State v. Frederick

236 P.3d 1269, 149 Idaho 509, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 144
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 27, 2010
Docket36493
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 236 P.3d 1269 (State v. Frederick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Frederick, 236 P.3d 1269, 149 Idaho 509, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 144 (Idaho 2010).

Opinion

HORTON, Justice.

This case arises out of a district court’s denial of Corey Sean Frederick’s motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of his automobile after he was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court. Frederick entered a conditional plea of guilty to possession of methamphetamine and timely appealed the denial of his suppression motion to the Idaho Court of Appeals. That court affirmed the district court. We granted Frederick’s petition for review and now reverse the decision of the district court.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The facts of this case are not in dispute. On November 9, 2005, Parma, Idaho, Police Officer Christopher Cullen was attempting to serve some outstanding arrest warrants from Wilder, Idaho, as part of a mutual aid agreement between the two cities. Wilder Officer Dustin Tveidt advised Officer Cullen that he suspected that a nearby white pickup truck belonged to Frederick, one of the individuals for whom there was an outstanding Wilder warrant.

Officer Cullen was travelling in his patrol car towards the Jackson’s convenience store to refill his mug of soda when the white pickup in question passed him. Officer Cullen followed the pickup, which was also headed towards the Jackson’s. The white pickup pulled into the Jackson’s parking lot and parked, and the driver got out of the truck. Officer Cullen also pulled into the parking lot, parking 20 feet away from the truck. Before the driver of the truck shut the door to his vehicle, but after he was outside of his vehicle and walking toward the front of the Jackson’s store, Officer Cullen, standing next to his patrol car, called out the name “Mr. Frederick.” The driver of the truck turned around and said “yes.” Officer Cullen asked the driver if he was “Corey Sean Frederick,” to which the driver replied “yes.” Officer Cullen asked Frederick to approach him and, as Frederick complied, Officer Cullen explained he had a warrant for Frederick’s arrest. Officer Cullen arrested Frederick, handcuffed him, and seated him in the back seat of his patrol car.

Officer Cullen then went to the pickup and “cleared” the cab to make sure that it was safe to bring his canine drug detection partner into the vehicle to search. Officer Cullen then had his canine partner search around the exterior of the truck. The dog then went into the cab and immediately “sat,” indicating that it had detected the odor of drugs. Officer Cullen then pointed to individual objects in the cab, including a shaving kit on the passenger seat and a pen tube on the floor. The dog reacted to both items in a fashion which indicated the presence of drugs. Officer Cullen ultimately located a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.

Frederick brought a motion to suppress the drug evidence seized from his vehicle pursuant to Article I, Sections 13 and 17 of the Constitution of the State of Idaho and under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America. The district court denied the motion, first in an oral ruling and later in a written order. In an unpublished opinion, the Idaho Court of Appeals affirmed. 1

Frederick filed a petition for review and on May 5, 2008, filed a motion to stay appellate proceedings until after the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a decision in Arizona v. Gant, 552 U.S. 1230, 128 S.Ct. 1443, 170 L.Ed.2d 274 (2008). We granted the stay, and on April 21, 2009, the Supreme Court issued Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S.-, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009). We then granted Frederick’s petition for review.

*512 Frederick asserts that the search of his truck was illegal under Gant and that thus we should reverse the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress. The State concedes that the search was illegal, but asks us to apply a “good faith” exception to the rule that evidence seized pursuant to an illegal search must be excluded.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

“In cases that come before this Court on a petition for review of a Court of Appeals decision, this Court gives serious consideration to the views of the Court of Appeals, but directly reviews the decision of the lower court.” State v. Oliver, 144 Idaho 722, 724, 170 P.3d 387, 389 (2007). 2 In reviewing a district court order granting or denying a motion to suppress evidence, the standard of review is bifurcated. State v. Watts, 142 Idaho 230, 232, 127 P.3d 133, 135 (2005). This Court will accept the trial court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. State v. Diaz, 144 Idaho 300, 302, 160 P.3d 739, 741 (2007). However, this Court freely reviews the trial court’s application of constitutional principles in light of the facts found. Id.

III. ANALYSIS

While the State does not address the issue in its briefing on petition for review, in its initial appellate briefing the State argued that Frederick failed to preserve his claims under both the state and federal constitutions. We first examine these arguments. Next, we address whether the search of Frederick’s truck violated the Fourth Amendment under Gant. Finally, we consider whether we should, as the State urges, apply a “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule and uphold the denial of Frederick’s motion to suppress.

A. Although Frederick has preserved his claim under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, he has failed to preserve his state constitutional claim.

The State asserts that before the district court, with respect to the federal constitution, Frederick’s suppression motion was “based solely on his contention that because the officer did not ‘contact’ him while he was still in his vehicle, a search under [Belton ] was not warranted,” while his argument on appeal is that “[Belton ] should be limited to searches where the officer has reason to believe the automobile contains evidence related to the crime for which the defendant was arrested.” The State is incorrect on both counts.

It is true that much of Frederick’s argument below focused on the fact that Officer Cullen did not make contact with Frederick until he was already outside of his car. Frederick also argued, however, that the search was illegal under Belton due to the fact that the search was not justified by concern that Frederick would grab a weapon or reach into his truck and destroy evidence. Counsel for Frederick argued:

The right to search the vehicle comes from ... the right to search the wingspan, the person, the lunge area incident to arrest, to search their person, to search their wingspan. Other courts have called it their lunge area. That’s what the courts have the authority to do.
The right to search the vehicle comes from that authority. It comes from the right to search the wingspan, the person, the lunge area incident to arrest. And over the years, it’s evolved to become a right to search the entire interior compartment of a vehicle.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 P.3d 1269, 149 Idaho 509, 2010 Ida. LEXIS 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-frederick-idaho-2010.