State Ex Rel. Flournoy v. Wren

498 P.2d 444, 108 Ariz. 356, 1972 Ariz. LEXIS 330
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1972
Docket10539
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 498 P.2d 444 (State Ex Rel. Flournoy v. Wren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Flournoy v. Wren, 498 P.2d 444, 108 Ariz. 356, 1972 Ariz. LEXIS 330 (Ark. 1972).

Opinion

LOCKWOOD, Justice:

The State, through the County Attorney of Coconino County, sought by Special Action to secure an order of this Court quashing an order of the trial court of Coconino County. The trial court’s order granted defendants’ motion to suppress evidence discovered in the course of a search of a motel room and of a Chevrolet pickup camper. This evidence related to real parties in interest Murphy, Gilliland, Scotten and Prince, defendants charged with possession and transportation of marijuana. Arising from the same general circumstances, John Hafner and Daniel Stand-land, aka George Callaway aka George Conrad, were charged with possession of marijuana and L.S.D.

In the evening of October 13, 1969, Chris Newman, manager of the Kings House Motel in Flagstaff, received a call to pick up two men at the airport and bring them to the motel. Newman testified that at the time he transported the parties he noticed that they were “grubby looking” not very “talkative” and they exuded an “unusual odor.” When the men arrived, the desk clerk, Armando Ronquillo, registered them to room 217.

Later that evening Ronquillo received a phone call from a party who “asked for room 217.” Ronquillo testified that he accidentally overheard the conversation between the parties. One of the parties made a statement apparently in code consisting basically of “car trouble, contact would be late, put stuff on road, fly out immediately.” Ronquillo reported the incident to Newman, who called the police. The “suspicious activity” was related to Officer Householder, who then cautioned *359 Newman to "keep an eye out for any other activity.”

Later that same evening the parties in room 217 received another phone call which Newman intentionally overheard. He heard “that the people were coming. They were in town, and they were coming.” A1 Linder, another desk clerk, was told by Newman to watch room 217 from an adjacent empty room. While watching from a window of the room, Linder noticed two vehicles, a black Chevrolet and a pickup camper, drive in and park near room 217. One of the persons in the vehicles came to the office and registered to room 219 and the others went to room 217.

Newman immediately gave Officer Householder the description and license numbers of the two vehicles which had arrived. The officer observed the motel until the black Chevrolet departed. After following the automobile for a short time Householder “pulled it over.” The driver, defendant Gilliland, was asked for his license and registration which he produced. The three other occupants of the car were defendants Murphy, Scotten and Prince. Householder asked Gilliland to have a seat in the police car while he filled out an identification card. Within a few minutes Officer Bert Stamper, a narcotics specialist, arrived, having been called by Householder. Stamper sat on the rear seat of Householder’s police car and sniffed Gilliland’s jacket. He informed Householder that the jacket smelled of marijuana.

Householder asked Gilliland if he could “look into his car,” to which Gilliland assented. The officer then asked if he could have the keys to the trunk. Gilliland refused, and responded, “well my cooperation stops here, I think you are hasseling [sic] me.” All four of the occupants of the car, Gilliland, Murphy, Prince and Scotten, were then taken to the police station.

While the defendants were seated in the station, Stamper peered through the window of the vehicle and noticed a “roll your own cigarette” which he examined and discovered to contain marijuana. Gilliland' and Scotten were then formally arrested.' After the car was searched a “baggie of marijuana” was found and the other two parties, Prince and Murphy, were formally arrested. A green substance suspected to be marijuana was removed from the teeth of Scotten and Gilliland. Scotten told police officers that room 219 was “clean” but that he did business in room 217.

At approximately 2:00 a.m. the officers procured a search warrant for rooms 217 and 219 and the pickup camper. After’ announcing their purpose, the officers were admitted to room 217 by defendant Stand-land. Defendant Hafner was lying on' á bed. The officers searched the room and found small quantities of marijuana and a black briefcase containing marijuana, L.S.' D. and marijuana stalks. They also found a pipe, marijuana and “dangerous drugs” on the person of Standland. Hafner and Standland were arrested, and a search was’ made of room 219 and the pickup camper. The search of the vehicle produced “53 five pound cans of marijuana.”

The defendants jointly filed a pretrial' motion to suppress the evidence on the grounds that it was obtained pursuant to various unlawful searches and seizures: Coconino County Superior Court Judge Laurance T. Wren granted the motion to suppress in part and denied it in part.

The court found that the search of. the Chevrolet sedan, which defendant Gilliland was driving, was valid as to Gilliland, but the search of the pickup camper and the rooms was invalid as to defendants Murphy, Scotten and Prince. Therefore ' the evidence obtained as a result of the search, under the doctrine of “fruit of the poisonous tree”, could not be used in trial agairis! these defendants. Although the court found that there was probable cause to juátify the issuance of the search warrant, the warrant was found defective because (1) it was issued under the caption of the City Police Court, hut signed by a Justice of the Peace; (2) it was not sealed; and (3) the affidavit for the warrant did not contain *360 the positive language which at that time was required by A.R.S. § 13-1447 for a nighttime search.

TELEPHONE INTERCEPTIONS

Defendants argue that the telephone conversations which were overheard by Ronquillo and Newman were “willful interceptions” of “oral communications” prohibited by the Federal Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 2510-2515 (1968), herein referred to as the Omnibus Crime Act. They contend that the stopping of the vehicle, the seizure of the items from the persons in the vehicle and the seizure of the items in rooms 217 and 219 and in the camper were a direct result of these alleged illegal interceptions. Consequently, they urge that under the doctrine of the “fruit of the poisonous tree,” that the evidence obtained as a result thereof is inadmissible. We do not agree.

The Federal Communications Act, Title VI, § 605, 48 Stat. 1103 (1934) provided that no person not authorized by the sender was permitted to intercept any communications and divulge the existence of the contents of the intercepted communication. It was rewritten in 1968 and limited to radio communications. We are of the opinion, however, that § 2511 of the Omnibus Crime Act was meant to supplant § 605 of the Communications Act, since the same crime is prohibited in both acts. See discussion in Cross v. State, 225 Ga. 760, 763, 171 S.E.2d 507, 509 (1969).

The Supreme Court of the United States in Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166 (1968) held that § 605 of the Federal Communications Act is applicable to the states, although that Court has not yet actually determined the same as to the Omnibus Crime Act, but see

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Bluebook (online)
498 P.2d 444, 108 Ariz. 356, 1972 Ariz. LEXIS 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-flournoy-v-wren-ariz-1972.