State v. Carter

904 P.2d 290
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 26, 1995
Docket61922-1
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 904 P.2d 290 (State v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Carter, 904 P.2d 290 (Wash. 1995).

Opinion

904 P.2d 290 (1995)
127 Wash.2d 836

The STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Nicole Faye CARTER, Petitioner.

No. 61922-1.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

October 26, 1995.

*291 Kathleen A. Barry, Seattle, Washington Appellate Defender, Colleen E. O'Connor, Seattle, Nielsen & Acosta, Eric Nielsen, Seattle, for petitioner.

Norm Maleng, King County Prosecutor, Jennifer Gilman, Deputy, Francis Zavatsky, Deputy, Theresa Fricke, Deputy, Michele Hauptman, Deputy, Seattle, for respondent.

SMITH, Justice.

Petitioner Nicole Faye Carter seeks review of a decision of the Court of Appeals, Division One, which upheld an order of the King County Superior Court suppressing evidence of cocaine seized by police during a warrantless search of a motel room in the presence of Petitioner. We granted review. We affirm.

QUESTION PRESENTED

The question presented in this case is whether under Const. art. I, § 7, a defendant has standing to challenge the warrantless search of a motel room and seizure of a controlled substance, cocaine, which the defendant is charged with possessing when the defendant claims to have been merely a visitor in the room.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Petitioner Nicole Faye Carter was charged by information in the King County Superior Court with the offenses of delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, cocaine, in violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, RCW 69.50.401(a)(1)(i).

The charges arose from a "buy-bust" operation conducted by Seattle Police on March 15, 1991. Plainclothes officer Lawrence Jackson went to the parking lot of the Sun Rise Motel on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way South in Seattle that evening to pose as a narcotics buyer. As he got out of his automobile, Ms. Carter approached him and said "soup," a term the officer knew was street vernacular for "cocaine." He asked her if she had some. She answered "yeah, come on." Another woman, Sonya Smothers, was with Ms. Carter. Petitioner Carter and Ms. Smothers then led Officer Jackson to a room in the motel. Once inside, Ms. Smothers took from her shirt a small bottle containing several rocks of cocaine. She removed one rock and handed it to Officer Jackson. He handed her a pre-marked twenty-dollar bill and took the cocaine.

Officer Jackson left the motel room and signaled to standby officers that he had made a "good buy." He described Ms. Carter and Ms. Smothers to the officers and told them the women were still in the motel room. Four officers on the observation and arrest teams responded immediately and headed toward the room with weapons drawn. As they approached the room, an unidentified woman opened the door and came out into the hallway. When she saw the officers, she slammed the door behind her and tried to run away. One of the officers detained her in the hallway while the others announced "Seattle Police" and forced the door open. They found three women inside, including Petitioner Carter and Ms. Smothers. Ms. Smothers was holding a vial of crack cocaine and the twenty-dollar bill Officer Jackson had given her.

Petitioner Carter was later charged in the King County Superior Court with delivery of a controlled substance, cocaine, and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. On September 13, 1991, she moved to suppress evidence obtained from the motel room because it was seized by police during a warrantless search. The King County Superior Court, the Honorable Nancy A. Holman, denied the motion, finding that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry.

After a jury trial before the Honorable R. Joseph Wesley, Petitioner was found "guilty" on both counts on November 20, 1991. She was sentenced on December 27, 1991 to 41 months on Count I and 41 months on Count II, with credit of 173 days for time served. On May 23, 1994, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court. It did not reach the issue of exigent circumstances justifying the warrantless entry, but simply concluded that Ms. Carter did not have standing to challenge the search. Petitioner *292 now seeks review by this court. We granted review on December 7, 1994.

DISCUSSION

Petitioner Carter's challenge to the warrantless search of the motel room was based on United States Supreme Court cases holding that police may not enter a residence without a warrant in the absence of consent or exigent circumstances.[1] The State claimed there were exigent circumstances surrounding the search and arrest. It argued there was great risk that the drugs would be destroyed by persons in the motel room who were alerted by noises from the slamming door and the hallway scuffle. The Court of Appeals did not address this issue, but concluded only that Petitioner did not have standing to challenge the search.

Petitioner Carter contends the Court of Appeals should not have reached the standing issue because the State did not challenge her standing in the trial court. The court nonetheless determined it could consider the issue as an alternate basis for affirming the decision of the trial court.[2]

In a civil case a trial court's judgment will be upheld on any ground established by the pleadings and supported by the proof even though that ground may not have been considered by the trial court.[3] However, "there are obvious due process problems in affirming a trial court ruling in a criminal proceeding on an alternative theory against which the defendant has had no opportunity to present an argument."[4]

The question of automatic standing to challenge a search is a proper one for consideration in this case. Petitioner responded to the State's brief raising that issue in the Court of Appeals. She has thus had opportunity to present her argument on it. Even if Petitioner did not have automatic standing, she might possibly still be able to challenge the search. A defendant who lacks automatic standing may still possess a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched or the thing seized, and on that basis be able to challenge the search or seizure.[5] In Combs v. United States,[6] the United States Supreme Court remanded for an evidentiary hearing to permit both parties to present evidence on the issue of standing which respondent government raised for the first time on appeal. Petitioner contends the same remedy should be ordered if this court determines she did not have automatic standing.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Combs affirmed the defendant's conviction on the ground that he did not assert any possessory or proprietary claim to the searched premises and therefore did not have standing to challenge the search and seizure. The Supreme Court observed it was understandable that the defendant did not make that assertion because the government did not challenge his standing either at the suppression hearing or at trial.[7] Since the record was "virtually barren of the facts" necessary to determine a privacy interest, the court remanded the case to permit the trial court to make such a factual determination.[8]

This case is distinguishable from Combs because Petitioner Carter testified at trial fully relating the circumstances. She testified she was in the motel room to pick up Ms. Smothers on their way to meet a date and that she was watching television while Ms. *293

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Bluebook (online)
904 P.2d 290, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-carter-wash-1995.