Grider v. State

1987 OK CR 212, 743 P.2d 678, 1987 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 490
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided September 28, 1987·No. F-86-236·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinions

OPINION

BRETT, Presiding Judge:

Appellants, James A. Grider and Georgia Grider, husband and wife, were jointly tried without a jury, in the District Court of McIntosh County, Oklahoma, in Case Nos. CRF-84-87 and CRF-84-88. The Honorable J.M. LeMasters, Jr., presided. Case No. CRF-84-87 was for the offense of Unlawful Cultivation of Marijuana in violation of 63 O.S.1981, § 2-509(1). CRF-84-88 was for the offense of Unlawful Possession of Marijuana With Intent to Distribute in violation of 63 O.S.1981, § 2-401 (B-2). In addition, appellant James A. Grider was charged with After Former Conviction of a Felony. He had been formerly convicted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Oklahoma, in Case No. 78-95 Criminal, for the offense of Unlawful Distribution of Marijuana.

Appellant James A. Grider was found guilty After Former Conviction of a Felony in both cases and was sentenced to serve ten (10) years’ imprisonment on each charge. For the offense in CRF-84-88, for the Unlawful Possession of Marijuana With Intent to Distribute, he was also assessed a fine of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00). The imprisonment sentence in CRF-84-88 was provided to run consecutively to the sentence imposed in CRF-84-87, as to James Grider.

Appellant, Georgia Grider, was found guilty on both charges and was sentenced to serve two (2) years’ imprisonment and a fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) on each charge, with the provisions that the two sentences run concurrently. Both appellants were allowed to remain free on bail pending this appeal. The original record for Georgia Grider fails to contain a copy of the Judgments and Sentences for each case and is subject to dismissal because of that failure. However, insofar as the transcript of March 4, 1986, contains the imposition of Judgment and Sentence for Georgia Grider, the appeal has been considered on the merits.

[680] On September 21, 1984, the McIntosh County Sheriffs Department was conducting an aerial surveillance along the Canadian River for marijuana crops. Pursuant to instructions by the Sheriffs Department, the pilot of the plane used in the surveillance searched an area around the river and subsequently observed a marijuana patch in an area behind the appellant’s barn.

Upon receiving directions regarding the location of the marijuana, the Sheriff and four deputies proceeded to the appellant’s residence. The deputies parked their cars on the public road in front of the house. The deputies testified that from this point they could see marijuana growing behind appellants’ barn. Conflicting testimony indicated that the bam was between 75 to 125 yards behind the house.

A deputy went to the home and knocked on the door. Receiving no answer, the deputy proceeded to check for people in surrounding buildings. Finding no one at home, the deputy returned to his patrol car. Another deputy returned to Eufaula to obtain a search warrant. Upon returning to appellants’ residence with the warrant, a search was conducted of the area behind the bam. In this area, the deputies found rows of growing marijuana. Approximately 169 marijuana plants were found. The officers then checked inside the barn and found stripped stalks of marijuana and brown paper sacks containing marijuana. Appellant, Mr. Grider, was taken into custody later that day.

At trial, the magistrate who had issued the search warrant, found appellants’ motion to suppress well taken and sustained it. The search was determined to be invalid because the warrant was not made under oath or affirmation pursuant to Article 2 § 30 of the Oklahoma Constitution. On a Rule Six Appeal, the District Judge overruled the motion to suppress, finding that the marijuana was observed growing in an open field, relying on Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170, 104 S.Ct. 1735, 80 L.Ed.2d 214 (1984).

Appellants’ first assignment of error contends that the marijuana found behind the barn was within the curtilage of their home, and thus, required the exclusion of the marijuana at trial.

We find United States v. Dunn, — U.S. —, 107 S.Ct. 1134, 94 L.Ed.2d 326 (1987), to be determinative of this issue. In Dunn, Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered that one Carpenter had bought large quantities of chemicals and equipment used to make controlled substances. The agents placed tracking beepers in some of the equipment and these beepers led the agents to Carpenter’s truck, which was parked on his ranch. Aerial photographs of the ranch showed the truck backed up to a barn behind the ranch house. The ranch was completely encircled by a perimeter fence, and contained several interior barbed wire fences, including one around the house approximately 60 yards from the bam. A wooden fence enclosed the front of the bam, which had an open overhang and locked waist-high gates. Without a warrant, officers crossed the perimeter fences, several of the barbed wire fences, and the wooden fence in front of the barn. They did not enter the bam but stopped at the locked gate and shined a flashlight inside, observing what they considered to be a drug laboratory. They obtained a search warrant and executed it, arresting Dunn and seizing evidence.

After the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, denied Carpenter’s and Dunn's motion to suppress all evidence seized pursuant to the warrant, Carpenter and Dunn were convicted of conspiracy to manufacture controlled substances and related offenses. However, the United States Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, reversed, holding that the bam was within the residence’s curtilage and therefore within the Fourth Amendment’s protective ambit.

The United States Supreme Court reversed, holding that the area near the bam was not within the curtilage of the house for Fourth Amendment purposes. The Supreme Court identified the central component of the curtilage inquiry as whether the area “harbors the intimate activity as[681] sociated with the sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of life.” Id. at —, 107 S.Ct. at 1139. The Supreme Court stated that curtilage questions should be resolved with particular reference to four factors: the proximity of the area claimed to be curtilage to the home, whether the area is included within an enclosure surrounding the home, the nature of the uses to which the area is put, and finally, the steps taken by the resident to protect the area from observation by people passing by.

Applying these factors to appellants’ bam and to the area immediately surrounding it, we have little difficulty in concluding that the bam area lay outside the curtilage of the home.

First, the record discloses that the barn was located anywhere from 75 to 125 yards from appellants’ home. Standing in isolation, this substantial distance supports no inference that the barn should be treated as an adjunct of the home.

Second, although the bam, which was in bad disrepair, was fenced in and a distinct portion of property, it was quite separate from appellants’ home. Appellants’ brief admits that there were regularly traveled paths between the barn and the home.

Third, although appellants did attempt a subterfuge by growing some garden vegetables, the main function of the garden behind the bam was to grow marijuana crops.

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Grider v. State, 1987 OK CR 212, 743 P.2d 678, 1987 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 490 (Okla. Ct. App. 1987).

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