People v. Collins

250 P.3d 668, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 2010 WL 547623
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 18, 2010
Docket06CA1235
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 250 P.3d 668 (People v. Collins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Collins, 250 P.3d 668, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 2010 WL 547623 (Colo. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge LOEB.

Defendant, Bobby Collins, appeals the judgment of conviction entered upon jury verdicts finding him guilty of second degree kidnapping, first degree sexual assault, and attempted aggravated robbery. He also appeals the sentence imposed. We affirm.

I. Background and Procedural History

On December 4, 1999, while walking home after working a late-night shift at a downtown Denver bar, the victim (K.D.) was confronted, kidnapped, robbed, and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant. In 2000, police developed a DNA profile from semen collected from K.D.'s rape kit, but were unable to identify a suspect at that time. In 2002, the Denver police erime lab did further DNA testing and created an enhanced DNA profile from the semen sample.

In August 2002, defendant was charged in Missouri with an unrelated armed robbery that occurred in March 2002. In connection with the investigation of this robbery, Missouri law enforcement officials believed that they could link defendant to the crime through DNA left on a ski mask that was used in the robbery. Accordingly, the Missouri prosecutor filed a motion for a court order to compel defendant to provide a saliva sample to obtain his DNA. Although defendant initially refused to provide a DNA sample, in February 2003, defendant orally consented to give a DNA sample. Missouri investigators then took a DNA sample by swabbing defendant's mouth. Defendant's DNA was then matched by Missouri law enforcement officials with DNA from the ski mask in the robbery case and, subsequently, with DNA from another Missouri case involving a home invasion and sexual assault.

*672 Later in 2008, Missouri police, who had defendant in custody, noticed that defendant had a Colorado arrest record, and they contacted the Denver police. Following this contact, Missouri police forwarded defendant's DNA profile to the Denver police. Colorado law enforcement officials were able to obtain a match of defendant's DNA profile from the sample taken in Missouri to the sample retrieved as evidence from the December 4, 1999 sexual assault. Defendant was then charged in this case.

After defendant was returned to Colorado, the Denver police obtained a saliva sample from defendant. The DNA profile from that sample was then matched again with the DNA profile of the suspect from K.D.'s rape kit.

Prior to trial in this case, defendant filed a motion to suppress all DNA evidence obtained as a result of an unconstitutional search and seizure of his saliva by Missouri law enforcement authorities in February 2008. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied defendant's motion.

A jury found defendant guilty on counts of second degree kidnapping, first degree sexual assault, and attempted aggravated robbery. The trial court sentenced defendant to forty-eight years on the kidnapping charge, thirty-two years to life on the sexual assault charge, and eight years on the attempted aggravated robbery charge, all to run consecutively. This appeal followed.

II. Motion to Suppress

Defendant first contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of a war-rantless search, namely, the collection of his saliva and DNA in Missouri in February 2008. Specifically, defendant contends that (1) he did not voluntarily consent to the taking of his DNA in Missouri that was used to match his DNA to the evidence obtained in this case, and (2) any consent he gave to providing the DNA in Missouri was limited to the robbery charge there, and was not valid as to other offenses, including those charged in this case. We disagree and reject each of these contentions in turn.

We review the trial court's decision on a motion to suppress evidence as a mixed question of fact and law. People v. Davis, 187 P.3d 562, 563-64 (Colo.2008). We defer to the trial court's factual findings if the record supports them, and review the trial court's conclusions of law de novo, taking into consideration the totality of the circumstances. Id.

A. Voluntariness

Defendant first contends that he did not voluntarily consent to the taking of the DNA sample in Missouri. Defendant concedes that no government official applied any physical coercion, threat, or promise to obtain a sample of his DNA. Rather, he argues that his consent was not voluntary because Missouri law enforcement officials did not expressly advise him that his DNA would be used for purposes other than determining whether his DNA matched DNA associated with the Missouri robbery charge. We disagree.

Both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article II, section 7 of the Colorado Constitution prohibit warrantless searches and seizures of one's person or property. People v. Reddersen, 992 P.2d 1176, 1181 (Colo.2000). "If a subject voluntarily consents to a search, however, a warrantless search does not violate those constitutional rights...." Id.; see People v. Magallanes-Aragon, 948 P.2d 528, 530 (Colo.1997).

A defendant's consent to a search is considered voluntary when it is " 'the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker and not the result of cireumstances where the subject's will has been overborne and [his or] her capacity for self-determination critically impaired." Reddersen, 992 P.2d at 1181 (quoting Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 225, 98 S.Ct. 2041, 36 LEd.2d 854 (1978)). A consensual search is involuntary when it is the result of duress or coercion, express or implied, or any other form of undue influence against the defendant, including promises, threats, and intrusive police conduct. Reddersen, 992 P.2d at 1181; Magallanes-Ara- *673 gon, 948 P.2d at 531. A trial court must first determine "whether there is objective evidence of coercion, duress, deception, promises, threats, intrusive conduct or other undue influence by the police, which critically impaired the defendant's judgment." Reddersen, 992 P.2d at 1182. Then, the court must "decide whether the police conduct could reasonably have appeared to be coercive to a person in the defendant's cireum-stances." Id.

The voluntariness of a consent to search is a question of fact to be determined by the trial court. We must defer to the trial court's findings of fact unless those findings are clearly erroneous or find no support in the record. Id.

Here, at the suppression hearing, the prog-ecutor from the Missouri robbery case testified at length regarding the cireumstances under which defendant provided his saliva sample in Missouri in February 2008. Specifically, she testified that, prior to the hearing on her motion to compel, defendant verbally consented to providing a DNA sample; that defendant never withdrew that consent; and that, in accordance with Missouri's procedure, she then advised the court of defendant's consent and withdrew her motion to compel. There is no evidence in the record that defendant limited his consent in any way.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 P.3d 668, 2010 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 2010 WL 547623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-collins-coloctapp-2010.