Youtz v. State

• Decision Date: 15 July 1986
• Docket Number: 5 Div. 915
• Citation: 494 So.2d 189
• Parties: James Allen YOUTZ and Linda Pope Youtz v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 189

494 So.2d 189

James Allen YOUTZ and Linda Pope Youtz v. STATE.

5 Div. 915.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

July 15, 1986.

Joseph L. Dean, Jr. of Walker, Hill, Adams, Umbach, Herndon & Dean, Opelika, for appellant James Allen Youtz.

J.L. Chestnut, Jr. of Chestnut, Sanders, Sanders, Turner & Williams, Selma, for appellant Linda Pope Youtz.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen. and J. Anthony McLain and James F. Hampton, Spec. Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.

BOWEN, Presiding Judge.

James Allen Youtz was convicted for trafficking in marijuana and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment and fined $25,000. His wife, Linda Pope Youtz, was convicted for possession of marijuana and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Their convictions are reversed because the police had no authority to enter their residence, make the arrests, and seize the marijuana.

The controlling facts on the governing issue of this case are undisputed. In March of 1984, the Auburn Police Department was ending a six-month undercover drug operation which ultimately resulted in twenty-nine arrests. Officer Alex Smith testified that "we were in the process of closing down our six-month investigation, and making what we call a roundup, and making arrests on people who we had been buying drugs from over the last six months."

Between 7:00 and 8:00 on the evening of March 27, 1984, Officer Smith, working undercover, went to the residence of Brad Harris and Kevin Lamphere on Payne Street and asked Harris about purchasing marijuana. Smith had previously purchased drugs from both Lamphere and Harris. Harris told Smith that Andy Allen was "making a run" which meant that "he was going after some drugs." Allen returned to the residence and sold a bag of marijuana to Phillip Meeks, who sold part of the bag to Officer Smith. In addition to this transaction, the police had purchased drugs from Allen on two prior occasions.

Smith heard Allen say that he needed more marijuana and he overheard Allen telephone "someone named Jimmy" and state "that he was coming back to pick up another bag, ... And he wanted the caller [sic] to know that he was on his way over to get it." Allen then left and was arrested about one block from the residence.

Smith also left the residence and met with other officers who had been keeping Smith under surveillance. These officers then returned to the residence and arrested Meeks, Harris, and Lamphere and took them and Drew Warman, who was also present at the residence, to the police station.

Sergeant Gary Black of the Auburn Police Department testified that around the first of February or March, before Allen had been arrested, they had followed Allen to the defendants' residence. They subsequently ascertained that the residence belonged to the defendants and that "the power was registered" to the defendants on February 16, 1984. After his arrest, Allen was brought to the police station around 8:00 that night. He "was willing to cooperate." He told the police his source was Jimmy Youtz and agreed to make another buy. Detective Black instructed him "to pay Mr. Youtz the money that he owed him for the previous purchase of marijuana. Also to buy another half an ounce of marijuana."

Allen was "wired" with a "body transmitter", provided with money, and taken to the defendants' residence on East Glenn Street at approximately 11:00 that night. The police remained outside, concealed and undetected, where they monitored the conversation inside the house. Five to seven minutes after Allen left the police car to enter the defendants' residence, Officers Smith and Black went to the residence and knocked on the door. Shortly after 11:00 that night, Jimmy Youtz answered the knock wearing a bathrobe. Officer Black identified himself and Officer Smith and asked Youtz four or five times who he was, but Youtz did not answer. Black then placed him under arrest, handcuffed and searched him, finding a bag of marijuana in the pocket of the robe. Apparently, this was the marijuana that Allen had requested to purchase. Allen and one Bryan Greenshields were sitting in the den and were arrested. Mrs. Youtz was found in the master bedroom but was not arrested that night. The Youtzes' nine-year-old daughter was sleeping in her own room. After the three men were arrested, five police officers searched the house for approximately two hours. The scope of that search is also raised as an issue in this case and would be a particular cause for concern were it not for this court's finding upon the issue of the entry itself. "An arrest within a home does not provide a license for the police to search the entire residence for evidence." United States v. Satterfield, 743 F.2d 827, 845 (11th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1117, 105 S.Ct. 2362, 86 L.Ed.2d 262 (1985). "[S]earch of a residence merely because a suspect is arrested inside does not follow as a matter of routine.... An arrest even on probable cause does not itself automatically provide exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless search of the suspect's house." United States v. Alfonso, 759 F.2d 728, 742 (9th Cir.1985).

