Shingles v. State

872 So. 2d 434, 2004 WL 1057694
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 12, 2004
Docket4D03-672
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 872 So. 2d 434 (Shingles v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shingles v. State, 872 So. 2d 434, 2004 WL 1057694 (Fla. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

872 So.2d 434 (2004)

Jimell SHINGLES, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 4D03-672.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

May 12, 2004.

*435 Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Dea Abramschmitt, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Linda Harrison, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

HAZOURI, J.

Jimell Shingles was charged with robbery with a firearm for events occurring on December 4, 2001. Shingles filed a motion to suppress his confession and another *436 to suppress evidence obtained upon a warrantless search of a room he occupied in his grandmother's home. The trial court denied both motions.

Shingles entered a nolo contendere plea reserving his right to appeal the denial of his motions to suppress. The state and the trial court agreed that the motions, if both were reversed, were dispositive of the entire case. In accordance with the negotiated plea, the trial court sentenced Shingles to ten years with a ten-year minimum mandatory pursuant to sections 775.087(2) and (3), Florida Statutes (2001). We reverse the denial of the motions to suppress and remand to the trial court to discharge Shingles.

At the hearing on Shingles's motions to suppress, Detective Charles Howard of the Wilton Manors Police Department testified that he had been called to investigate a robbery that occurred at a store located at 2349 N.W. 9th Avenue. The police had set up an observation sight at 3398 N.W. 23rd Court in Lauderdale Lakes where a car believed to belong to the suspect was located. Howard heard over his police radio that the suspect was getting into a car and starting to drive away. The Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) effected the traffic stop and took Shingles into custody. Howard received information that Shingles was in custody and that he matched the description given by the victim of the crime.

When Howard arrived on the scene of the traffic stop, Shingles had been formally arrested for armed robbery and was in the back of the BSO patrol car. After speaking with Detective Dicristofalo, Howard decided to take Shingles back to his home at 3398 N.W. 23rd Court. However, prior to going there Howard interrogated Shingles. He told Shingles that he had information that a firearm had been used in the robbery and asked Shingles the whereabouts of the gun. Howard did not read Shingles his Miranda[1] rights before questioning him and, as far as he knew, no one else had read Shingles his Miranda rights prior to his arrival. Shingles denied all knowledge of a robbery.

Shingles was transferred from the BSO patrol car to a Wilton Manors patrol car and taken back to the house the police had been surveilling. Howard again questioned Shingles about the firearm. However, he had still not advised Shingles of his rights under Miranda.[2] Shingles again denied any knowledge of the robbery or the firearm. Howard then asked Shingles for permission to search his bedroom, but Shingles refused.

When Howard could not obtain permission from Shingles to search his room, he exited the patrol car, went up to the house, and obtained permission from Shingles's grandmother to search the bedroom. Howard did not advise the grandmother that Shingles had refused Howard's request to search his room. Howard found a black jacket on Shingles's bed. Upon further search, he found a money order for $500, a firearm inside a case and "some type of bill" with Shingles's name on it in the top middle drawer of Shingles's night stand. Neither the firearm nor the money order were in plain sight. Shingles remained handcuffed in the back of the patrol car parked outside the house while Howard performed the search. Howard claimed that he was prepared to get a search warrant if necessary, but admitted that in order to obtain a search warrant, he would first have to have probable cause. *437 At that point in time, Howard only had information that someone matching the suspect's description had been inside the house, and a vehicle matching the suspect's vehicle was parked across the street from the house. Howard had no information that the firearm or the money order were inside Shingles's room.

Howard took the evidence recovered from Shingles's house to the victim who identified the money order, firearm, and jacket. Later that day, Howard spoke with Shingles at the police station where he was being held. Howard estimated that he talked to Shingles for approximately fifteen minutes. Howard did not read Shingles his Miranda rights prior to this questioning. Howard testified that he told Shingles that he had recovered the gun and money order and asked him why he did it. Howard told Shingles that he did not need Shingles's statement, but he would be more than happy to take one if Shingles wanted to explain himself. Shingles finally agreed to give a taped statement. At no time prior to taking Shingles's taped statement did Howard ever read Shingles his Miranda rights. Nor did Howard obtain a written waiver of rights from Shingles. Howard admitted that he knew that Shingles had never been arrested before. Shingles was finally read his Miranda rights as his taped statement was being taken. During the taped statement, Shingles admitted that he had committed the armed robbery.

Shingles's grandmother, Ms. May Chance, testified that she had lived at 3398 N.W. 23rd Court for sixteen years and Shingles had lived in that bedroom virtually the entire time. Chance said that Shingles shared his bedroom with her son, Timothy, when her son stayed at her home. Timothy had been living there "on and off" for about a year. Chance said that she was able to enter Shingles's bedroom any time she wanted to. Chance also testified that Shingles paid her $50 a week when he was working, but had not paid her recently because he had been out of work. Chance explained that she did consent to the police searching Shingles's room, but when she consented, she was not aware that Shingles had refused to authorize the search.

A trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress is clothed with a presumption of correctness with regard to the trial court's determination of the historical facts. Appellate courts, however, independently review mixed questions of law and fact that ultimately determine constitutional issues arising in the context of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. See Connor v. State, 803 So.2d 598, 608 (Fla.2001). Therefore, although we must defer to the trial court's factual findings, we must independently determine de novo whether the warrantless search of Shingles's room constituted an illegal search and seizure and whether the taped confession was made willingly and voluntarily.

We first address the issue of the search of Shingles's bedroom. Shingles asserts that his grandmother could not give valid consent to the search of his room because he was present and had refused his consent. The state responds that Shingles's grandmother, as the owner of the house, was authorized to give consent for the search.

The state asserts that the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Preston v. State, 444 So.2d 939 (Fla.1984), sentence vacated on other grounds, 564 So.2d 120 (Fla.1990), supports the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress the evidence. In Preston, the defendant argued that valid consent had not been given by his mother to the warrantless search of his room. During the search, the police found a jacket left in the open and food stamps which *438

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Bluebook (online)
872 So. 2d 434, 2004 WL 1057694, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shingles-v-state-fladistctapp-2004.