Com. v. Dean

940 A.2d 514

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant v. Bonnie DEAN, Appellee.

No. 2698 EDA 2006.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted July 30, 2007.

Filed January 4, 2008.

Michael D. Muffley, Assistant District Attorney, Jim Thorpe, for Commonwealth, appellant.

Jonathan J. Sobel, Philadelphia, for appellant.

BEFORE: LALLY-GREEN, BOWES, and POPOVICH, JJ.

OPINION BY POPOVICH, J.:

¶ 1 The Commonwealth appeals the order granting a motion to suppress filed by Appellee Bonnie Dean on grounds that: (1) the narcotic agents had probable cause to make a warrantless entry into Appellee's hotel room; and (2) the entry was consensual, which vitiated the need to obtain a search warrant and validated seizure of the evidence therefrom.¹ We affirm.

¶ 2 When reviewing the propriety of a suppression order, an appellate court is required to determine whether the record supports the suppression court's factual findings and whether the inferences and legal conclusions drawn by the suppression court from those findings are appropriate. Commonwealth v. Davis, 491 Pa. 363, 421 A.2d 179 (1980). Because Appellee prevailed in the suppression court, we may consider only the evidence of the defense and so much of the evidence for the Commonwealth as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole. Where the record supports the factual findings of the suppression court, we are bound by those facts and may reverse only if the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are in error. Commonwealth v. Bomar, 573 Pa. 426, 826 A.2d 831, 842 (2003). However, where the appeal of the determination of the suppression court turns on allegations of legal error, "[t]he suppression court's conclusions of law [...] are not binding on an appellate court, whose duty it is to determine if the suppression court properly applied the law to the facts." Commonwealth v. Nester, 551 Pa. 157, 709 A.2d 879, 881 (1998). As a result, the conclusions of law of the suppression court are subject to plenary review. Commonwealth v. Mistler, 590 Pa. 390, 912 A.2d 1265 (2006).

¶ 3 With the preceding in mind, we shall recite the facts as found by the suppression court:

1. On August 24, 2005, at or about 4:30 P.M., [Appellee] was a registered guest in Room 211 at the Country Inn and Suites ("Country Inn")[;] a motel located at 1619 Interchange Road, in Franklin Township, Carbon County, [S]he was the only person staying in that room.

2. On that date Roseanne Billings was the assistant General Manager of the Country Inn and the manager on duty at the Inn.

3. Agents Kirk Schwartz and Jeff Antinucci are narcotics officers, employed by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

4. The Agents went to the Country Inn on August 24, 2005 to arrest Bradley Conklin, a nephew of [Appellee]. Conklin was staying at the Inn in Room 309, which was registered to Tonya Conklin.

5. The arrest was based on a drug transaction where Agent Schwartz had purchased seventeen grams of cocaine from Mr. Conklin approximately two (2) months prior to the date of this incident.

6. After asking and obtaining from Ms. Billings the location of Bradley Conklin, Agents Schwartz and Antinucci went to Room 309, and arrested Bradley Conklin as well as Chad Conklin.

7. After Bradley Conklin was taken into custody, he told Agent Schwartz that [Appellee] had marijuana and methamphetamine in Room 211. Agent Schwartz suspected [Appellee] of trafficking in drugs.

8. The Agents then went to Room 211, and as they approached the door they smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from under the door.

9. Agent Schwartz returned to Roseanne Billings and asked her "what they had known about [Appellee]." Ms. Billings confirmed that [Appellee] was a guest staying in Room 211, and that she had been there for some time.

10. At approximately 4:30 P.M., Agent Schwartz asked Ms. Billings to accompany him to Room 211 "in case [Appellee] would not open the door."

11. When Ms. Billings arrived at Room 211 with Agents Schwartz and Antinucci she smelled marijuana, which she said "was always outside that room." Ms. Billings knocked on the door two times and identified herself. After her second knock, Ms. Billings heard a response from within the room but did not know what was said.

12. Agent Schwartz also knocked and identified himself; there was no response to his knock from within the room.

13. Ms. Billings thereupon used her key to open the locked door and stood in the doorway.

14. As the door opened, [Appellee], clad in a bathing suit, was observed reclining in the hot tub; another female and two children were making their way to exit the room.

15. Agents Schwartz and Antinucci entered the room; Agent Schwartz observed a marijuana joint and loose marijuana on a dresser, another joint on the nightstand and a line of what appeared to be crystal methamphetamine on the desk.

