State v. Hardin

819 S.E.2d 177, 425 S.C. 1
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedAugust 15, 2018
DocketAppellate Case No. 2015-000516; Opinion No. 5589
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 819 S.E.2d 177 (State v. Hardin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hardin, 819 S.E.2d 177, 425 S.C. 1 (S.C. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

MCDONALD, J.:

**5Archie More Hardin appeals his convictions arising from the armed robbery of an Orangeburg T-Mobile store, arguing the circuit court erred in (1) denying his motion for a continuance; (2) concluding the out-of-court identifications made by the victims were sufficiently reliable despite law enforcement's unduly suggestive procedure; and (3) admitting evidence collected in a second search of Hardin's apartment. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

On the morning of May 16, 2014, Hardin entered a T-Mobile store on St. Matthews Road in Orangeburg, where he spoke with employee Jarron Weaver about purchasing an iPad. Hardin left the store to make a phone call, reentered a few minutes later to discuss a credit check for the purchase, and left again. Shortly thereafter, two armed and disguised men entered the store and held Weaver and store manager, Thomas Sims, Jr., at gunpoint. The armed men directed Weaver and Sims to the back room, forced them to the floor, bound their hands and feet with duct tape, and threatened to shoot them if they looked up. One of the armed men found employee Kirstie Berry outside-he punched her in the face, pulled her into the store, pistol whipped her, and duct-taped her hands and feet. After stealing cell phones and other electronics, including Sims's personal iPad, the men exited the rear of the store; two **6witnesses saw them jump a fence and drive away in a gray, four-door Toyota sedan.

Using the "Find My iPad" application, the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office (OCSO), the Richland County Sheriff's Office, and the City of Columbia Police Department (CCPD) collaborated to locate the stolen iPad. Investigator Elizabeth Schumpert of the OCSO relayed the location information to Corporal Leonard Cain, who tracked the iPad around Columbia. Cain first spotted the suspected getaway car at the Budget Inn on Sunset Boulevard, where he witnessed "an individual with a blue shirt on come outside of the hotel lobby door and get inside the vehicle." Cain watched the car "make a right turn on the side of the hotel building.... [a]nd then saw two individuals a few minutes later peeking their heads around the corner looking at [Cain]." Eventually, Cain met up with CCPD Investigator Darius Wade, and they followed the iPad track until it ended at an apartment complex on Bentley Court in Columbia.

When they arrived at the apartment complex, Cain, Wade, and other CCPD officers found Hardin walking to a vehicle matching the description of the Toyota sedan used as the getaway car in the T-Mobile robbery. Hardin admitted he rented the car but *180claimed to have loaned it to his friend "Black" earlier that day. Hardin also stated that he and Black saw Cain at a gas station "at Edison and Beltline Boulevard" and thought Cain was Black's probation officer. The officers frisked Hardin, whom they found to be unarmed, and told him they were looking for a stolen iPad and a "black male, 5'10?[,] 190 to 200 pounds, [who] walks with a limp." Hardin gave written consent for the officers to search his person and his apartment.

Law enforcement first conducted a perimeter sweep of Hardin's apartment. When officers were unable to locate the iPad inside the apartment using the "play music" function, they searched outside and found the device in a plastic bag near a dumpster "about a hundred yards" from Hardin's building. Hardin claims the officers subsequently demanded that he re-sign the consent to search, which the officers had amended to include "any firearms, handguns." Hardin refused to re-sign. During a more comprehensive search of Hardin's **7apartment, the officers found a box of cell phones and two guns matching the description of those used in the robbery. Hardin told the officers the items belonged to Black and offered to help find him.1

While other police officers were searching for the stolen iPad, Cain texted a photograph of Hardin to Schumpert, who was still on scene at the Orangeburg T-Mobile; Schumpert showed the photo to the three employee victims. Despite their varying descriptions of the suspects' clothing, the victims positively identified Hardin as one of the armed robbers.

On September 3, 2014, the Orangeburg County Grand Jury indicted Hardin on three counts of kidnapping and one count each of armed robbery, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (ABHAN), and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

On February 23, 2015, the circuit court heard Hardin's motions for a continuance, to suppress the evidence found in his apartment, and to exclude the victims' out-of-court identifications of the texted photograph. The court denied Hardin's pretrial motions and his subsequent motion for a directed verdict. Following the three-day trial, the jury found Hardin guilty of all charges. The circuit court denied Hardin's post-trial motions and imposed concurrent sentences of thirty years' imprisonment for armed robbery and each count of kidnapping, and twenty years' imprisonment for ABHAN. As to Hardin's charge for possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, the court sentenced him to five years' imprisonment, to run consecutive to the other sentences.

Law and Analysis

I. Motion for a Continuance

Hardin sought a continuance before his trial, which was set to begin on February 23, 2015, asserting that until February 17, 2015, it was his understanding that the State had sent certain DNA evidence and latent fingerprints to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for testing.

**8Citing State v. Langford , 400 S.C. 421, 735 S.E.2d 471 (2012)2 and Holmes v. South Carolina , 547 U.S. 319, 126 S.Ct. 1727, 164 L.Ed.2d 503 (2006),3 Hardin argued he was *181entitled to the continuance because (1) the State utilized its unconstitutional control of the docket to schedule his trial before forensic evidence had been tested, and (2) the State's denial of access to the DNA evidence for testing effectively hindered his fundamental right to prepare and present a full and complete defense, including a potential defense of third-party guilt. In response, the State argued the DNA taken from the Toyota and the firearms seized from Hardin's apartment could not possibly exculpate him because his co-defendant had not yet been apprehended.

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Related

State v. Hardin
Supreme Court of South Carolina, 2020

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Bluebook (online)
819 S.E.2d 177, 425 S.C. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hardin-scctapp-2018.