Mowrer v. State

447 N.E.2d 1129, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2822
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 19, 1983
Docket4-782A164
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 447 N.E.2d 1129 (Mowrer v. State) 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
Mowrer v. State, 447 N.E.2d 1129, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2822 (Ind. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

YOUNG, Presiding Judge.

After a bench trial, defendant-appellant Jerry O. Mowrer was convicted of possession, with intent to deliver, of lysergic acid diethylamide, a Class B felony 1, and possession, with intent to deliver, of diazepam, a Class C felony 2.

He appeals, asserting the following errors:

1) The court erroneously refused to suppress evidence obtained from the illegal arrest of the appellant.
2) The court erroneously refused to suppress evidence gathered in a search of the appellant's hotel room pursuant to an invalid search warrant.
3) The evidence was not sufficient to support the trial court's judgment.

[1131]*1131Because Mowrer's arrest and the subsequent search of his room were illegal under the Fourth Amendment limits on search and seizure, we do not reach the sufficiency issue. We reverse.

The facts most favorable to the trial court's judgment are as follows: About February 27, 1980, an informant told Det. Sgt. Michael Bolin, an Indiana State Police narcotics officer, that an unnamed individual would soon come from California to Indiana to sell L.S.D. to one Roy Burger of Jasper, Indiana,. On March 4, 1980, Det. Sgt. Richard Badics, a South Bend police officer, told Officer Bolin that an informant had told him that one Jerry Mowrer would be coming to Indianapolis. from Westminster, California on March 5 to sell L.S.D. to someone named Burger. Checking Indianapolis hotels after these tips, the police learned that a J. Mowrer was registered in Room 1922 of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Indianapolis. Bolin, Badics, and four other Indiana State Police officers went to the hotel and began watching Room 1922 from an adjoining room. This surveillance began at 3 a.m. on March 5, 1980. At 1:26 that afternoon, the officers saw Mowrer leave the room and enter the elevator, returning two minutes later with two other men. The three reentered Room 1922. At this point, the six officers positioned themselves outside the door of Room 1922. When, at 2:20, one of the room's occupants opened the door to leave, the officers burst into the room and arrested the four men they found inside. In the room, the officers observed a white powder residue on the table and the dresser and three suitcases near the door. In a search incident to the warrantless arrest, the officers found a key to one of the suitcases in Mowrer's pocket. The officers then obtained a search warrant for the room and the suitcases. In one suitcase (which could be unlocked with Mowrer's key) they found thousands of LS.D. and Diazepam tablets In another suitcase, which the defendant admitted he owned, they found $7,000.00 and more Diazepam.

Mowrer first challenges the use of evidence seized in the search incident to his warrantless arrest. He claims that the arrest itself was illegal because it was made without a warrant.3 In support of this claim, Mowrer cites the recent Supreme Court decision in Payton v. New York, (1980) 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639.4 In Payton, the Court held that, absent exigent circumstances, an officer may not enter a suspect's home to make an arrest without a warrant. Noting that intrusions into the home are "the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed," id. 445 U.S. at 585, 100 S.Ct. at 1379, the Court said, "the Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant." Id. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. Relying on Payton, Mowrer argues that he was illegally arrested, since the arrest was made in his hotel room without a warrant.

The first issue raised by this contention is whether Mowrer's hotel room was his "home" within the meaning of Payton. Clearly, the warrant requirement of Payton does not extend to all premises in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.5 Thus, the question is not whether Mowrer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his room, but whether he had the same expectation of security from intrusion as he would have had in his own home. United States v. Bullman, (11th Cir.1982) [1132]*1132667 F.2d 1374, 1383, cert. denied sub nom. Howard v. United States, (1982) -- U.S. --, 102 S.Ct. 2305, 73 L.Ed.2d 1307. Other courts have uniformly found that a person's hotel room is a "home" for Fourth Amendment purposes. United States v. Bulman, supra; Scroggins v. State, (Ark.1982) 276 Ark. 177, 633 S.W.2d 33; Engle v. State, (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1980) 391 So.2d 245; People v. Eichelberger, (1982) 91 Ill.2d 359, 63 Ill.Dec. 402, 438 N.E.2d 140, cert. denied, (1983) -- U.S. --, 103 S.Ct. 383, 74 L.Ed.2d 514; State v. Holtz, (Iowa 1981) 300 N.W.2d 888; State v. Pool, (N.M.App.1982) 98 N.M. 704, 652 P.2d 254. In this case, Mowrer had spent the night in the room and ate a meal there just before the arrest. Mowrer's hotel room was clearly his transitory home.

The dissent contends, however, that Mowrer lost this Fourth Amendment protection by doing business-allegedly selling drugs-in his room. The warrant requirement for in-home arrests has been held not to extend to an arrest on the suspect's business property, even where the place was not open to the public United States v. Blalock, (9th Cir.1978) 578 F.2d 245 (arrest in suspect's shop during business hours); United States v. Ponce, (S.D.N.Y:) 488 F.Supp. 226 (arrest in a warehouse). These cases are, however, distinguishable from the present one. First, unlike the suspect's shop in Blalock, supra, Mowrer's hotel room was not held open to the general public during business hours. Further, and more importantly, Mowrer's room was his residence, whereas the premises in Ponce and Blalock, supra, were used solely for business. The point of these cases is that purely commercial premises are, by definition, not residential. There is no support in these cases, or in any others we have found, for the proposition that a home ceases to be a home under the Fourth Amendment when the occupant does business in it.6 Because the alleged drug sale here had no effect on Mowrer's reasonable expectation of security from arrest in his room, we hold that his hotel room was his "home" within the meaning of Payton.

The State argues that Payton's warrant requirement should not be applied in this case because "the arrest occurred as the persons in the room were attempting to exit the hotel room," so that there was "no indication of any privacy or security expectation on the part of defendant and the others." The State cites no authority, but the allusion is apparently to cases such as United States v. Santana, (1976) 427 U.S. 38, 96 S.Ct. 2406, 49 L.Ed.2d 300, in which the Court upheld the arrest of a suspect as she stood in her doorway. In so holding, the Court reasoned that Santana was essentially in a "public' place: "[she was not merely visible to the public but was as exposed to public view, speech, hearing, and touch as if she had been standing completely outside her house." Id. at 42, 96 S.Ct. at 2409.

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

Related

Willis v. State
780 N.E.2d 423 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
Adkisson v. State
728 N.E.2d 175 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2000)
Winters v. State
719 N.E.2d 1279 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Haley v. State
696 N.E.2d 98 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)
Cleary v. State
663 N.E.2d 779 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)
Moran v. State
625 N.E.2d 1231 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1993)
Commonwealth v. Govens
632 A.2d 1316 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1993)
Wood v. State
592 N.E.2d 740 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1992)
Ceroni v. State
559 N.E.2d 372 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1990)
People v. Guerin
769 P.2d 1068 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1989)
Johnson v. State
510 N.E.2d 174 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1987)
Seltzer v. State
489 N.E.2d 939 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1986)
Myers v. State
454 N.E.2d 861 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1983)
Haller v. State
454 N.E.2d 76 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1983)
Mowrer v. State
447 N.E.2d 1129 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
447 N.E.2d 1129, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mowrer-v-state-indctapp-1983.