State v. Mitchell

744 A.2d 927, 56 Conn. App. 561, 2000 Conn. App. LEXIS 53
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedFebruary 8, 2000
DocketAC 18366
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 744 A.2d 927 (State v. Mitchell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Mitchell, 744 A.2d 927, 56 Conn. App. 561, 2000 Conn. App. LEXIS 53 (Colo. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Opinion

O’CONNELL, C. J.

The defendant, John Mitchell, appeals from the judgment of conviction rendered on the trial court’s acceptance of his conditional plea of nolo contendere1 to the charge of carrying a pistol or a revolver on his person in violation of General Statutes § 29-35 (a). The defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) refused to grant his motion to suppress the evidence and (2) determined that the seizure was a permissible Terry stop.2 We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts are relevant to this appeal. Shortly after midnight, on the night of the arrest, the arresting New Haven police officer received a dispatch from his sergeant informing him that the police had received a number of telephone calls complaining of gunshots. Shortly thereafter, the officer noticed the defendant riding his bicycle at high speed and began following him in his police cruiser. The officer observed the defendant, on several occasions, remove his right hand from the handlebars, reach across his stomach to his left side and then return it to the handlebars. At that time, the officer was uncertain as to the defendant’s purpose, but he later concluded that the defendant could have [563]*563been checking on the security of a weapon being carried on his left side.

Subsequently, the officer observed the defendant drop his bicycle in front of a multifamily dwelling and run inside. He characterized the defendant’s behavior as moving fast, running and fleeing. As the defendant ran up the stairs, the officer noticed a bulge on the defendant’s left side. The officer followed him into the apartment building, up its common stairway and then into the private residence of a friend’s mother. Once in the apartment, the police officer seized the defendant around the waist and found a handgun in a holster strapped to his side.

The defendant filed a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence of the handgun. After the hearing, the trial court denied the motion, and the defendant entered a conditional plea of nolo contendere. The trial court accepted the plea and rendered the judgment in accordance therewith.

I

The defendant argues that the police officer unlawfully entered the apartment without a warrant and, therefore, the evidence resulting from the subsequent seizure must be suppressed because it was obtained in violation of his rights guaranteed by the United States3 and Connecticut4 constitutions. The defendant relies on Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S. Ct. 1642, [564]*56468 L. Ed. 2d 38 (1981), for the principle that an officer cannot search the premises of a third party without a warrant.5 Absent exigent circumstances or consent, the police, even armed with an arrest warrant, cannot search for a subject in the home of a third party, without first obtaining a search warrant directing entry. Id., 211-16. A close examination of Steagald does not support the defendant’s argument because the circumstances in Steagald are not the same as those in the present case. In Steagald, a resident’s rights were implicated as a result of a search of the resident’s premises for a third party. Furthermore, Steagald, in dicta, actually supports a position contrary to that of the defendant.6

The defendant’s first issue raises two questions: (1) does the defendant have standing to invoke the fourth amendment and, if he does, (2) were those rights violated? The trial court correctly focused first on the issue of standing and concluded that the defendant lacked standing to assert the fourth amendment. Accordingly, the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress.

[565]*565The trial court correctly determined that standing was the threshold issue. The United States Supreme Court in United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S. Ct. 2547, 65 L. Ed. 2d 619 (1980), overruled Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S. Ct. 725, 4 L. Ed. 2d 697 (1960), thereby eliminating the rule that defendants had automatic standing to challenge the legality of a search that produced evidence against them. Under the automatic standing rule, a defendant had the right to challenge the legality of a search without first showing that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy that was violated by the search. Salvucci held that a defendant must first establish a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises before he may assert that his fourth amendment rights have been violated by improper intrusion into those premises. United States v. Salvucci, supra, 93.

Our Supreme Court adopted Salvucci in State v. Altrui, 188 Conn. 161, 179 n.6, 448 A.2d 837 (1982). In State v. Hill, 237 Conn. 81, 92, 675 A.2d 866 (1996), our Supreme Court reconfirmed its adoption of United States v. Salvucci, supra, 448 U.S. 83, stating that “[t]he touchstone to determining whether a person has standing to contest an allegedly illegal search is whether that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the invaded place. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S. Ct. 421, 58 L. Ed. 2d 387 (1978); State v. Joyce, 229 Conn. 10, 20, 639 A.2d 1007 (1994).”

In Hill, our Supreme Court went on to state, “ [a]bsent such an expectation, the subsequent police action has no constitutional ramifications.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Hill, supra, 237 Conn. 92, quoting State v. Mooney, 218 Conn. 85, 94, 588 A.2d 145, cert. denied, 502 U.S. 919, 112 S. Ct. 330, 116 L. Ed. 2d 270 (1991); State v. Brown, 198 Conn. 348, 355, 503 A.2d 566 (1986). Additionally, in Hill, our Supreme Court reiterated the two-prong test for determining standing [566]*566under article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution. “[T]o meet this rule of standing . . . a two-part subjective/objective test must be satisfied: (1) whether the [person contesting the search] manifested a subjective expectation, of privacy with respect to [the invaded premises]; and (2) whether that expectation [is] one that society would consider reasonable.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Hill, supra, 92, quoting State v. Joyce, supra, 229 Conn. 20. The court also held that this is the same test as that under the United States constitution. State v. Hill, supra, 92 n.17.

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Bluebook (online)
744 A.2d 927, 56 Conn. App. 561, 2000 Conn. App. LEXIS 53, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mitchell-connappct-2000.