State v. Justin Jackson

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 9, 2020
Docket2018AP002450-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Justin Jackson (State v. Justin Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Justin Jackson, (Wis. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. September 9, 2020 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2018AP2450-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2016CF5564

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT I

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

JUSTIN JACKSON,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment and an order of the circuit court for Milwaukee County: DENNIS R. CIMPL, Judge. Reversed and cause remanded with directions.

Before Blanchard, Dugan and Donald, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3). No. 2018AP2450-CR

¶1 PER CURIAM. Based on guilty pleas, Justin Jackson was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon and threatening a law enforcement officer. He appeals the judgment of conviction and the order denying a motion for postconviction relief. In his postconviction motion, Jackson contended that he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel failed to inform him, before he decided to enter the pleas, that he had a potentially meritorious motion to suppress evidence. Following a Machner hearing, the circuit court denied the motion based on a determination that trial counsel did not perform deficiently in failing to recommend that Jackson pursue a suppression motion.1 We agree with Jackson that trial counsel provided ineffective assistance on the potential suppression issue. Accordingly, we reverse the order denying postconviction relief, and direct that the circuit court hold the suppression hearing that Jackson now seeks.

BACKGROUND

¶2 The criminal complaint charged that on December 8, 2016, in West Allis, Jackson possessed a firearm after having been convicted of a felony, in violation of WIS. STAT. § 941.29(1m)(a) (2017-18), and intentionally threatened to cause bodily harm to a law enforcement officer, in violation of WIS. STAT. § 940.203(2).2 The complaint alleged in pertinent part that: Jackson was pulled over in a traffic stop; he was placed under arrest on a warrant; and in a search of the car police discovered a loaded pistol. Jackson did not move to suppress evidence obtained as a result of the search of his vehicle.

1 State v. Machner, 92 Wis. 2d 797, 285 N.W.2d 905 (Ct. App. 1979). 2 All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2017-18 version unless otherwise noted.

2 No. 2018AP2450-CR

¶3 In April 2017, Jackson entered pleas of guilty to both counts and, at the same hearing, was sentenced to concurrent sentences of two and one-half years of initial confinement and two and one-half years of extended supervision, to be served consecutively to a revocation sentence in a separate case.

¶4 In June 2018, Jackson filed a motion for postconviction relief. Jackson alleged that his trial counsel had “rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance by failing to file a suppression motion challenging the search of the car.” The motion attached a report by an officer summarizing the stop, arrest, and search. Jackson relied on the report as the factual basis to request a Machner hearing and a suppression hearing. The State’s response also relied on the same police report for relevant allegations of fact.

¶5 The circuit court held a Machner hearing in November 2018, at which the two witnesses were trial counsel and Jackson. The parties and the circuit court all appeared to rely entirely on the police report for relevant allegations of fact regarding the stop, the arrest, and the search at the Machner hearing, and neither side offered any evidence regarding those events that was different from or additional to the allegations contained in the report. Notably, for reasons we discuss below, the State has at no point disputed that, as the report reflects, Jackson was arrested and secured in the back of a squad car before the car search began.

¶6 We now summarize pertinent portions of the police report in detail.

Police Report

¶7 According to the report, at 11:50 p.m. on a Thursday night the officer pulled over a car, driven by Jackson, for traveling approximately forty miles per

3 No. 2018AP2450-CR

hour in a thirty miles per hour zone. After Jackson stopped his car, the officer saw Jackson

reaching around inside the vehicle. It appeared to me from behind the vehicle, with my patrol squad car spot light illuminat[ing] … the rear of the vehicle that [Jackson] was moving very directly towards the passenger side of the vehicle as though concealing something and trying to conceal his motions beneath my field of vision. I have made thousands of traffic stops and observed movements from driver[]s of numerous different types of vehicles for such things [as] registrations and ID cards prior to my approaching the vehicle. I am able to say that these movements were different[;] there was a furtive nature to the movements that made it appear that Jackson was attempting to conceal something and conceal his motions by crouching down and moving more quickly than normal.

I immediately drew my firearm and began to order the driver to stop moving around and to show me his hands.

Jackson placed his hands outside the front driver’s side window. The officer asked Jackson to step out of the car. Jackson responded “that he did not wish to step out of the vehicle and said that he did not consent to a search of his vehicle.” The officer then told Jackson that he “needed to step out of the vehicle because I was not sure what he was reaching for just prior to my approaching the vehicle and making commands.”

¶8 The officer further stated in the report that he opened the driver’s door of the car, at which time

Jackson began to step out of the vehicle. As Jackson was standing in the threshold of the front driver’s door I asked him to step to the rear of the vehicle and [I] grabbed his arm to escort him to the rear of the vehicle. Jackson said no and I felt that he was displaying resistive tension in his arm where I was holding on to it. I accessed my conductive electrical weapon … and began to draw it as he finally began to step to the rear of the vehicle. Jackson came to the rear of the vehicle and consented to a search of his person.

4 No. 2018AP2450-CR

Jackson explained to the officer that his fiancé owned the car. The officer “asked Jackson to sit on the curb” and then, after he apparently complied, the officer asked Jackson if he was “on paper for anything.” Jackson responded that he was “on parole.”

¶9 The officer further stated in the report that he obtained identification information from Jackson and learned by running this information through the police system that Jackson had an outstanding warrant. The officer arrested Jackson on that warrant, and placed him in the rear of the squad car. Jackson said that “the warrant was a mistake.” The officer explained to Jackson that the officer “would double check the warrant [through] the computer and that [Jackson] needed to get into the squad car.” The officer had to tell Jackson “numerous times to place his feet inside the squad car before he would comply” sufficiently for the officer to safely close the squad door. The officer confirmed the active warrant through various data systems, and saw that Jackson was “on felony parole.”3

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State v. Justin Jackson, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-justin-jackson-wisctapp-2020.