Officer Smith candidly admitted the only purpose in going to the defendants' residence was to arrest Mr. Youtz. There was never any attempt made to obtain either a search warrant or an arrest warrant.

Mrs. Youtz was not arrested the night of the raid but "turned herself in" at the police station after having been telephoned by the police one week later.

In denying the defendants' motion to suppress, the trial judge stated his reasons for the record. A portion of his comments follow:

"At the time they were outside the home, the officers had neither a warrant of arrest, nor a search warrant.

"However, the Court is of the opinion that at that time the officers had probable cause for believing that criminal activity was afoot in that house, due to the radio transmission that they were receiving from the informant in the house. And the testimony was, that they couldn't identify, but they heard three different male voices, whether or not there was more people there, they didn't know. They just didn't know at that time. And they did know, or had reason to believe that criminal activity was afoot, in that, they were obviously hearing about a sale taking place from somebody to the informant there.

"The Court must look, first, to see did they have sufficient information at that time to secure a warrant of arrest? Frankly, I don't think they did, because they could not swear themselves, as to who was making the sale. There was a sale going on, but who was making the sale. I don't know how they would have even gotten an arrest warrant at that time.

"Did they have time, or should they have gotten a search warrant? Of course, that is always the ideal thing to do. But, this was at 11:00 at night and to get a search warrant in Alabama at nighttime, you have got to have more than just probable cause; you have got to be able to swear that it is in there. And for that reason a search warrant could not be secured for a search and the search would have to be done the next morning. Of course, a search warrant could have been secured during the night hours, but it couldn't commence until the next morning. In order to secure the house, I feel, that they would have great difficulty in securing this house, that is, keeping anyone from leaving or taking anything out of the house and disposing of anything without the occupants of the house, under these circumstances, knowing something was happening, because you have an informant in there, in the house at that time. And I suspect that that informant would have gotten pretty upset if he had been left dangling out there for any period of time.

"So, I feel that at the time the officers went to the doorway of this house, they had probable cause for believing that a crime was taking place in the house. And I feel at that time that they had a right to enter the house, because of the exigent circumstances surrounding this particular event. And of course, all of these cases on searches without a warrant must turn, or fall on the specific facts in that particular case."

After concluding that the warrantless arrests and searches were proper, the trial judge stated:

"All of this I have set out for the record, so ya'll will understand my thinking. I want you to realize this, and particularly the officers, I am not one who favors searches of homes without an arrest warrant or a search warrant, because I've always said, you know, the one place that you have the right to be, and some folks call it the right of privacy, I call it the right to be left alone and that is left alone in our homes. But, when we do things that violate the law, then of course we don't have the right to be left alone to flagrantly violate the law. So, I may not ever approve again of a search without a warrant, and that's why I'm telling ya'll now that it is a close question, but under the circumstances in this case, I feel that at the time the officers had probable cause and that there were exigent circumstances that would authorize them to enter the house and conduct a search that they entered at that time."

"[M]ore than mere probable cause must be present to justify a warrantless entry of a private residence to arrest" or to search. People v. Wilson, 86 Ill.App.3d 637, 42 Ill.Dec. 279, 282, 408 N.E.2d 988, 991 (1980). In the absence of exigent circumstances, the authority to make a warrantless arrest ends at the threshold of a private dwelling and the police may not make a warrantless, nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home to effectuate a routine felony arrest. Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 576, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1374-75, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). See also Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 205-06, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 1644-45, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981) (in the absence of exigent circumstances or consent, the Fourth Amendment prohibits law enforcement officers from searching for the...