State v. Hudson

290 P.3d 868, 253 Or. App. 327, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1375
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedNovember 7, 2012
Docket061136452; A140356
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 290 P.3d 868 (State v. Hudson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hudson, 290 P.3d 868, 253 Or. App. 327, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1375 (Or. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

ORTEGA, R J.

After a jury trial, the trial court entered a judgment convicting defendant of two counts of aggravated murder, ORS 163.095, and two counts of first-degree abuse of a corpse, ORS 166.087.1 On appeal from those convictions, defendant asserts, in three assignments of error, that the trial court erred in denying his motions to suppress.2 Specifically, defendant argues that the trial court should have suppressed evidence that, in his view, was obtained as a result of the police illegally seizing him, violating his right to counsel, and improperly failing to provide him with Miranda warnings. Finding no merit to those arguments, we affirm.

We recount the facts consistently with the trial court’s factual findings. State v. Ehly, 317 Or 66, 75, 854 P2d 421 (1993) (appellate courts are bound by a trial court’s findings of historical fact relating to a defendant’s motion to suppress, to the extent that those findings are supported by evidence in the record). On a Sunday morning in November 2006, Washington County law enforcement received reports of a potential homicide scene on Highway 26. Upon arriving at the scene officers found two male bodies in a driveway about 20 feet off the highway. One of the bodies had been dismembered and was missing its limbs and lower torso; much of the skin had also been removed from the upper torso. The other body had not been dismembered but appeared to law enforcement to have been dragged to the location where it was found. An identification card found on the latter victim identified him as David Copeland. A medical examiner at the scene determined that the victims had been shot, stabbed, and also subjected to blunt force trauma. Based on the lack of blood and the position of the [330]*330bodies, law enforcement believed that the homicides had been committed elsewhere and the bodies dumped. Officers also located other evidence, mostly items of clothing, which appeared to have been thrown from a moving vehicle headed east toward Portland on Highway 26.

Based on the identification of Copeland, detectives contacted his ex-wife in Astoria. She, in turn, directed them to Littrell, who had been Copeland’s close friend. Littell informed officers that Copeland had rented a room from a man named Francis and that there was another roommate — a 62-year-old man named Frank — who lived with Copeland and Francis and with whom Copeland did not get along. According to Littrell, Francis owned a maroon van. Littrell drove detectives to a particular address on 62nd Street in Portland and identified it as the house where Copeland, Francis, and Frank lived. The maroon van was not in the driveway, and only a dim light could be seen coming from the kitchen.

Two Washington County detectives stationed themselves in a police car directly across the street from the house. Although it was not a marked police car, it had indicia of being a law enforcement vehicle, including a spotlight and the fact that two officers were sitting in the car using a cell phone and a laptop. The detectives were able to learn through computer research that the owner of the house was Francis Weber. They obtained Weber’s driver’s license photo and thereby identified Weber as the dismembered homicide victim. Given all the information they had, officers believed that the residence would contain evidence relating to the murders and, in fact, might well be the location where the victims were killed.

While detectives were watching the house, it was dark, windy, and raining hard. After they had been stationed in front of the house for some time, a person walked by the police car and attracted the officers’ attention. The individual, who had a slender build and wore a black hooded sweatshirt, did not look at the officers as he passed the police car. Although they could not see his face, based on his gait, demeanor, and build, the individual appeared to the officers to be in his thirties or forties, unlike the 62-year-old [331]*331roommate identified by Littrell. The detectives momentarily lost sight of the person as he approached the house, but immediately thereafter lights were turned on upstairs and a television set appeared to have been turned on. It also appeared to the detectives that the person was moving about inside the house.

Officers from the Portland Police Bureau arrived and, while the person was inside the house, positioned themselves in locations around the house to ensure that no one else could enter or leave it without being seen. In addition, police set up a command post and officers gathered in a community center nearby. At that point, officers were aware that two of the three residents of the house had apparently been murdered, that the whereabouts of the third resident were unknown, and that a person who did not appear to be the third resident was inside the house.

Believing that there was evidence relating to the murders inside the house and concerned that that evidence was being destroyed and that the third resident might be dead or injured inside, officers determined that they needed to attempt to contact the person inside the house. However, given the brutal violence of the murders, they agreed that it would be unsafe to send officers to the door to attempt the contact. Police investigators had gathered information about telephone numbers that were associated with the house and, at about 11:00 p.m., a detective called the first of those numbers. Although the telephone rang for some time, the call went unanswered. The result was the same when a detective called the second number: Although the telephone rang for some time, no one answered the call. A call to the third number associated with the house was answered by a man who identified himself as Sproul. He informed the detective who called him that he used to live at the house but had moved away.

Concerned that calls to the house had gone unanswered, officers decided that an officer, Defrain, would attempt to contact the person inside the house by performing a “loud hail” over the public address system in a police car. At the same time a detective, Steed, was assigned to begin an application for a search warrant, which police [332]*332were concerned would take some time to obtain. Steed went downtown to begin work on the warrant affidavit. At approximately 11:45 p.m., Defrain gave the hail, which was repeated over a period of several minutes: “The occupants of 6738 SE 62nd, this is Portland Police. We need you to come to the front door with your hands up.” Defrain observed the person inside the house put his head out of an upstairs window and then go back inside the house. Over the next minute and 20 seconds, Defrain repeated the hail in different ways and added statements indicating that he had seen the person inside the house. During that time, the person again opened and closed the window.

Ultimately, the person, later identified as defendant, opened the front door. Ignoring Defrain’s continued instruction to keep his hands up and walk towards police, he instead reached into his pockets and turned back and fumbled with the front door of the house. Eventually, defendant turned from the door and walked toward the officers with his hands up. As defendant walked toward him, Defrain observed and alerted officers around him to a bloodstain on defendant’s pants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
290 P.3d 868, 253 Or. App. 327, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 1375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hudson-orctapp-2012.