Sean A. Valdez v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 7, 2018
Docket02-17-00040-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Sean A. Valdez v. State (Sean A. Valdez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sean A. Valdez v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS FORT WORTH

NO. 02-17-00040-CR

SEAN A. VALDEZ APPELLANT

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS STATE

----------

FROM CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT NO. 3 OF TARRANT COUNTY TRIAL COURT NO. 1428428D

MEMORANDUM OPINION 1

Pursuant to a plea bargain, Appellant Sean A. Valdez pled nolo

contendere to one count of possession of 4 or more but less than 200 grams of

methamphetamine, and the trial court placed him on 2 years’ deferred

adjudication and ordered that he pay a $300 fine. See Tex. Health & Safety

Code Ann. § 481.102(6) (West Supp. 2017), § 481.115(d) (West 2017). In one

1 See Tex. R. App. P. 47.4. point, Appellant challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress. We

affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

On the morning of April 29, 2015, Appellant’s wife, Michelle Skyy, called

Arlington police to report that he had pointed an AR-15 (the gun) at her, 2 and the

police responded to the couple’s residence. After the police arrived, Appellant

came out of the house unarmed. The police arrested him, handcuffed him, and

placed him in a squad car. 3

Officers then entered the house “to insure there were no other persons

inside.” In that process, officers saw a “very tall wardrobe closet, like a portable

wardrobe closet” in the master bedroom. It was big enough to conceal someone.

Officer Jesse Manning looked inside the wardrobe and saw “fairly substantial”

marihuana plants. The officers finished the approximately two-minute sweep and

left the house.

Because the gun was neither found on Appellant nor seen in the sweep,

Detective Jack Jenkins drafted an affidavit in support of a warrant for the gun

(gun warrant). Meanwhile, Appellant had told another officer that the gun was

2 Skyy also appealed the trial court’s denial of her motion to suppress. See Skyy v. State, No. 02-17-00038-CR (Tex. App.—Fort Worth June 7, 2018, no pet. h.) (mem. op., not designated for publication). 3 A grand jury later no-billed Appellant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

2 inside a cushioned bench at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom, so

Detective Jenkins included that information in the affidavit. However, he did not

include the information that he had heard about the marihuana found growing

inside the portable closet.

The magistrate judge who signed the affidavit and gun warrant wrote

1:20 p.m. as the time at which he signed the gun warrant but 2:17 p.m. as the

time at which he signed the affidavit. Detective Jenkins testified at the hearing

on the motion to suppress that he presented the affidavit and gun warrant to the

magistrate judge at the same time and that the magistrate judge signed them at

the same time. Officers searched the couple’s residence pursuant to the gun

warrant and found the gun in the master bedroom.

Detective William Bill, a narcotics detective, participated in the search of

the residence authorized by the gun warrant. He too had already learned about

the marihuana growing in the master bedroom. While in the residence, Detective

Bill saw the “large grow tent containing five pla[]nts” in plain view, seized the five

plants, which he recognized were marihuana plants, and left the home after the

gun was found.

Detective Bill then drafted a search warrant affidavit to obtain a warrant

(drug warrant) to search the residence for “[a] quantity of mari[h]uana, materials,

containers, or devices used in the packaging, cutting, weighing, [and] distribution

of narcotics.” In the affidavit, Detective Bill stated that he had seen the

marihuana plants while executing the gun warrant but did not mention that other

3 officers had previously seen the marihuana in the warrantless sweep and had

informed him of its presence before his participation in the search for the gun.

Detective Bill secured the drug warrant and returned to the residence to search it

again. During the search pursuant to the drug warrant, Detective Bill found and

seized various items of contraband, including baggies of methamphetamine from

a safe bolted to the concrete inside the garage.

II. MOTION TO SUPPRESS

Appellant filed a motion to suppress “any evidence obtained pursuant to

the warrant[s]” on the grounds that “the protective sweep, the issuance of the

warrants, the affidavits upon which said issuance was based, the execution of

said warrants, and the return to the issuing judge by the officers executing said

warrants and the seizure itself were illegal” and violated Appellant’s rights under

the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, article I, section

9 of the Texas Constitution, and Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.23.

Appellant specifically argued that the officers lacked justification for the sweep;

that the arrest, searches, and seizures were unreasonable as they were not

conducted pursuant to a valid warrant; and that the search warrants were illegally

issued in that the issuing magistrate’s and judge’s “probable cause determination

reflected an improper analysis of the totality of the circumstances test when, as a

matter of law, the probable cause determination was not objectively reasonable.”

The trial court denied the motion after a hearing.

4 III. FINDINGS OF FACT

The trial court issued findings of fact pursuant to Appellant’s request:

Officer Jesse Christopher Manning

1. On April 29th, 2015, at approximately 9:00 a.m., Arlington police officers were dispatched to a domestic assault at 4412 Blackberry Drive, [Appellant’s] residence (RR 1: 9). 2. Officer Jesse Manning understood the “subject was potentially barricaded inside the house” at the time of the initial dispatch[] (RR 1: 9). 3. An offense report . . . indicates that the initial dispatch concerned “a complainant being assaulted by her husband who had a gun” (Defendants’ Ex. 3, page 1). 4. When officers arrived at 4412 Blackberry Drive, Co-Defendant Skyy (the complainant in the assault case) was outside the house (Defendant’s Ex. 2, page 2; Defendant’s Ex. 3, page 1). 5. As the officers were taking up positions around 4412 Blackberry Drive, [Appellant] exited the house (RR 1: 10, Defendant’s Ex. 3, page 1). 6. [Appellant] complied immediately with officer commands to lie on the ground and was handcuffed with his hands behind his back (RR 1: 10–11; Defendant’s Ex. 3, page 1). 7. As Officer Manning was “securing the front door,” he observed other officers escorting [Appellant] towards the squad cars (RR 1: 12). 8. Soon after that, three Arlington officers (Officer Manning, Officer Grimmett, and Sgt. Stellato) entered [Appellant’s] residence to conduct a protective sweep, and to specifically clear and secure the residence. (RR 1: 13, 16; Defendant’s Ex. 3, page 1). 9. The officers’ rationale for conducting this protective sweep was to “ensure there were no other persons inside, be it an injured person or an additional suspect” (RR 1: 16; Defendant’s Ex. 3, page 1). 10. The officers had no “specific” information that there were any additional people in the house (RR 1: 24).

5 11. According to [O]fficer Manning, in situations like this one (where a suspect is arrested outside his home and alleged to have been previously armed), “[W]e always clear the structure every time, looking for additional suspects or victims of a crime” (RR I: 24). 12. In the process of “clearing” [Appellant’s] home, the officers entered every room of the house (RR 1: 16). 13.

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Sean A. Valdez v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sean-a-valdez-v-state-texapp-2018.