Marcus Zanders v. State of Indiana

58 N.E.3d 254, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 282, 2016 WL 4140998
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 4, 2016
Docket15A01-1509-CR-1519
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 58 N.E.3d 254 (Marcus Zanders v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marcus Zanders v. State of Indiana, 58 N.E.3d 254, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 282, 2016 WL 4140998 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

RILEY, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

[1] Appellant-Defendant, Marcus Zan-ders (Zanders), appeals his conviction for two Counts of robbery with, a deadly weapon, Level 3 felonies; two Counts of unlawful possession of a firearm as a serious violent felon, Level 4 felonies; and his adjudication as an habitual offender.

[2] We reverse.

ISSUES

[3] Zanders raises three issues on appeal, two of which we find dispositive' and which we restate as:

(1) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying Zanders’ motion for mistrial after the State elicited an improper in-court identification of Zanders by a witness; and
(2) Whether the warrantless seizure of Zanders’ cell phone provider’s records, which included the location data of Zanders’ cell phone, violated his Fourth Amendment Rights.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

[4] On January 31, 2015, at approximately 9:00 p.m., an African American male pulled up at a local ice cream parlor in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, driving a red Pontiac G6. He entered the parlor and asked for directions to Whitey’s Liquor Store. At 9:17 p.m., a masked gunman entered Whitey’s Liquor Store. Kenneth Butler (Butler), the store clerk, noticed the gunman enter the store, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, dark gloves, a white mask, and carrying a black pistol. The gunman demanded' the cash from the store’s register. Butler filled a brown paper bag with the money, and was then instructed to also gather all of the store’s Newport cigarettes and two bottles of Patron tequila. The gunman ordered Butler to hand him the store’s telephone, which he ripped apart, and told Butler to lie -on the floor. After Butler obeyed, the gunman left the store. Butler notified the police.

[5] On February 6, 2015, Danielle Pruitt (Pruitt) was working at J & J Tiq-uor Store in Dillsboro, Indiana. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Pruitt received a phone call, with an Ohio area code and with the caller inquiring about the store’s closing time. Pruitt informed the caller that the store would close at 10:00 p.m. Pruitt joked to the other employee working with her that evening, Lisa Huddleston (Huddleston), that the caller had “better hurry” if they were going to get to J & J Tiquor’s prior to closing time. (Transcript p. 218). Within thirty minutes, an African American male, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants with a navy blue Polo horse logo, white tennis shoes, and black gloves entered the store. He was armed with a black pistol. The gunman immediately pulled a mask over his face upon entering and demanded money. At his command, Pruitt grabbed a bag and stuffed it with the money from the store’s three registers. The gunman then grabbed the store’s phone and Huddle-ston’s cell phone. Both phones were later found outside. The women were told to lay on the floor. Before leaving the store, the gunman took a bottle of 1800 Silver tequila from the shelf. As soon as Pruitt and Huddleston heard the gunman exit the store, Huddleston hit the store’s panic button and Pruitt locked the doors. Kelly Curry (Curry) lived across from J & J Liquor store. At the time of the robbery, Curry had stepped onto her third floor [257]*257balcony to smoke a cigarette. She noticed a man dressed in a gray sweat suit run around her building and enter a red Pontiac.

[6] Detective Garland Bridges (Detective Bridges) of the Dearborn County Sheriffs Department responded to the call from J & J Liquor store and spoke with Pruitt. Pruitt informed the Detective about the phone call with Ohio area code. After Detective Bridges relayed the telephone number to Detective Carl Pieczonka (Detective Pieczonka), Detective Pieczonka entered the phone number into the Face-book search engine. The only result from this search was Zanders’ Facebook page. The public postings on the page showed a photograph of various denominations of U.S. currency, posted at approximately 11:30 a.m. on the morning after the J & J Liquor store robbery. Another picture of currency was uploaded at approximately 5:00 a.m. after the robbery. A third photograph depicted a bottle of Patron tequila, posted the day after the Whitey’s robbery and taken in Zanders’ mother’s residence, located in Ohio. Zanders’ Facebook page also publicly included a video taken in Zanders’ mother’s home and posted the morning after the J & J Liquor store robbery. The recording starts in the kitchen, showing a bottle of 1800 Silver tequila, then travels down the hallway to a bed with a pile of money and personal effects.

[7] Based on the information from the Facebook page, Zanders was placed under surveillance. Police officers located Zan-ders in the vicinity of his mother’s residence in Ohio, the day after the J & J Liquor store robbery while driving a red Pontiac G6. After Zanders committed a traffic violation, he was pulled over and arrested for driving with a suspended license. Detective Bridges and another officer travelled to Ohio to interview Zanders. During the course of the interview, Zan-ders denied ever having been in Indiana. He told the officers that his mother owned the red Pontiac and that he drove the vehicle all day on the day after J & J Liquors was robbed. Zanders elaborated that he smoked Newport cigarettes and likes to drink Patron tequila. To explain his Facebook photographs, Zanders told the officers that the money was his mother’s rent money as well as casino winnings. He terminated the interview when he was accused of armed robbery.

[8] While Zanders was being interviewed, Detective Bridges made an emergency request to Zanders’ cell phone provider (Provider) to secure the records associated with Zanders’ cell phone number. Based on this request, Provider supplied Detective Bridges with Zanders’ call and cell-site location data for the previous thirty days. From the historical cell-site location data, Detective Bridges discovered that Zanders’ phone was used to call Whitey’s on the day of the robbery at 7:42 p.m. while being in a cell-site sector covering -Zanders’ mother’s residence. The data also showed that the cell phone received a call nine minutes prior to the robbery at Whitey’s. At this time, the cell phone was located in the same cell-site sector as'Whitey’s. Approximately thirty minutes after the robbery, the cell phone was back in the same cell-site sector as Zanders’ mother’s residence. With respect to the J & J Liquor store robbery, the records established that Zanders’ cell phone was used to place a 9:09 p.m. call to J & J Liquors while located in the same cell-site as the liquor store. Within an hour of the robbery, the cell phone was again located in the same cell-site sector as Zan-ders’ mother’s home.

[9] Based on the historical location data disclosed by the Provider, a search [258]*258warrant for Zanders’ mother’s residence and his brother’s home were sought, secured, and executed. At his mother’s house, the officers discovered luggage with cash inside next to a black glove with a Bengals emblem. In the same room, the officers also found a dark-blue hooded sweatshirt, a black stocking cap, and a white mesh mask. In the kitchen, the officers located a bottle of 1800 Silver tequila bearing a price tag which appeared identical to the price stickers used by J & J Liquors, but none of the fingerprints on it matched Zanders. An empty pack of Newport cigarettes bearing an Indiana tax stamp was found in the kitchen garbage can.

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

Related

Marcus Zanders v. State of Indiana
73 N.E.3d 178 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 N.E.3d 254, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 282, 2016 WL 4140998, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marcus-zanders-v-state-of-indiana-indctapp-2016.