State of Maine v. Campbell

CourtSuperior Court of Maine
DecidedSeptember 17, 2018
DocketKENcr-18-451
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State of Maine v. Campbell, (Me. Super. Ct. 2018).

Opinion

STATE OF MAINE UNIFIED CRIMINAL DOCKET KENNEBEC, ss. LOCATION: AUGUSTA Docket No. KENCD-CR-18-451

STATE OF MAINE, ) ) v. ) ORDER ON MOTION TO SUPPRESS ) JAHSUN CAMPBELL, ) Defendant )

Defendant has been charged with two counts of Aggravated Trafficking in Scheduled

Drugs, Class A pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1105-A(l)(E)(l). Before the court is Defendant's

Motion to Suppress filed on June 4, 2018 and argued before this court on August 23, 2018.

BACKGROUND In November 2017, law enforcement officers, Officer Daryl Gordon and Detective Duane

Cloutier of the Waterville Police Department (hereinafter "Waterville PD") apparently

orchestrated controlled buys with the Defendant through the help of a confidential informant

(hereinafter "CI") and a confidential defendant (hereinafter "CD"). At the Motion to Suppress

Hearing, Detective Cloutier testified that the Defendant's previous girlfriend, Shantasia Bethea­

Lucas, was a well-known alleged drug dealer in the Waterville area. Detective Cloutier became

aware of Ms. Bethea-Lucas (also known by her street name "Olivia") in 2015, during a previous

investigation. On November 1, 2017, a CI informed Detective Cloutier that Ms. Bethea-Lucas was

again dealing cocaine in the Waterville area. Detective Cloutier had known the CI for about a year

and knew that the CI had previously struggled from time to time with drug addiction. With the

assistance of the CI, a controlled buy was set up and the CI bought crack cocaine from Ms. Bethea­

Lucas and her boyfriend , who called himself "To1y." After the controlled buy was completed, the

CI met up with Detective Cloutier again and provided the drugs purchased and a phone number for "Tory." After a field test, the substances given to Detective Cloutier from the CI were

determined to be crack cocaine.

On November 14, 2017, a second buy was planned after the CI contacted Detective

Cloutier informing him that the CI would be able to buy from Ms. Bethea-Lucas at a new location.

The CI also informed Detective Cloutier that the CI had been contacted by "Tory" after the first

buy and he asked the CI to provide information to a third party in order to receive funds from

Western Union. When "Tory" asked for the CI' s assistance he informed the CI that his government

name was Jahsun Campbell, the Defendant's name. Once Detective Cloutier received the

Defendant's name, he conducted a Facebook search and found only one (1) person with the name

"Jahsun Campbell" on the social media website. On the Facebook page there were around twelve

(12) pictures of the Defendant in several positions. On November 15, 2017, Detective Cloutier

sent a single picture from this Facebook profile to the CI via text message and asked if the CI

recognized the person. The CI informed Detective Cloutier that the man in the Facebook picture

was the Defendant, Jahsun Campbell.

Officer Gordon organized a third buy on November 14, 2017 with a CD who had been

contacted by Ms. Bethea-Lucas and the Defendant to buy crack cocaine. This CD was on probation

for drug offenses and had a pending theft charge. The CD provided the telephone number of the

person that contacted him. It was an exact match for the telephone number received by Detective

Cloutier from CI for "Tory." Officer Gordon prepared the CD with a wire and observed the CD

enter a building to conduct the third buy. Officer Gordon did not witness the actual buy, but did

see the CD enter the building, remain for around thirty (30) minutes, and leave with crack cocaine.

After the buy, Officer Gordon also showed the CD a picture of the Defendant from Facebook

wherein the CD identified the man in the picture as Jahsun Campbell, also known as "Tory." The

2 picture from Facebook which was viewed by the CI and CD for identification purposes was not

preserved by Jaw enforcement or presented at hearing as evidence.

Nothing occurred in this matter until March of 2018 when the Defendant was arrested in

Scarborough, Cumberland County, Maine for a warrant regarding the Defendant's pending charges

in New York. Officer Gordon submitted an Affidavit in Support of Probable Cause outlining the

above controlled buys. An arrest warrant was granted and led to the Defendant to being transferred

into Waterville PD custody. The Defendant was brought by Waterville police officers to the

Kennebec County Sheriff's Department where he spoke to police.

During this conversation, police and the Defendant discussed whether the Defendant had

any valuable information that could be used by police. Officer Gordon informed the Defendant

that if any of the information was helpful, they would forward it along to the District Attorney's

Office to be considered in reference to the Defendant's charges. The Defendant offered to wear a

wire, but Officer Gordon denied his request because he could not allow the Defendant to leave jail

while he had a warrant. Thereafter, the conversation changed to the Defendant helping police

convince Ms. Bethea-Lucas to assist them. The Defendant provided police with a code word to

provide to Ms. Bethea-Lucas to help encourage her to assist police, but it was not successful and

Ms. Bethea-Lucas did not assist police.

Officer Gordon claimed the conversation was requested by the Defendant and was known

as a debrief, or an informal conversation without the presence of attorneys to discuss valuable

information a defendant may have. The conversation was not recorded by Waterville PD. Law

enforcement did not use any information from the Defendant in other cases, and nothing further

came out of the conversation between the parties. The Defendant wasn't asked about the facts

involving his charges and he didn't offer an incriminating evidence in that regard.

3 The Defendant brought this Motion to Suppress challenging the constitutionality of the

photographic identification; the voluntariness of Defendant's statements; and any voice

identification of the Defendant by police. Based on the evidence presented at the hearing, this

court grants the Motion to Suppress in part and denies the Motion to Suppress in part.

DISCUSSION

I. Constitutionality of Photographic Identification of Defendant by Confidential Informant and Confidential Defendant

a. Suggestiveness of Identification Procedure

When a court is presented with a challenge to the admission of an out-of-court

identification under the due process clause, the following two-step test must be met:

First, the defendant must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the identification procedure was suggestive. Second, if the court finds that the procedure was suggestive, the State then bears the burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that in the totality of the circumstances the identification, although made under a suggestive procedure, is nevertheless reliable.

State ofMaine v. Nigro, 2011 ME 81, ! 21, 24 A .3d 1283 (citations omitted) (quotation

marks omitted).

Focusing on the first prong, "a defendant can meet his burden by proving by a

preponderance of the evidence that the identification procedure 'tended to increase the likelihood

of misidentification."' State v. Davis, 2018 ME 116, ! 18, _ A.3d _ (citing State v. Kelly, 2000

ME 107, ! 19, 752 A.2d 188). Along with proving the suggestive nature of an out-of-court

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Related

State v. Kelly
2000 ME 107 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2000)
State v. Nigro
2011 ME 81 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2011)
State v. Caouette
446 A.2d 1120 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1982)
State v. Collins
297 A.2d 620 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1972)
State of Maine v. Matthew R. Davis
2018 ME 116 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2018)
Perry v. New Hampshire
181 L. Ed. 2d 694 (Supreme Court, 2012)

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