State Of Washington v. Dennis Michael Wyatt

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedApril 20, 2015
Docket71111-3
StatusUnpublished

This text of State Of Washington v. Dennis Michael Wyatt (State Of Washington v. Dennis Michael Wyatt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Of Washington v. Dennis Michael Wyatt, (Wash. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON

STATE OF WASHINGTON, ; C •-•i.C"

£? "S3. No. 71111-3-1 yz* p" Respondent, ; ,**v* ——,

DIVISION ONE C3 :;;_i w V. >

I UNPUBLISHED OPINION 5 f| DENNIS WYATT, )

Appellant. ] FILED: April 20, 2015

Appelwick, J. — Police officers performed a warrantless search of closed

containers found outside Wyatt's tent in a city park while Wyatt was away from his

campsite. The officers found materials used to make meth inside the containers. The

search resulted in Wyatt's arrest, confession, and subsequent conviction for

manufacturing methamphetamine. The trial court denied Wyatt's motion to suppress the

items inside the containers, finding that Wyatt had no expectation of privacy in those

items. We reverse and remand.

FACTS

On October 30, 2011, City of Kent Police Department Officer Kenneth Clay and

Sergeant Andrew Kelso1 were working routine bicycle patrol. During their patrol, the

officers spoke with a street source. The source claimed to have heard someone named

"Dennis" brag about stealing wiring from a railroad. The source also said that Dennis

cooks meth in holes in the ground. The source told the officers that Dennis lived in a tent

camp in Riverview Park, a park owned by the city of Kent. The source was able to identify

a more specific location for the campsite on a map. The source confirmed that Dennis

was a homeless individual.

Sergeant Kelso was an officer at the time these events took place. No. 71111-3-1/2

Based on the source's description, Sergeant Kelso recalled that he previously had

contact with a man matching the description. After checking his earlier contact report,

Sergeant Kelso was able to confirm that the source was describing Dennis Wyatt.

The following afternoon, on October 31, 2011, Officer Clay and Sergeant Kelso

went to Riverview Park to find the camp. At the end of a well-worn pathway the officers

found a camp that was occupied by Wyatt, Jennifer Johnson, and another male.2

Sergeant Kelso notified and warned Wyatt and Johnson that it was illegal to camp

in the park. The officers advised Wyatt and Johnson that they had 24 hours to gather

their belongings and leave the campsite. Wyatt and Johnson said that they knew camping

in the park was illegal, but that they had been camping there for only two days. Johnson

further stated that the tent was theirs, but the remaining items at the campsite were there

when they arrived.

Forty-five minutes after the officers left the campsite, they saw Wyatt and Johnson

walking away from the campsite. The officers returned to the camp. While no one was

there, the officers looked under a tarp located roughly eight to fifteen feet from the tent.

Sergeant Kelso found a black zipped up bag that was inside a five gallon bucket under

the tarp. Inside the zipped bag, Sergeant Kelso found a bottle with a hole drilled in the

top with a hose sticking out of the hole. The bottle had a dark, amber liquid in it.

The officers also found a blue soft-sided container (similar to a cooler) outside the

tent. There were plastic bottles, duct tape, tubing, and a small pressurized gas container

inside the blue container. Based on both Sergeant Kelso's and Officer Clay's training and

2 The other male was just visiting the campsite and was later arrested based on outstanding warrants. No. 71111-3-1/3

experience, they believed the items in the black bag and the blue container were

associated with a methamphetamine (meth) lab.

The officers did not look inside the tent. The officers replaced the tarp, left the

scene, and contacted the Department of Ecology's on-call spill responder about the lab.

The officers and the spill responder decided that the lab should be processed in the

morning during the daylight when it would be safer.

On November 1, 2011, at approximately 10:45 a.m., Sergeant Kelso and Sergeant

Mike O'Reilly returned to Riverview Park to process the meth lab with Richard Walker, a

Department of Ecology spill responder. Sergeant Kelso and Sergeant O'Reilly went to

the camp and called out to see if anyone was inside the tent. Moments later, Wyatt and

Johnson came out of the tent. Both Wyatt and Johnson were arrested for unlawful

camping and investigation of manufacturing meth and read their Miranda3 rights. Both

Wyatt and Johnson waived their rights and spoke with the officers. The officers led Wyatt

and Johnson away from the tent, across a field, and toward patrol vehicles before

questioning them.

Sergeant Kelso spoke with Wyatt. Wyatt eventually told Sergeant Kelso that he

had been camping in Riverview Park for several weeks. Wyatt initially denied knowledge

of the meth lab in the camp. But, after a little while, Wyatt admitted that he knew there

was a meth lab and admitted that his fingerprints would be on the items from cleaning up

the area.

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966). No. 71111-3-1/4

Sergeant O'Reilly spoke with Johnson. Johnson denied any involvement with the

meth lab but admitted that she rummaged through all of the property when the two first

got to the camp. Johnson said that they had been at the camp for two weeks.

Sergeant O'Reilly then went to speak with Wyatt. Wyatt told Sergeant O'Reilly that

they had been at the campsite for three weeks. Employing a ruse, Sergeant O'Reillytold

Wyatt that he heard Wyatt was cooking meth and selling it to kids. Sergeant O'Reilly

indicated that if Wyatt was selling to kids, as opposed to for personal use, Sergeant

O'Reilly would "have a real problem with his actions." Wyatt then admitted to cooking

meth at the campsite for his personal use.

After Wyatt and Johnson were transported to the station, the officers and Walker

returned to the camp. At the camp, there was a tent and items around or near the tent.

Some of the items were under a tarp. The officers could not remember if the blue

container was covered by the tarp when they returned. The officers opened the blue

container and found many materials used to make meth. The officers also found the

zipped black bag with a soda bottle with tubing coming out of it, muriatic acid, and another

bottle containing liquids. While these items were being processed, Sergeant O'Reilly

went into the tent and found several bags with items related to a meth lab. Sergeant

O'Reilly took into custody items from the tent, which were either associated with the meth

lab, illegal contraband, or weapons.

The State charged Wyatt and Johnson with manufacturing meth in violation of

RCW 69.50.401(1), (2)(b). Wyatt moved to suppress both the physical evidence from the

campsite and his statements to the officers. After a combined CrR 3.5 and CrR 3.6

hearing, the trial court partly granted and partly denied the motions. The trial court No. 71111-3-1/5

suppressed the evidence obtained from inside the tent, but admitted the evidence

obtained in the closed containers found outside the tent. The court reasoned that Wyatt

had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the area outside of the tent, but that he did

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State v. Boland
800 P.2d 1112 (Washington Supreme Court, 1990)
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State v. Le
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