Wehrenberg v. State

• Citation: 385 S.W.3d 715
• Decision Date: 08 November 2012
• Docket Number: Nos. 02–11–00560–CR, 02–11–00561–CR.,s. 02–11–00560–CR, 02–11–00561–CR.
• Parties: Michael Fred WEHRENBERG, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas, State.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

385 S.W.3d 715

Michael Fred WEHRENBERG, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas, State.

Nos. 02–11–00560–CR, 02–11–00561–CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

Nov. 8, 2012.

James Randal Wilson, Richard Alley, Weatherford, for Appellant.

Don Schnebly, Parker County Dist. Atty., Edward D. Lewallen, Asst. Dist. Atty., for The State.

PANEL: GARDNER, WALKER, and MEIER, JJ.

OPINION

BILL MEIER, Justice.

I. Introduction

Appellant Michael Fred Wehrenberg appeals the trial court's denial in part of his motion to suppress evidence. We consider several dispositive issues in this appeal, including (1) whether facts that a person is “going to” manufacture methamphetamine provides exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless entry into a residence, and (2) whether the federal independent source doctrine applies to except the challenged evidence from the Texas exclusionary rule. Our answer to both queries: No. We will reverse the trial court's orders denying in part Wehrenberg's motion to suppress evidence and remand this cause to the trial court.

II. Background

Police had been conducting surveillance of a residence located at 501 Center Point Road in Parker County for about thirty days when on or about August 31, 2010, a confidential informant notified investigators that a number of individuals who were located at the residence were “fixing to” cook methamphetamine. A few hours later, police officers, including Investigator Luis Montanez, proceeded to the residence and, without a search warrant, entered through the front door; removed several “subjects”—including Wehrenberg—from inside and placed them in the front yard, handcuffed; and performed a protective sweep of the premises. No one had given the police permission to enter the residence, and no one was cooking methamphetamine when the police arrived and “secured” the residence. Investigator Montanez prepared a search warrant affidavit with the help of another investigator, and about an hour after police had secured the residence, a magistrate signed a warrant authorizing a search of the residence. Police then searched the residence and discovered the following items, among others: a coffee grinder with residue, Oxycodone, lithium batteries, empty blister packets, a vial with liquid, red and clear liquid, wet powder inside of a shed, stripped lithium batteries, and empty pseudoephedrine boxes. Police arrested Wehrenberg after conducting the search.

Wehrenberg moved to suppress all of the tangible evidence seized in connection with both cases. The trial court granted the motion to suppress as to any evidence seized pursuant to the initial “detention” of Wehrenberg but denied the motion as to any evidence seized pursuant to the search warrant that police later obtained and executed. The trial court did not enter findings of fact and conclusions of law, although Wehrenberg requested such findingsand conclusions. Wehrenberg ultimately pleaded guilty, pursuant to a plea bargain, to (a) possession of between four and two hundred grams of methamphetamine and (b) possession or transport of chemicals with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine, and the trial court sentenced him to five years' confinement in each cause. Wehrenberg preserved his right to appeal the trial court's denial in part of his motion to suppress.

III. Methamphetamine, Warrantless Entry, and Segura

Wehrenberg argues in his only point that the trial court reversibly erred by denying in part his motion to suppress. He contends that in light of the trial court's determination that the initial warrantless entry into the residence was illegal, his detention and removal from the residence was illegal, and “such illegality tainted the subsequently obtained search warrant for the residence.” Wehrenberg argues that the independent source doctrine does not apply to allow admission of the complained-of evidence despite the illegal taint because “the search warrant was not based entirely on information obtained before the illegal entry.”

The State argues that the trial court did not err by denying Wehrenberg's motion to suppress because probable cause and exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry and, alternatively, the independent source doctrine applies to except the evidence from the exclusionary rule.

A. Standard of Review

We review a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence under a bifurcated standard of review. Amador v. State, 221 S.W.3d 666, 673 (Tex.Crim.App.2007); Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). We give almost total deference to a trial court's rulings on questions of historical fact and application-of-law-to-fact questions that turn on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor, but we review de novo application-of-law-to-fact questions that do not turn on credibility and demeanor. Amador, 221 S.W.3d at 673;Estrada v. State, 154 S.W.3d 604, 607 (Tex.Crim.App.2005); Johnson v. State, 68 S.W.3d 644, 652–53 (Tex.Crim.App.2002).

