Starkey v. State

272 P.3d 347, 2012 WL 758923, 2012 Alas. App. LEXIS 38
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedMarch 9, 2012
DocketA-10593
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 272 P.3d 347 (Starkey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Starkey v. State, 272 P.3d 347, 2012 WL 758923, 2012 Alas. App. LEXIS 38 (Ala. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

MANNHEIMER, Judge.

In early April 2008, a group of law enforeement officers went to the Salcha residence of Dale G. Starkey in response to a tip that he was growing marijuana on a commercial scale. The officers attempted to make contact with Starkey, but no one was home. While they were standing in the yard, the officers smelled the odor of growing marijuana, they heard the noise of lighting ballasts and/or fans coming from within the house, and they saw numerous items in the yard (dozens of one- and five-gallon buckets, plus a quantity of fertilizer and growing medium) that were indicative of an ongoing agrieultural endeavor.

Based on the informant's tip and on these corroborative observations, the officers decided to seek a warrant to search Starkey's residence. One of the officers-Investigator Garrett Frost-left the scene to apply for the warrant, while the rest of the officers waited at the residence, both to secure the residence pending the issuance of the warrant and to aid in the search after the warrant was issued.

While the officers were waiting at the residence, Starkey came home. After the officers apprised Starkey of the situation, Starkey seemingly gave the officers permission to enter his house without a warrant. We say "seemingly" because the superior court later found that, even though a reasonable law enforcement officer would have believed that Starkey consented to the entry, Starkey had not actually given unequivocal consent to the entry.

Inside Starkey's residence, the officers observed some five dozen marijuana plants. The officers then tried to contact Investigator Frost to apprise him of this discovery, but they could not reach him; Frost was already in the process of presenting the search warrant application to the magistrate.

About five minutes later, Frost contacted the officers at the scene to announce that he had obtained the search warrant, and that he was returning to the residence. When Frost returned, he served a copy of the warrant on Starkey-but by that time, the other officers were already in the process of dismantling and seizing Starkey's marijuana growing operation.

Starkey was ultimately convicted of fourth-degree controlled substance misconduct under AS 11.71.040(a)B)(G)-possession of twenty-five or more marijuana plants.

As we explained above, Starkey seemingly gave the officers permission to enter and search his house, and the officers initially entered the house on this basis, without waiting for Investigator Frost to obtain the search warrant. But the superior court later *349 ruled that Starkey had not given unequivocal consent to this entry and search, and that the discovery and seizure of Starkey's marijuana plants could not be sustained under a "consent" theory. The primary question presented in this appeal is whether the issuance of the search warrant (only minutes later) cured whatever defect there may have been in the initial entry and search of Starkey's residence.

Was there a defect in the initial entry and search of Starkey's residence?

After Starkey was indicted for fourth-degree controlled substance misconduct, his attorney filed a motion seeking suppression of the marijuana plants and other evidence seized from Starkey's home. Superior Court Judge Paul R. Lyle held an evidentiary hearing to investigate this matter.

At the evidentiary hearing, the State relied on the theory that Starkey had consented to the officers' entry into his house, but Judge Lyle concluded that the search of Starkey's house could not be upheld on that basis. Specifically, Judge Lyle found (1) that a reasonable, objective observer on the seene could have thought that Starkey had consented to the entry and search of his residence, and thus the officers acted in good faith when they entered Starkey's home without a warrant, but (2) Starkey did not actually give an unequivocal consent to the entry and search.

In their briefs to this Court, both Starkey and the State apparently assume that Judge Lyle's findings preclude any further argument that the entry and search of Starkey's residence could be justified as a consent search. But that is not so.

The law is currently unsettled as to whether, when the government claims that a search was lawful under a "consent" theory, the validity of the consent should be assessed according to (1) the facts and cireumstances as they appeared, at the time, to a reasonable person in the police officer's position, or (2) all the relevant facts developed at a later evidentiary hearing, and assessed in hindsight.

This question is discussed at length in Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (4th ed. 2004), § 8.1(b), Vol. 4, pp. 15-19. Professor LaFave notes that, although early decisions on this point focused on whether the suspect had actually given a voluntary consent to the search, the great weight of authority now favors the "cireumstances as they reasonably appeared" approach In a supplemental footnote that appears in his 2011-12 pocket part, Professor LaFave writes:

As noted in [United States v.] Grap, [403 F.3d 439 (7th Cir.2005)], the "standard of what is reasonably apparent to a reasonable inquiring officer, with its emphasis on the deterrence rationale of the exelusion-ary rule, is the correct approach", and thus "after-presented evidence" as to the person's actual mental condition "would be relevant only to impeach the credibility of the officer or to shed any light on what was reasonably apparent to him when he obtained the consent."

Search and Seizure, Pocket Part for 2011-12, p. 4, new footnote 54.1.

Although we note this question of law, we conclude that we should not decide it. First, the parties have not briefed this question. Second, as we are about to explain, the validity of Starkey's consent is a moot issue: the seizure of Starkey's marijuana plants was rendered lawful when, a few minutes after the officers' initial entry, a judicial officer issued an untainted search warrant for the residence.

Why we conclude that the issuance of the search warrant cured any defect in the officers' imitial entry and search of Starkey's residence

When Starkey's suppression motion was litigated in the superior court, the parties and Judge Lyle framed the issue as whether, because of the issuance of the search warrant, the marijuana plants growing in Starkey's house would have been "inevitably discovered". But the facts of this case are more accurately characterized as a situation where the government had an "independent source" for the evidence.

*350 The "inevitable discovery" doctrine applies to situations where the government concedes that the challenged evidence was obtained unlawfully, but argues that the evidence inevitably would have been lawfully discovered and seized if events had run their course.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
272 P.3d 347, 2012 WL 758923, 2012 Alas. App. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/starkey-v-state-alaskactapp-2012.