowbridge again and not rule him out as a suspect.

Sollars and three other detectives returned to Trowbridge's mobile home. Trowbridge briefly left the trailer with two detectives because he was uncomfortable responding to the detectives' questions in front of his mother. While Trowbridge was outside telling the detectives that he had been "huffing" the night before, Gill and Frost told Sollars they were concerned because there was a knife in a tackle box on the patio and Trowbridge had been hovering around the box. Frost was concerned that Trowbridge would become nervous and use the knife against the detectives, though she did not tell Sollars of her specific fear. Sollars, Frost, and Gill went to the tackle box and Gill stated that the tackle box was his. Sollars or Gill then opened the tackle box. Inside the tackle box, Sollars found the knife, as well as a roll of money and keys. Gill and Sollars walked to Swindell's mobile home and confirmed that the keys found in the tackle box fit Swindell's door.

Sollars returned to Trowbridge's home and placed Trowbridge in custody. Sollars then told Frost that Trowbridge was a suspect in Swindell's murder. Sollars requested and received a search warrant from a local judge and found additional evidence in Trowbridge's bedroom. The investigation also uncovered Trowbridge's fingerprints in Swindell's car and a statistically significant DNA match between Trowbridge and the semen in Swindell's body.

We will recite below additional facts pertinent to this decision.

I. Search and Seizure

Trowbridge contends the state violated his state and federal constitutional rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure when Detective Sollars secured evidence from the tackle box without a search warrant. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits police from conducting warrantless searches and seizures except under limited circumstances. See Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 100, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1690, 109 L.Ed.2d 85, 95 (1990) (citation omitted); Perry v. State, 638 N.E.2d 1236, 1240-41 (Ind.1994); Wright v. State, 593 N.E.2d 1192, 1198-99 (Ind.1992). The language of the Indiana Constitution, Article I, § 11, mirrors the federal protection. See Hawkins v. State, 626 N.E.2d 436, 439 (Ind.1993). However, the tests for determining a rights violation differ for the state and federal provisions.

Federal Fourth Amendment law protects citizens, including juveniles, from warrantless searches of places or items in which the individual has an actual, subjective expectation of privacy which society recognizes as reasonable. See United States v. Doe, 801 F.Supp. 1562, 1572 (E.D.Tex.1992). One exception to the federal prohibition on warrantless searches exists where consent to a search is given by a third party who has common authority over the premises. See United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 171, 94 S.Ct. 988, 993, 39 L.Ed.2d 242, 249-50 (1974); Brown v. State, 691 N.E.2d 438, 443 (Ind. 1998) (citations omitted); Perry v. State, 638 N.E.2d at 1240-41; Wright v. State, 593 N.E.2d at 1199; Stallings v. State, 508 N.E.2d 550, 552 (Ind.1987) (citations omitted).

Trowbridge argues he had a privacy interest in the tackle box that was violated when Gill (1) improperly consented to a search of Trowbridge's personal property in Trowbridge's absence, and (2) acted as a law enforcement officer in the Anderson Police Department's investigation of Swindell's murder. With respect to Trowbridge's asserted privacy interest, Gill lived in the trailer with Frost and her children and, at the time of the search, Gill told Sollars that the tackle box belonged to him, not to Trowbridge. In addition, the tackle box was located outside, on the patio, in a common area. The tackle box was not in a place, such as Trowbridge's bedroom, where the officer might have suspected a privacy interest on Trowbridge's behalf. Gill requested the search of the tackle box at Frost's urging. Frost and Gill, as the adults of the household, observed the search of the tackle box.

"`[T]he consent of one who possesses common authority over premises or effects is valid as against the absent, non-consenting person'" who shares the authority. Brames v. State, 273 Ind. 565, 406 N.E.2d 252, 255 (1980) (quoting Bruce v. State, 268 Ind. 180, 236, 375 N.E.2d 1042, 1072 (1978) (citations omitted)). Common authority depends on "mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes, so that it is reasonable to recognize that any of the co-habitants has the right to permit the inspection...." Perry v. State, 638 N.E.2d at 1241 (citing Stallings v. State, 508 N.E.2d at 552). Even if the third party who consents to a search does not have common authority over, or the requisite relationship to, the premises, the warrantless search is still valid if the officers reasonably believed the third party had common authority or the requisite relationship. See Canaan v. State, 683 N.E.2d 227, 231-32 (Ind.1997) (citing Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 179, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 2796, 111 L.Ed.2d 148, 155 (1990)); Perry v. State, 638 N.E.2d at 1241 (citation omitted). Detective Sollars reasonably believed that Gill had authority over the tackle box and could consent to its search.

Defendant's...