When the record is silent on the reasons for the trial court's ruling, or when there are no explicit fact findings and neither party timely requested findings and conclusions from the trial court, we imply the necessary fact findings that would support the trial court's ruling if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the trial court's ruling, supports those findings. State v. Garcia–Cantu, 253 S.W.3d 236, 241 (Tex.Crim.App.2008); see Wiede v. State, 214 S.W.3d 17, 25 (Tex.Crim.App.2007). We then review the trial court's legal ruling de novo unless the implied fact findings supported by the record are also dispositive of the legal ruling. State v. Kelly, 204 S.W.3d 808, 819 (Tex.Crim.App.2006).

B. Legality of Warrantless Entry

We begin our analysis by considering whether the initial warrantless entry into the residence by police was legal. This is a logical starting point because if the warrantless entry was justified, then there was no residual taint that could have rendered the subsequent search invalid, and Wehrenberg's argument—which presupposes the illegality of the warrantless entry—fails. And although the trial court suppressed any evidence seized pursuant to the initial detention of Wehrenberg, we may still review the legality of the warrantless entry because we are required to uphold the trial court's ruling denying the motion to suppress if it is supported by the record and correct under any theory of law applicable to the case, even if the trial court gave the wrong reason for its ruling. See State v. Stevens, 235 S.W.3d 736, 740 (Tex.Crim.App.2007); Armendariz v. State, 123 S.W.3d 401, 404 (Tex.Crim.App.2003), cert. denied,541 U.S. 974, 124 S.Ct. 1883, 158 L.Ed.2d 469 (2004).

1. Exigent Circumstances

An unconsented police entry into a residence constitutes a search. McNairy v. State, 835 S.W.2d 101, 106 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); see Parker v. State, 206 S.W.3d 593, 596 n. 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2006). A warrantless search of a residence is presumptively unreasonable. Gutierrez v. State, 221 S.W.3d 680, 685 (Tex.Crim.App.2007). For a warrantless search to be justified, the State must show (1) the existence of probable cause at the time of the search and (2) exigent circumstances that made procuring a warrant impracticable. ¹McNairy, 835 S.W.2d at 106;see Estrada, 154 S.W.3d at 608. If either probable cause or exigent circumstances are not established, a warrantless entry will not pass muster under the Fourth Amendment. Parker, 206 S.W.3d at 597.

a. Probable Cause

Probable cause to search exists when reasonably trustworthy facts and circumstances within the knowledge of the officer on the scene would lead a man of reasonable prudence to believe that the instrumentality of a crime or evidence of a crime will be found. McNairy, 835 S.W.2d at 106. Probable cause has been described as “the sum total of layers of information and the synthesis of what the police have heard, what they know, and what they observe as trained officers. We weigh not individual layers but the ‘laminated total ... [.]’ ” See id. (citing Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1948)).

Investigator Montanez testified at the hearing on the motion to suppress that a confidential informant had notified him that the occupants of the residence located at 501 Center Point Road were preparing to cook methamphetamine. Investigators had used the confidential informant in the past, and the informant, who was familiar with methamphetamine and the manufacture of methamphetamine, had provided reliable information. In this circumstance, the informant gave Investigator Montanez specific information about the method by which the methamphetamine was being manufactured, and based on Investigator Montanez's knowledge and experience, he determined that the occupants of the residence were utilizing the “shake-and-bake” method, which involves combining numerous ingredients into a plastic bottle. Investigator Montanez said that he corroborated the informant's information by running a check of the names of the people who were apparently inside of the residence, which had been under police surveillance. Investigator Montanez explained that he knew that Wehrenberg was at the residence because police had performed a “knock and talk” at the same location about three months earlier, resulting in a warrant being subsequently issued and Wehrenberg being arrested for possession of a controlled substance.

Given the sum total of information available to Investigator Montanez, including the reasonable inferences that could be drawn from that information, probable cause existed at the time of the warrantless entry into the residence.

b. Exigent Circumstances

Three categories of exigent circumstances justify a warrantless intrusion by police officers: providing aid or assistance to persons whom law enforcement reasonably believes are in need of assistance; protecting police officers from persons whom they reasonably believe to be present, armed, and...