State v. Jessica Elaine Starr

385 P.3d 900, 161 Idaho 345, 2016 Ida. App. LEXIS 142
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 9, 2016
DocketDocket 43857
StatusPublished

This text of 385 P.3d 900 (State v. Jessica Elaine Starr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jessica Elaine Starr, 385 P.3d 900, 161 Idaho 345, 2016 Ida. App. LEXIS 142 (Idaho Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MELANSON, Chief Judge

Jessica Elaine Starr appeals from an intermediate appellate order of the district court affirming Starr’s judgment of conviction for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Starr argues that the magistrate erred in denying Stair’s motion to suppress and request to present evidence. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

An officer went to Starr’s residence to investigate complaints about a reckless driver and detected an odor of burnt marijuana *347 emanating from the residence. During the ensuing discussion with Stan*, the officer said he could smell marijuana and asked to go inside. Starr declined but offered to go inside, retrieve the marijuana and a pipe, and bring the items back out to the officex*. After further discussion, Starr allowed the officer into the entryway of the residence while Starr retrieved the items. The officer observed Starr go to a bedroom and return with a jar of marijuana and a pipe. Starr later returned to the bedroom in response to the officer’s further inquiries and the officer followed. Once inside the bedroom, the officer elicited other statements from Starr about the marijuana, the pipe, and the acquisition of the marijuana. Thereafter, the officer issued Starr a citation for possession of marijuana.

Starr initially pled guilty but later withdrew her guilty plea. Starr then filed a motion to suppress all evidence collected, arguing that the officer’s entry into the home violated the Fourth Amendment. At the suppression healing, the magistrate heard testimony from the officer and listened to the audio recording of the encounter. After finding that Starr voluntarily allowed the officer inside the door to take possession of the marijuana and the pipe Stan* initially retrieved from the bedroom, the magistrate denied Starr’s motion as to those items. However, the magistrate also found that Starr did not voluntarily consent to any subsequent search and suppressed other items found in Starr’s bedroom.

Prior to trial, the State amended the complaint also charging Starr with possession of drug paraphernalia. Additionally, based on Starr’s objection, the audio recording of the encounter was partially redacted to omit certain portions of the interaction between Starr and the officer, which primarily occurred once inside the residence. Consequently, the audio recording was divided into four exhibits. At trial, the State sought to admit the last two exhibits containing the audio recording of the statements Starr made during and after the bedroom search. Starr objected, arguing that, like the evidence previously suppressed, her statements were involuntary and the product of the illegal search. The magistrate ruled that Starr’s statements were not the result of the officer’s exploitation of the illegal bedroom search and admitted the exhibit. After the State rested its case, Starr sought to have the entire audio recording of the encounter admitted, including the portions she had successfully moved to have redacted previously, in order to give the jury an understanding of the pressure she allegedly faced and to support her defense that her statements in the bedroom were unreliable. The State objected. The magistrate denied Starr’s request, noting that admission of the previously suppressed portion of the audio recording, at that point in the trial, was unfair to the State. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found Starr guilty of possession of marijuana, I.C. § 37-2732(c)(3), and possession of drug paraphernalia, I.C. § 37-2734A(l). Starr appealed to the district court, challenging the magistrate’s ruling allowing admission of Starr’s bedroom statements and denying her request to admit the entirety of the audio recording. On appeal, the district court affirmed Starr’s judgment of conviction, holding that the magistrate had not erred. In the alternative, the district court also held that, even if the magistrate had erred in admitting Starr’s bedroom statements, such error was harmless. Starr again appeals.

For an appeal from the district court, sitting in its appellate capacity over a case from the magistrate division, this Court’s standard of review is the same as expressed by the Idaho Supreme Court. The Supreme Court reviews the magistrate record to determine whether there is substantial and competent evidence to support the magistrate’s findings of fact and whether the magistrate’s conclusions of law follow from those findings. State v. Korn, 148 Idaho 413, 415, 224 P.3d 480, 482 (2009). If those findings are so supported and the conclusions follow therefrom, and if the district court affirmed the magistrate’s decision, we affirm the district court’s decision as a matter of procedure. Id. Thus, the appellate courts do not review the decision of the magistrate. State v. Trusdall, 155 Idaho 965, 968, 318 P.3d 955, 958 (Ct. App. 2014). Rather, we are procedurally bound to affirm or reverse the decision of the district court. Id.

*348 Starr argues that the magistrate failed to perform the required attenuation analysis before admitting Starr’s statements made during and after the illegal search of her bedroom and that she was deprived of the opportunity to present to the jury the redacted portions of the audio recording. Specifically, Stan’ contends that her statements should have been suppressed and that, once the statements were admitted, she should have been allowed to demonstrate that those statements were unreliable by presenting the full audio recording of the encounter. However, assuming without deciding that Starr could meet her burden to show that the magistrate indeed erred in either or both l'ulings, such errors were harmless.

Error is not reversible unless it is prejudicial. State v. Stoddard, 105 Idaho 169, 171, 667 P.2d 272, 274 (Ct. App. 1983). With limited exceptions, even constitutional error is not necessarily prejudicial error. Id. Thus, we examine whether the alleged error complained of in the present case was harmless. See State v. Lopez, 141 Idaho 575, 578, 114 P.3d 133, 136 (Ct. App. 2005). Where a defendant meets his or her initial burden of showing that a constitutional violation has occurred, the State has the burden of demonstrating to the appellate court beyond a reasonable doubt that the violation did not contribute to the jury’s verdict. State v. Perry, 150 Idaho 209, 227-28, 245 P.3d 961, 979-80 (2010). However, where the error in question is a constitutional violation that affects the base structure of the trial to the point that the trial cannot serve its function as a vehicle for the determination of guilt or innocence, the appellate court shall vacate and remand. Id. Such structural defects include the complete denial of counsel, a biased trial judge, denial of self-representation, denial of a public trial, defective reasonable doubt instruction, and erroneous deprivation of the right to counsel of choice. Id. at 222-23, 245 P.3d at 974-75.

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Related

Neder v. United States
527 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Perry
245 P.3d 961 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2010)
State v. Korn
224 P.3d 480 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Beason
803 P.2d 1009 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1991)
State v. Stoddard
667 P.2d 272 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Murinko
702 P.2d 910 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1985)
State v. Lopez
114 P.3d 133 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Rhonda Trusdall
318 P.3d 955 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
385 P.3d 900, 161 Idaho 345, 2016 Ida. App. LEXIS 142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jessica-elaine-starr-idahoctapp-2016.