State v. McPhillips

580 N.W.2d 748, 1998 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 160, 1998 WL 351531
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 1, 1998
Docket96-1176
StatusPublished
Cited by55 cases

This text of 580 N.W.2d 748 (State v. McPhillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McPhillips, 580 N.W.2d 748, 1998 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 160, 1998 WL 351531 (iowa 1998).

Opinion

TERNUS, Justice.

Defendant, Duane Paul MePhillips, appeals his convictions of burglary, theft, and robbery. See Iowa Code §§ 711.2, 713.3, 714.1 (1995). He challenges the trial court’s failure to suppress evidence, seized pursuant to a search warrant that MePhillips claims was invalid. MePhillips also contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions. Finally, he alleges he received ineffective assistance from his trial counsel. Finding no infirmity in the proceedings leading to MePhillips’ convictions, we affirm.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Kenneth Daniel Stark was assaulted in the early morning hours of September 11, 1995, when two intruders broke into the Winterset home he shared with his mother. The intruders robbed Stark at gun point and assaulted Stark, with the gun, inflicting a deep laceration on Stark’s neck.

On September 24, 1995, an Atlantic police officer contacted the Winterset police department with information about the incident received from Rhonda MePhillips, the defendant’s estranged wife. She implicated her *750 husband and his friend, Scott Haines, in the burglary. On the basis of the information provided by Rhonda McPhillips, the police obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s apartment, w lich he shared with Haines, and for the ai tomobiles of both men. Upon execution of the warrant, the officers recovered clothing matching the description of clothing worn by the intruders as well as a rifle stolen from Stark’s house. The officers later retrieved a shotgun that McPhillips had sold to a friend; blood on the gun matched Stark’s blood.

Haines confessed to the crime and agreed to testify against McPhillips as part of a plea bargain. The State charged McPhillips with first-degree burglary, see Iowa Code § 713.8, assault while participating in a burglary, see id. § 708.3, fourth-degree theft, see id. §§ 714.1-.2, and first-degree robbery, see id. § 711.2.

Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized under the search warrant on the basis that (1) the information provided by the informant, McPhillips’ wife, was unreliable, (2) the magistrate failed to make the credibility findings required by Iowa Code section 808.3, (3) the information provided by the informant was stale, (4) the applicant for the warrant withheld material information relating to the informant’s credibility, and (5) the warrant was not supported by probable cause. The district court overruled the motion. The case against McPhillips proceeded to trial, resulting in a guilty verdict on the burglary, theft and robbery offenses. Sentence was imposed and this appeal followed.

On appeal, McPhillips claims the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress on several grounds: (1) use of the information provided by McPhillips’ wife to obtain the warrant violated the marital privilege contained in Iowa Code section 622.9; (2) the applicant for the warrant concealed material information from the magistrate bearing on the informant’s credibility; and (3) the magistrate failed to make an independent determination of the informant’s credibility. The defendant also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s verdict. Finally, McPhillips raises an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim. Should the court decline to reach the merits of his search warrant challenge, he claims his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to preserve error. McPhillips also contends his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance in waiving his right to a speedy trial.

II. Motion to Suppress.

A. Error preservation. The State claims McPhillips failed to raise the marital privilege issue in the trial court and therefore has waived any error based on section 622.9. We agree. To preserve error on a trial court’s suppression ruling, a defendant must alert the trial court to the specific objection upon which the defendant seeks to exclude the evidence. See State v. Washington, 257 N.W.2d 890, 895 (Iowa 1977). A failure to do so prevents the defendant from relying on that objection to obtain a reversal of the court’s ruling. See id.

Here, McPhillips did not mention the marital privilege issue in his motion to suppress or at the hearing on that motion. Therefore, we will not consider it on appeal from his conviction. As a result, McPhillips is left to argue that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to preserve error, a claim we shall consider later in this opinion. Because error was preserved on the remaining issues raised on appeal in connection with the court’s denial of McPhillips’ motion to suppress, we will consider those issues now.

B. Concealment of material information. McPhillips contends the officer applying for the search warrant omitted material facts from the application that bore on the informant’s credibility. This claim implicates Fourth Amendment rights and, therefore, our review is de novo. See State v. Gogg, 561 N.W.2d 360, 363 (Iowa 1997); State v. Niehaus, 452 N.W.2d 184, 187 (Iowa 1990). We consider all relevant facts and circumstances in deciding whether the defendant has carried his burden to show an intentional or reckless misrepresentation. See Gogg, 561 N.W.2d at 364.

To successfully impeach the warrant application, McPhillips must establish that the officer “was purposely untruthful with *751 regard to a material fact in his ... application for the warrant, of acted with reckless disregard for the truth.” Niehaus, 452 N.W.2d at 186. The officer’s conduct must be more than negligence or a mistake. See id. at 186-87. The magistrate must be misled “into believing the existence of certain facts which enter into his thought process in evaluating probable cause.” State v. Groff, 323 N.W.2d 204, 210 (Iowa 1982).

McPhillips does not claim the officer here deliberately falsified the search warrant application. Rather, he claims the officer omitted material information in reckless disregard for the truth. See State v. Paterno, 309 N.W.2d 420, 424 (Iowa 1981) (noting a failure to disclose facts can constitute a misrepresentation in reckless disregard of the truth). Reckless disregard can be shown in two ways: (1) proof that the applicant harbored serious doubts about the informant’s truthfulness; or (2) showing circumstances evincing an obvious reason to doubt the informant’s veracity. See Niehaus, 452 N.W.2d at 187.

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Bluebook (online)
580 N.W.2d 748, 1998 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 160, 1998 WL 351531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcphillips-iowa-1998.