State v. Edwards

2014 SD 63, 853 N.W.2d 246, 2014 S.D. 63, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 96, 2014 WL 4100427
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 20, 2014
Docket26847, 26849
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 2014 SD 63 (State v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota 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. Edwards, 2014 SD 63, 853 N.W.2d 246, 2014 S.D. 63, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 96, 2014 WL 4100427 (S.D. 2014).

Opinions

WILBUR, Justice.

[¶ 1.] Lloyd Edwards appeals the circuit court’s denial of his motion to suppress blood evidence seized without a warrant. He also appeals the circuit court’s denial of his motion to strike his 2003 driving under the influence (DUI) conviction from the part II information. We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

[¶ 2.] On March 25, 2013, Officer Nathaniel Borg arrested Edwards for driving or being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and driving with a revoked license. Officer Borg read the following advisement to Edwards:

[249]*249DUI Advisement C&td
1. I have arrested you for a violation of SDCL 32-2B-1.
2. Any person who operates any vehicle in the state has consented to the withdrawal of bltiod or other bodily substance and chemical apalysis.
3. I require that ypu submit to the withdrawal of your blood (blood, breath, bodily substance).
4. You have the right to an additional chemical analysis by a techpician of your own choosing, at your own expense.

[¶ 3.] Officer Borg asked Edwards twice if he understood the advisement, yet Edwards did not respond. Officer Borg then transferred Edwards to the Meade County jail.

[¶ 4.] At the jail, Officer Borg explained to Edwards that blood would be drawn from him and that his refusal would result in the use of a restraint chair in order to forcibly obtain the evidence. Edwards verbally and physically Refused to provide a sample of his blood to law enforcement. With the help of another officer, Officer Borg placed Edwards in a restraint chair, held a Taser to Edwaids’s abdomen, and threatened to use the Taser if Edwards continued to resist, A blood sample was ultimately obtained from Edwards, without the use of the Taser, while he was seated in the restraint chair.

[¶ 5.] On March 27, 2013, Edwards was indicted for driving or control of d vehicle while under the influence of alcohol in violation of SDCL 32-23-1(2), or alternatively, with driving or control of a vehicle while having 0.08 percent or more by weight of alcohol in the blood in violation of SDCL 32-23-1(1). The State filed a part II information alleging that Edwards had two prior DUI convictions within the previous ten years-one conviction in 2003 and one conviction in 2012. Edwards’s 2013 charge would constitute a third offense DUI.

[¶ 6.] Edwards filed a motion to strike his 2003 conviction from the part II information. Edwards claimed that his 2003 conviction could not be used to enhance his sentence because his guilty plea was not voluntary, knowing, and intelligent. The circuit court ultimately denied Edwards’s motion to strike. Findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding Edwards’s motion to strike his 2003 conviction from the part II information and an order denying Edwards’s motion to strike were entered on September 17, 2013.1

[¶ 7.] In addition to the motion to strike, Edwards filed a motion to suppress blood evidence seized without a warrant. An evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress was held on June 12, 2013. The circuit court ultimately denied Edwards’s motion to suppress. Findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding Edwards’s motion to suppress and an order denying the motion were entered on September 17, 2013.2

[¶ 8.] Edwards’s jury trial began on September 18, 2013. The jury found Edwards guilty of driving or control of a [250]*250vehicle while having 0.08 percent or more of alcohol in the blood pursuant to SDCL 32-23-1(1). Based on a stipulation between the parties, the circuit court entered a guilty verdict to the part II information and found the current offense to be a third offense DUI within a ten-year period. Edwards was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary. Edwards presents two issues for our review:

Whether the circuit court erred in denying Edwards’s motion to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless, non-consensual blood draw.
Whether the circuit court erred in denying Edwards’s motion to strike the 2003 conviction from the part II information.

Pursuant to a notice of review, the State also presents an issue for our review:

Whether the circuit court erred in failing to hold that the warrantless search conducted under South Dakota’s implied consent statutes was constitutional.
DECISION
I. Whether the circuit court erred in denying Edwards’s motion to suppress evidence obtained from a war-rantless, nonconsensual blood draw conducted pursuant to SDCL 32-23-10.

[¶ 9.] We note that in denying the motion to suppress, the circuit court did so pursuant to the “good faith exception to the warrant requirement.”3 The circuit court’s use of this “warrant exception” was in error, because no such warrant exception exists. Indeed, case law instructs that the good faith exception is an exception to the exclusionary rule. See Davis v. United States, — U.S. -, -, 131 S.Ct. 2419, 2429, 180 L.Ed.2d 285 (2011) (in discussing the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, the United States Supreme Court stated “[e]videnee obtained during a search conducted in reasonable reliance on binding precedent is not subject to the exclusionary rule”); State v. Sorensen, 2004 S.D. 108, ¶¶ 8-9, 688 N.W.2d 193, 196-97 (stating that “[u]nder the ‘good faith’ exception [to the exclusionary rule], ‘evidence is admissible when police officers reasonably rely on a warrant that is subsequently invalidated because a judge finds there was an insufficient basis for the issuing magistrate to find probable cause’ ” (quoting State v. Saiz, 427 N.W.2d 825, 828 (S.D.1988))). “Good faith” is not one of the few, “well-delineated exceptions” to the warrant requirement. See State v. Zahn, 2012 S.D. 19, ¶ 30, 812 N.W.2d 490, 499. Because we examine a circuit court’s grant or denial of a motion to suppress involving an alleged violation of a constitutionally protected right anew, [251]*251this error is not determinative. See State v. Smith, 2014 S.D. 50, ¶ 14, 851 N.W.2d 719, 723.

[¶ 10.] “The [circuit] court’s findings of fact are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard, but we give no deference to the [circuit] court’s conclusions of law.” Id. (alterations in original) (quoting State v. Mohr, 2013 S.D. 94, ¶ 12, 841 N.W.2d 440, 444). And although “[f]actual findings of the lower court are reviewed under the clearly erroneous standard, ... once those facts have been determined, ‘the application of a legal standard to those facts is a question of law reviewed de novo.’ ” State v. Heney, 2013 S.D. 77, ¶ 8, 839 N.W.2d 558, 561-62 (quoting State v. Hess,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2014 SD 63, 853 N.W.2d 246, 2014 S.D. 63, 2014 S.D. LEXIS 96, 2014 WL 4100427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-edwards-sd-2014.