16. When the Agents entered Room 211, their identification badges were around their necks and their weapons were concealed. Agent Schwartz directed [Appellee] to get out of the hot tub, which she "eventually did" and told [Appellee] that the Agents believed she had drugs in the room. [Appellee] was not free to leave the room.

17. Agent Schwartz telephoned District Attorney Dobias and explained to him what he had found in Room 211.

18. While speaking to the District Attorney, [Appellee] interrupted the conversation indicating that she wished to cooperate.

19. Agent Schwartz proffered a "Consent to Search" form to [Appellee].

20. After Agent Schwartz told her twice that she did not have to sign the form, [Appellee] signed the consent form.

21. Pursuant to the consent to search, an immediate inspection of the room uncovered a total of 40.86 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 221.99 grams of marijuana, 3 joints and Three Thousand Two Hundred Twenty ($3,220.00) Dollars in United States currency.

22. During the search, [Appellee] stated that she had picked up twelve (12) bags of crystal methamphetamine for a friend but the friend had not stopped by to pick it up.

Memorandum Opinion, 9/11/06, at 2-6.² To the suppression court's recitation of facts, we would add Agent Schwartz's uncontradicted account of "smell[ing] marijuana coming out from underneath the door, burnt marijuana" as he stood outside Appellee's Room 211. See N.T., 7/14/06, at 41; see also Mistier, at 396, 912 A.2d at 1268-69 (Where a defendant prevails in the suppression court, "we may consider [...] so much of the evidence for the Commonwealth as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole.").

¶ 4 At the conclusion of the hearing, the suppression court entered an order granting Appellee's motion to suppress, which excluded the evidence seized from Room 211 (drugs and money), Appellee's statement, and her consent to search as a product of detention. See Memorandum Opinion, 9/11/06, at 15 ("However, because of the temporal proximity between the detention and the consent for the search and the lack of any intervening circumstances, which would demonstrate that the consent was an act of free will, it is impossible for the Commonwealth to demonstrate that [Appellee's] consent was not the product of the detention. I therefore conclude that because [Appellee's] consent is invalid, the fruits of the consequent search must be suppressed." (citation omitted)). The Commonwealth perfected a timely appeal per Pa.R.A.P. 311(d) and raises but a single question; to-wit:

Whether the trial court erred in granting [Appellee's] Motion to Suppress and in reaching the conclusion that the agents for the Commonwealth needed a search warrant to enter [Appellee's] hotel room where they had probable cause to make a warrantless arrest, and were invited into the room after knocking and identifying themselves?

Commonwealth's brief, at 7.

¶ 5 Preliminarily, we note that, "A hotel room can clearly be the object of Fourth Amendment protection as much as a home or an office." Hoffa v. United States, 385 U.S. 293, 301, 87 S.Ct. 408, 17 L.Ed.2d 374 (1966); Commonwealth v. Cooper, 240 Pa.Super. 477, 362 A.2d 1041 (1976), vacated on other grounds, 468 Pa, 390, 363 A.2d 783 (1976). Further:

A warrantless search or seizure is presumptively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment and Article I, § 8, subject to a few specifically established, well-delineated exceptions. "The `plain view' doctrine is often considered an exception to the general rule that warrantless searches [and seizures] are presumptively unreasonable, but this characterization overlooks the important difference between searches and seizures."

* * *

Horton [v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990)] established the standard for evaluating the constitutionality of seizures made pursuant to the plain view exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment. That test includes a determination of whether the police have a lawful right of access to the object seen in plain view, Horton explained the determination regarding whether there is a lawful right of access:

"This is simply a corollary of the familiar principle [...] that no amount of probable cause can justify a warrantless search or seizure absent `exigent circumstances.' Incontrovertible testimony of the senses that an incriminating object is on premises belonging to a criminal suspect may establish the fullest possible measure of probable cause. But even where the object is contraband, this Court has repeatedly stated and enforced the basic rule that the police may not enter and make a warrantless seizure.

In [Commonwealth v.] Graham [, 554 Pa. 472, 721 A.2d 1075 (1998)], [the Pennsylvania Supreme Court] followed similar United States Supreme Court precedent:

"[P]lain view' provides grounds for seizure of an item when an officer's access to an object has some prior justification under the Fourth Amendment. `Plain view' is perhaps better understood, therefore, not...