Ian Christian Carlson v. Commonwealth of Virginia

823 S.E.2d 28, 69 Va. App. 749
CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedFebruary 12, 2019
Docket2058171
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 823 S.E.2d 28 (Ian Christian Carlson v. Commonwealth of Virginia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ian Christian Carlson v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 823 S.E.2d 28, 69 Va. App. 749 (Va. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges Huff,* AtLee and Senior Judge Frank Argued at Norfolk, Virginia PUBLISHED

IAN CHRISTIAN CARLSON OPINION BY v. Record No. 2058-17-1 JUDGE RICHARD Y. ATLEE, JR. FEBRUARY 12, 2019 COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF CHESAPEAKE Frederick B. Lowe, Judge Designate1

Erik A. Mussoni, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant.

A. Anne Lloyd, Assistant Attorney General (Mark R. Herring, Attorney General; Elizabeth Kiernan Fitzgerald, Assistant Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

Ian Christian Carlson appeals his convictions for manufacturing marijuana in violation of

Code § 18.2-248.1 and misdemeanor obstruction of justice for using a police radio during the

commission of a crime in violation of Code § 18.2-462.1. Carlson argues that the trial court

erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained as a result of an unlawful search of his

residence. He also argues that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of manufacturing

marijuana. We agree the trial court should have granted Carlson’s motion to suppress, and we

now reverse the trial court.

* On January 1, 2019, Judge Decker succeeded Judge Huff as chief judge. 1 Judge Lowe presided over the trial and signed the final sentencing order. Judge Marjorie Taylor Arrington ruled on the motion to suppress and signed the order denying the motion. I. BACKGROUND

Officers Matt Elliot and Aaron Gosnell responded to a call at a trailer park on the 2700

block of Ike Street in Chesapeake. When the officers parked and got out of their vehicles at the

scene, they immediately noticed a strong odor of marijuana. The officers responded to the

original, unrelated call and then attempted to locate the source of the marijuana smell. The

officers walked around each trailer, sniffing at the doors and windows, in an attempt to localize

the odor to a particular trailer. Each trailer was situated approximately ten to fifteen feet apart.

As the officers walked towards trailer 65, Carlson’s residence, the officers noticed that the smell

was getting stronger.

Carlson’s trailer is located at a T-intersection. The officers walked around a van parked

at the curb in front of the trailer and onto Carlson’s property. Carlson’s trailer is set twenty-two

feet from the curb, and the front door is thirty-six feet from the curb. As they had done at each

of the other trailers, the officers sniffed the doors and windows. After sniffing the doors and

windows, “it became obvious” to the officers that the odor was coming from Carlson’s trailer.

The officers notified their sergeant and then contacted Vice and Narcotics. The sergeant

ordered the officers to “make contact” with the trailer. Accordingly, the officers knocked on the

door and announced themselves as police officers. No one answered the door, but the officers

heard a radio or television turn off. At some point, the blinds flickered up and down. The

officers secured the premises and waited for backup to arrive.

In response to the officers’ call, Detective Cusumano from Vice and Narcotics arrived

approximately one hour later. At trial, Detective Cusumano testified that he was called to assist

with a trailer that smelled of marijuana. When he arrived, he saw other police units on scene.

The detective walked up to the main entrance of Carlson’s trailer and smelled raw marijuana

emanating from the edges of the door. He did not go anywhere else on the property before he

-2- left to obtain a warrant. The affidavit attached to the warrant indicated that uniform patrol was

on scene, but contained only the detective’s observations.2

When the police executed the search warrant, Carlson refused to come out of the trailer

and a lengthy standoff ensued. Eventually, a SWAT team made entry, and Carlson ran out the

back of the trailer before ultimately being arrested.

Inside the trailer, law enforcement discovered a grow operation. The trailer was outfitted

with ventilation, heat lamps, and other equipment necessary to grow marijuana. Officers found

approximately 176 marijuana plants at various stages of growth and a garbage bag of marijuana

apparently trimmed off of the plants. In the bathroom, officers discovered marijuana leaves in

and around the toilet and an envelope full of cash in various denominations. Elsewhere in the

trailer, officers discovered an AK-47, various boxes of ammunition, a digital scale, and a device

used to smoke marijuana. Additionally, officers discovered a police scanner that was tuned to

the same channel the police were using to communicate during the investigation, and the officers

inside could hear radio communication from officers still outside.

Carlson filed a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence from the trailer arguing that the

officers’ initial entry onto his property was unlawful. Carlson did not challenge the warrant

itself, rather he argued that Detective Cusumano’s presence on the property was a direct result of

the officers’ unlawful search. At the suppression hearing, both Officers Elliot and Gosnell

testified and openly admitted to sniffing around the windows and doors of the trailers, including

2 The affidavit stated the following:

I responded to the mobile home park located at 2710 Ike St Lot 65 Chesapeake, Va 23325. Uniform patrol was on scene and had a strong odor of marijuana present in the area. I walked up to Lot 65 and the smell of marijuana was emanating from the front door. I am requesting a search warrant from the mobile home lot 65 which is labeled with gold paint due the strong odor emanating from the front door. -3- Carlson’s. Officer Elliot testified that that when they “got to 65” they could tell the marijuana

odor was coming from that particular trailer. When asked if “got to 65” meant “sniffing the

doors and windows” of trailer 65, Officer Elliot said yes. He also agreed that it was when they

“walked up to the door” that they “were able to centralize the odor.” Officer Gosnell testified

that the marijuana smell got stronger as they walked towards trailer 65, “but [they] had still not

centralized it to that trailer itself.” Further, Gosnell testified it was “while in the curtilage of the

property . . . it became increasingly strong,” and only then were they “beginning to believe that

this may be it.” The trial court requested supplemental briefing on the issue.

Carlson argued that the search was unlawful and that the search pursuant to the warrant,

based upon Detective Cusumano’s observations, was not sufficiently attenuated from the

unlawful search. Carlson also argued that Detective Cusumano was not an independent source.

The Commonwealth responded that the officers’ search was lawful, Detective Cusumano was an

independent source, and, regardless, Carlson failed to challenge the warrant.

At a second hearing on the issue, the trial court determined the officers had “overstepped

their boundary” and that the search was unlawful. After further argument on the independent

source doctrine, the trial court determined it was a “close call” but overruled the motion because

“[w]e did have a warrant.” The trial court denied Carlson’s motion to reconsider.

At trial, the Commonwealth’s expert, Detective Barlow, testified that the amount of

marijuana found was inconsistent with personal use. He estimated that the potential yield (under

optimal conditions) was forty-four pounds of marijuana. Even if not all of the plants would bud

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