Kevin Master v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJanuary 26, 2023
Docket2021 CA 000925
StatusUnknown

This text of Kevin Master v. Commonwealth of Kentucky (Kevin Master v. Commonwealth of Kentucky) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kevin Master v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, (Ky. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

RENDERED: JANUARY 27, 2023; 10:00 A.M. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals

NO. 2021-CA-0925-MR

KEVIN MASTER APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM KENTON CIRCUIT COURT v. HONORABLE KATHLEEN S. LAPE, JUDGE ACTION NO. 19-CR-01762

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE

OPINION VACATING AND REMANDING

** ** ** ** **

BEFORE: ACREE, CETRULO, AND GOODWINE, JUDGES.

CETRULO, JUDGE: Appellant Kevin Master (“Appellant KM”) appeals from a

judgment of the Kenton Circuit Court denying his motion to suppress evidence

seized from his property pursuant to a search warrant. For the reasons explained

below, we vacate the judgment and remand. I. FACTS AND BACKGROUND

In October 2019, a detective with the Kentucky State Police (“the

Detective”) submitted an affidavit seeking a search warrant for Appellant KM’s

residence. The affidavit provided by the Detective stated the following in support

of the warrant:

[T]he U.S. Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and [Border] Patrol (USCBP) alerted [the Detective] that a package believed to contain a child-sized sex doll was being shipped to [Appellant KM at his home address in] Kentucky. The package originated from a company in China and was shipped to the United States via FedEx. USCBP Officer Monique Ford noticed discrepancies between the shipping manifest description of the contents and the actual size of the package. The package was opened by USCBP and found to contain an anatomically correct child size doll manufactured for purposes of sexual gratification. . . . [The Detective’s] investigation revealed [Appellant KM] does, in fact, live in the apartment to which the package is addressed. [The Detective] conducted surveillance on the residence and noticed a vehicle registered to [Appellant KM] parked outside the residence as recently as October 5, 2019.

[The Detective] has been employed with the Kentucky State Police for 25 years. [The Detective] is assigned to the ICAC [Internet Crimes Against Children] Task Force and is specially trained in offenses involving the abuse and exploitation of children, including but not limited to child pornography and child sexual abuse. Based upon [the Detective’s] training and experience, [the Detective] believes any person who orders a child sex doll from China has gone to great lengths to achieve sexual gratification for a sexual attraction to children. [The Detective] believes anyone who orders a child sex doll is also likely to be downloading, viewing, sharing, and/or

-2- manufacturing child pornography. [The Detective] knows child pornography to be readily available via the internet from the same types of illicit websites that sell child sex dolls. [The Detective] also knows computers, smart phones, and other electronic devises often contain the illicit images even after being “deleted” by the user. [The Detective] also knows people who look at child pornography often store collections of the matter for future use.

Based upon all of the above, [the Detective] requests that the search warrant be issued to search [Appellant KM’s residence] in order to further [the Detective’s] continuing investigation.

Based on that affidavit, a district court judge (“the warrant-issuing

judge”) signed a search warrant for Appellant KM’s residence. During the search,

police found additional sex dolls and child pornography on Appellant KM’s

electronic devices. Appellant KM was arrested and charged with 20 counts of

matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Appellant KM filed a motion

to suppress, arguing lack of probable cause to search his residence.

In September 2020, the circuit court held oral arguments to determine

if a testimonial hearing on the motion to suppress was necessary. During those

contentious arguments, the parties disagreed as to the circuit court’s standard of

review and the existence of probable cause. The Commonwealth argued that

ordering a child sex doll is indicative of a sexual attraction to children and such a

buyer is more likely than not to possess child pornography. Conversely, Appellant

KM argued the Detective “failed to engage in any meaningful investigation that

-3- could be used to support any of his suspicions or assumptions,” and ownership of a

child sex doll does not create a legal nexus to ownership of child pornography.

Ultimately agreeing with the Commonwealth, the circuit court denied

the motion to suppress. In an order entered in October 2020, the court found that

[the Detective] states that he is an experienced police officer who has trained in and worked on internet crimes involving child pornography. Based on his experience, Chinese web sites that sell the type of child sex doll purchased and received by [Appellant KM] also contain child pornography. He also attests that, in his experience, a person who goes through the lengths that [Appellant KM] went through to obtain such a prepubescent sex doll from China does so for sexual gratification for a sexual attraction to children and has likely downloaded, viewed, shared, and/or manufactured child pornography.

This court finds [the Detective] established a substantial basis for a reasonable belief by the warrant-issuing judge that because [Appellant KM] ordered and received a prepubescent sex doll designed for sexual gratification from China, likely through a web site containing child pornography, there is a fair probability that he downloaded, viewed, shared and/or manufactured child pornography and evidence of same would likely be found in his home and/or on his electronic devices.

After the court denied the motion to suppress, Appellant KM made a

conditional guilty plea, reserving his right to appeal the suppression denial. He

was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. This appeal followed.

-4- II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

“It is well established that ‘[s]earch warrants must be supported by

probable cause to satisfy the dictates of the Fourth Amendment.’” Minks v.

Commonwealth, 427 S.W.3d 802, 810 (Ky. 2014) (quoting United States v.

Wilhelm, 80 F.3d 116, 118 (4th Cir. 1996)). Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.

Ct. 2317, 76 L. Ed. 2d 527 (1983), provided the proper standard to review a

decision to issue a search warrant, and was adopted by the Kentucky Supreme

Court in Beemer v. Commonwealth, 665 S.W.2d 912 (Ky. 1984). Commonwealth

v. Pride, 302 S.W.3d 43, 47-48 (Ky. 2010). In Pride, the Kentucky Supreme Court

relied upon Gates, wherein the United States Supreme Court had held:

[t]he task of the [warrant] issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the “veracity” and “basis of knowledge” of persons supplying hearsay information, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a “substantial basis for . . . conclud[ing]” that probable cause existed.

Id. at 48 (citing Gates, 462 U.S. at 238-39, 103 S. Ct. at 2332).

Therefore, at the circuit court level,

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