State of Minnesota v. Matthew Vaughn Diamond

890 N.W.2d 143, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 9, 2017 WL 163710
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 17, 2017
DocketA15-2075
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 890 N.W.2d 143 (State of Minnesota v. Matthew Vaughn Diamond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Minnesota v. Matthew Vaughn Diamond, 890 N.W.2d 143, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 9, 2017 WL 163710 (Mich. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

SMITH, TRACY M., Judge

Appellant Matthew Vaughn Diamond appeals his convictions of second-degree burglary, misdemeanor theft, and fourth-degree criminal damage to property following a jury trial. On appeal, Diamond argues his convictions must be reversed because: (1) police seized his property in violation of the Fourth Amendment; (2) the district court violated his Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination by ordering him to provide his fingerprint so police could search his cellphone; and (3) the state’s circumstantial evidence was insufficient. We affirm.

FACTS

On October 30,2014, M.H. left her Chas-ka home between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. to run errands. M.H. returned home around noon and noticed that the attached garage’s side-entry door appeared to have been kicked in from the outside. M.H. called the police after discovering that a safe, a laptop, and several items of jewelry were missing from her home. While waiting for police to arrive, M.H. found an envelope in her driveway that had the name of S.W. written on it. Police took photographs and measurements of the shoeprints left on the garage’s side-entry door.

Detective Nelson of the Chaska Police Department used state databases to determine S.W.’s car model and license plate number and that S.W. had pawned several pieces of jewelry at a Shakopee pawn shop on October 30. M.H. later verified that the pawned jewelry was stolen from her home. On November 4, police located S.W.’s ear, which Diamond was driving at the time. Diamond was arrested on an outstanding warrant unrelated to this case. He was booked at the Scott County jail, where *146 staff collected and stored his property, including his shoes and cellphone.

The following day, Detective Nelson went to the jail and viewed the property that was taken from Diamond. Detective Nelson observed similarities between the tread of Diamond’s shoes and the shoe-prints left on the garage’s side-entry door. Detective Nelson informed the jail staff that she was going to seek a warrant to seize Diamond’s property and gave instructions not to release the property to anyone. Later that day, S.W. attempted to collect Diamond’s property but was told that it could not be released.

On November 6, Detective Nelson obtained and executed a warrant to search for, and seize, Diamond’s shoes and cellphone. On November 12, Detective Nelson obtained an additional warrant to search the contents of Diamond’s cellphone. Detective Nelson was unable to unlock the cellphone. She returned the warrant on November 21.

In December, the state filed a motion to compel Diamond to provide his fingerprint on the cellphone to unlock the phone. The motion was deferred to the contested omnibus hearing. Following that hearing, the district court issued an order, filed February 11, 2015, concluding that the warrant to search Diamond’s cellphone was supported by probable cause and that compelling Diamond to provide his fingerprint to unlock the cellphone does not violate his Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. The district court granted the state’s motion to compel and ordered Diamond to provide a fingerprint or thumbprint to unlock his cellphone. Diamond refused to comply. On April 3, the district court found Diamond in civil contempt and informed him that compliance with the order would remedy the civil contempt. Diamond provided his fingerprint, and police immediately searched his cellphone.

At a second omnibus hearing Diamond challenged the refusal to release his cellphone and shoes to S.W., arguing that it constituted a warrantless seizure not justified by any exception to the warrant requirement. The district court’s April 3 order concluded that the seizure was justified by exigent circumstances and was tailored to protect against the destruction of evidence while a warrant was sought and obtained. Diamond thereafter brought a pro se motion to suppress all evidence derived from his cellphone and shoes, which the district court denied, relying on the previous orders from February 11 and April 3.

At Diamond’s jury trial, S.W. testified that: (1) she believed she was working the day of the burglary; (2) the envelope found in M.H.’s driveway belonged to S.W., and it was in her car the last time she saw it; (3) S.W. sometimes let Diamond use her car when she was working; and (4) on the day of the burglary, Diamond gave her M.H.’s stolen jewelry, and the two of them traveled to the Shakopee pawn shop, where she sold the jewelry. In addition, the state also introduced evidence that: (1) Diamond’s wallet and identification card were found in S.W.’s car; (2) Diamond and S.W. exchanged phone calls and text messages throughout the day of the burglary; (3) Diamond’s cellphone pinged off cell towers near M.H.’s residence on the day of the burglary; (4) the tread pattern on Diamond’s shoes was similar to the shoeprints on the garage’s side-entry door; and (5) while in jail, Diamond told S.W. “the only thing that [the state is] going to be able to charge me with is receiving stolen property” and that his attorney said the case would be dismissed if S.W. did not testify or recanted her statement.

*147 The jury found Diamond guilty of second-degree burglary, misdemeanor theft, and fourth-degree criminal damage to property. The district court sentenced Diamond to 51 months in prison for the second-degree burglary and to 90 days in jail for the fourth-degree criminal damage to property.

Diamond appeals.

ISSUES

I. Did the district court err by not suppressing evidence obtained following the temporary seizure of Diamond’s property?

II. Did the district court err by ordering Diamond to provide his fingerprint so police could search his cellphone?

III. Does the record contain sufficient evidence to support the jury’s conclusion that Diamond committed second-degree burglary, misdemeanor theft, and fourth-degree criminal damage to property?

ANALYSIS

I. The temporary seizure of Diamond’s property did not violate the Fourth Amendment.

Diamond argues that the district court erred in denying his suppression motion because Detective Nelson’s directions to jail staff not to release Diamond’s property while she sought a warrant constituted an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court concluded that the exigency exception to the warrant requirement applied. Diamond argues that the exigency exception is inapplicable because Detective Nelson “searched” Diamond’s property at the jail before providing instructions to jail staff.

In evaluating a pretrial order on a motion to suppress, we review factual findings for clear error and legal conclusions de novo. State v. Milton, 821 N.W.2d 789, 798 (Minn. 2012). When reviewing the applicability of the exigency exception, we look at the totality of the circumstances. State v. Horst, 880 N.W.2d 24, 33 (Minn. 2016). The state has the burden of showing that exigent circumstances justified the seizure. Id.

The Fourth Amendment protects the right of the people to be free from “unreasonable searches and seizures” of their “persons, houses, papers, and effects” by the government. U.S. Const. amend. IV; see Mapp v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
890 N.W.2d 143, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 9, 2017 WL 163710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-minnesota-v-matthew-vaughn-diamond-minnctapp-2017.