State v. Hummel

179 A.3d 366, 232 N.J. 196
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedMarch 13, 2018
DocketA–36 September Term 2016; 078476
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 179 A.3d 366 (State v. Hummel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hummel, 179 A.3d 366, 232 N.J. 196 (N.J. 2018).

Opinion

JUSTICE TIMPONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

**200This case is before us on the narrow issue of the legality of the police's search and seizure of the contents of defendant Lori Hummel's handbag while she was detained at the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office. We find no valid inventory search. We therefore affirm the Appellate Division's determination that the evidence seized during the search should be suppressed. We remand to permit the defendant to withdraw her guilty plea and continue at the trial court level or, in the alternative, to proceed before a PCR court on other issues she has preserved.

I.

We cull the following facts from the record.

*369A.

On December 5, 2010, Thomas Carbin was stabbed to death in his apartment in Westville, New Jersey. His lifeless body was found the following morning. The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office began interviewing individuals to obtain information about Carbin and learned that defendant was in Carbin's "circle of acquaintances."

On December 7, 2010, Woodbury Heights Investigator Gary Krohn observed defendant at a Wawa convenience store located in Woodbury Heights. Defendant knew Investigator Krohn from her prior employment and approached his vehicle to talk. During their conversation, Investigator Krohn discovered that defendant had two outstanding traffic bench warrants. He contacted the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office to confirm that detectives wanted to speak with defendant. Investigator Krohn thereafter advised defendant that he was going to bring her to the police station for **201the traffic warrants but assured her that she would be released on her own recognizance.

Investigator Krohn drove defendant and her friend, who had been driving defendant's car without a valid driver's license, to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office instead of the court that had issued the warrant. There, Investigator Krohn introduced defendant to Detective Bryn Wilden and Sergeant James Ballenger. Detective Wilden then escorted defendant and her friend into separate interrogation rooms.

Defendant placed her purse on the table in front of her. Around 1:56 p.m., Detective Wilden and Sergeant Ballenger entered defendant's interrogation room to begin questioning her. The detectives took seats at the table without removing defendant's purse or frisking her. Defendant immediately asked the detectives, "What is it about?" Detective Wilden replied that they would "explain that to [her] in just a minute" and began asking defendant about her background. About a minute into questioning, defendant reached into and rummaged through her purse to retrieve her cell phone. She checked the time and advised the detectives that she had to pick up her daughter by 3:20 p.m. The detectives did not comment on her time constraint. Detective Wilden then asked defendant to raise her right hand and swore her in. The detectives began asking defendant substantive questions without advising her of her rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).

Detective Wilden asked defendant if she had any idea why they were interested in talking to her, to which she responded, "I have no idea. I thought it was over a taillight, but apparently not, and now I'm scared." Detective Wilden assured defendant that there was no reason to be scared and told her that her name had come up during an investigation. Defendant indicated her apprehension to give the detectives her home address, and Detective Wilden assured her that anything she told them would be kept confidential.

**202Detective Wilden then asked defendant questions about her whereabouts the day before. In response to questions from the detectives about her cell phone, defendant began to look through her purse for a receipt showing her recent cell phone purchase. After handing Sergeant Ballenger the receipts from her purse, defendant asked, "Can you tell me what's going on here?" Detective Wilden explained that they were investigating someone named "Tom." He assured defendant that she would be able to leave in time to pick up her daughter.

*370Defendant again expressed concern about giving the detectives certain information. The detectives nonetheless kept questioning her, asking more specifically about her relationship with the victim. Defendant consistently denied being at the victim's apartment on the date of the murder. A little over an hour into the interrogation, Sergeant Ballenger began questioning defendant about the victim's roof, claiming that they had collected footprints. Defendant offered her boots to Sergeant Ballenger for inspection by lifting her feet toward him, allowing him to see the bottom of each boot. The detectives noted that they saw "discoloration" on one boot. Sergeant Ballenger left the room, and defendant took that boot off her foot and handed it to Detective Wilden. With defendant's boot in his possession, Detective Wilden also left the room.

The detectives returned with a consent-to-search form. Defendant stated that they could "absolutely" search her boot and initialed next to each item on the consent form as Detective Wilden read the form to her. The detectives again left defendant alone in the room. She put her belongings back into her purse and stepped outside the door, asking if she could leave because she needed to pick up her daughter. The detectives did not permit her to leave.

She then asked, "Am I arrested?" Detective Wilden responded that "technically" she had traffic warrants. Defendant claimed that the two officers had "jerked [her] around." Detective Wilden told defendant that they still had questions for her. Defendant indicated **203that she did not want to give any more answers at that time. She stated that she thought she wanted to get a lawyer. After briefly asking questions about defendant's decision to retain a lawyer, the detectives ceased talking to defendant and left the room.

Soon after, Detective Wilden and Sergeant Ballenger asked defendant to sit down in a chair in the corner of the interrogation room. Detective Wilden cuffed defendant's right ankle to a bar on the floor next to the chair and told defendant that she was being detained and that she had an outstanding warrant. Defendant asked several times whether she could make a phone call to her lawyer. Detective Wilden took defendant's purse from the table, and defendant stated that she did not like that he had her pocketbook. Sergeant Ballenger responded that defendant was "in custody." As Detective Wilden began walking out, defendant said, "Hopefully that $500 ain't missing out of there."

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
179 A.3d 366, 232 N.J. 196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hummel-nj-2018.