J.B. v. State of Indiana

30 N.E.3d 51, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 366, 2015 WL 1851450
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided April 23, 2015·No. 49A02-1409-JV-688·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

SHARPNACK, Senior Judge.

Statement of the Case

[1] J.B. appeals from the juvenile court’s determination that he committed an act that constituted dangerous possession of a firearm, a Class A misdemeanor. 1 We affirm.

Issue

[2] J.B. raises one issue, which we restate as: whether the juvenile court abused its discretion in admitting evidence obtained from J.B.’s encounter with a police officer.

Facts and Procedural History

[3] On the evening of July 12, 2014, Officer John Wallace of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was on patrol in his marked car when he saw J.B. and three other individuals walking along the sidewalk. J.B., who was seventeen years old at the time, saw Wallace’s police car and threw a black object into a yard as he continued walking. Officer Wallace was 125 feet from the group, and he noted that the object was “in an L shape” and was approximately six inches long. Tr. p. 16. Officer Wallace has extensive training and experience with firearms, and he believed that the object J.B. discarded was a handgun. Id. at 14.

[4] Officer Wallace drove up to J.B. and his companions, got out of the car, and instructed them to sit on the sidewalk. Officer Wallace also requested assistance. When additional officers arrived, Officer Wallace walked to the yard into which he had seen J.B. discard the object. Officer Wallace found a nine millimeter handgun. There was nothing else in the yard that matched the size and color of the object that Officer Wallace saw J.B. discard.

[5] On July 14, 2014, the juvenile court authorized the State to file a petition alleg *54 ing J.B. to be a delinquent child. On August 12, 2014, the court held an eviden-tiary hearing. 2 During the hearing, J.B. moved to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of his encounter with Officer Wallace. The court denied J.B.’s motion, determining that the officer had reasonable suspicion to detain J.B. At the end of the hearing, the court determined that J.B. was a delinquent child and scheduled a dispositional hearing.

[6] After the September 2, 2014 dispo-sitional hearing, the juvenile court awarded J.B. to the guardianship of the Indiana Department Correction “until the age of 21, unless sooner released by the Department of Correction.” Appellant’s App. p. 11.' The court recommended that J.B. be held at the Department of Correction “for a period of 6 months.” Id. at 12. This appeal followed.

Discussion and Decision

[7] J.B. argues that Officer Wallace detained him in violation of his constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure, as set forth in the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. J.B. argues the juvenile court erred in admitting the evidence obtained from Officer Wallace’s encounter with J.B.

[8] The admission and exclusion of evidence falls within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we review the admission of evidence only for abuse of discretion. Conley v. State, 972 N.E.2d 864, 871 (Ind.2012). An abuse of discretion occurs when the trial court’s decision is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances. Id. We do not reweigh the evidence, and we consider conflicting evidence most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, but we also consider any uncontested evidence favorable to the defendant. Patterson v. State, 958 N.E.2d 478, 482 (Ind.Ct.App.2011).

Fourth Amendment

[9] The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[10] The protections granted by the Fourth Amendment have been extended to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Sanders v. State, 989 N.E.2d 332, 335 (Ind.2013). The Fourth Amendment prohibits a warrantless search unless a valid exception to the warrant requirement exists. Id. When a search is conducted without a warrant, the State has the burden of proving that an exception to the warrant requirement existed at the time of the search. Berry v. State, 704 N.E.2d 462, 465 (Ind.1998).

[11] One exception is abandoned property. It is not subject to Fourth Amendment protection and may be lawfully seized without a warrant. Gooch v. State, 834 N.E.2d 1052, 1053-54 (Ind.Ct.App.2005), trans. denied. Abandonment rests upon whether the defendant relinquished an interest in the property to the point that he or she no longer retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in it at the time of the search. Hines v. State, 981 *55 N.E.2d 150, 154 (Ind.Ct.App.2013). Abandoned property is inadmissible if the abandonment occurs after the owner is improperly detained. Gooch, 834 N.E.2d at 1054.

[12] In the current case, J.B. discarded the handgun in a yard just after he saw Officer Wallace’s police car. Officer Wallace found it laying on the ground, accessible to all. Thus, J.B. relinquished his interest in the gun. Furthermore, Officer Wallace had not yet approached or spoken to J.B. when J.B. discarded the handgun. Thus, J.B. was not yet seized or detained at the time of abandonment, and the handgun was properly admitted into evidence over J.B.’s Fourth Amendment objection. See Wilson v. State, 825 N.E.2d 49, 52 (Ind.Ct.App.2005) (bag containing cocaine was properly admitted into evidence because defendant abandoned the bag prior to being seized by police).

[13] As another exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, an officer may conduct a brief investigatory stop of an individual when, based on a totality of the circumstances, the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. Hardister v. State, 849 N.E.2d 563, 570 (Ind.2006). The investigatory stop, also known as a Terry stop, is a lesser intrusion on the person than an arrest and may include a request to see identification and inquiry necessary to confirm or dispel the officer’s suspicions. Id. Reasonable suspicion is determined on a case by case basis. Patterson, 958 N.E.2d at 482.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

J.B. v. State of Indiana, 30 N.E.3d 51, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 366, 2015 WL 1851450 (Ind. Ct. App. 2015).

30 N.E.3d 51 (J.B. v. State of Indiana) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Caleb Bixler v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2018
J.G. v. State of Indiana
93 N.E.3d 1112 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2018)
William McNeal v. State of Indaina
62 N.E.3d 1275 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016)
Kelly C. Mullen v. State of Indiana
55 N.E.3d 822 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016)
Obed Bailey v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016
Willie Moore v. State of Indiana
49 N.E.3d 1095 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016)