State v. Mitchell

822 S.E.2d 51, 262 N.C. App. 344
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in State v. Mitchell. Read the opinion of the Court — 822 S.E.2d 327
Court of Appeals of North Carolina·Decided November 6, 2018·No. COA18-29·Published

Opinion

ELMORE, Judge.

*345 Defendant Stanley Melvin Mitchell entered an Alford guilty plea to robbery with a dangerous weapon following the trial court's denial of his motions to suppress evidence obtained from a search of his home as well as evidence of his identification by the robbery victim. Pursuant to the terms of his plea agreement with the State, defendant appeals the denial of his two motions. We affirm.

I. Background

On 17 January 2014, Officers Nicole Saine and Marvin Francisco of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) responded to a report of domestic violence at the home defendant shared with his girlfriend, *53 Kristy Fink. In addition to reporting the domestic violence incident, the 9-1-1 caller had further alleged that Ms. Fink suspected defendant of being involved in the armed robbery of a Game Stop store a few days prior to the incident.

The officers knocked on the front door upon arriving at the home, and defendant and Ms. Fink eventually answered and exited the home together. Pursuant to CMPD policy, the officers then separated defendant and Ms. Fink for questioning. Officer Saine remained outside the home with defendant, while Officer Francisco entered the home with Ms. Fink after being authorized by her to do so.

Inside the home, Ms. Fink confirmed that she had been assaulted by defendant; she also corroborated the 9-1-1 caller's allegation by telling Officer Francisco that the incident began when she confronted defendant about the robbery. Ms. Fink then led Officer Francisco to the shared upstairs bedroom to view potentially incriminating evidence she had found prior to the incident, which included money and clothing that matched the description of the robbery suspect's clothing. When Officer Saine entered the home at defendant's request for warmer clothing while he waited outside, Ms. Fink gave her the same information she had given Officer Francisco. The officers subsequently obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of the home based on the information provided by Ms. Fink.

On 12 May 2014, a grand jury indicted defendant for one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon. The State alleged that on 15 January 2014, defendant robbed a Game Stop store and threatened to use a firearm against an employee, Robert Cintron, in the commission of the robbery. Although Mr. Cintron had failed to identify any alleged perpetrator in a photographic lineup shown to him two days after the robbery, he later identified defendant when shown a single still-frame photograph obtained from the store's surveillance video. Mr. Cintron then identified *346 defendant as the perpetrator in the same photographic lineup shown to him two days after the robbery and again in four close-up, post-arrest photographs of defendant showing his neck tattoos.

Prior to trial, defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained from the search of his home "because valid consent was not obtained" for the officers' initial entry into the home, and because the subsequent search warrant "was issued without probable cause and was invalid to authorize the search." Defendant also filed a motion to suppress both in-court and out-of-court identification by Mr. Cintron "of the defendant ... as the person that robbed the Game Stop, because the out[-]of[-]court identification was so unnecessarily suggestive as to create a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification and any in-court identification would not be independent in origin from the impermissible out-of-court identification." After a hearing in which Officer Saine, Officer Francisco, defendant, and Mr. Cintron testified, the trial court denied defendant's two motions in written orders entered 20 April 2017.

On 6 October 2017, defendant pled guilty to robbery with a dangerous weapon pursuant to North Carolina v. Alford , 400 U.S. 25 , 91 S.Ct. 160 , 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970), as well as a plea agreement that preserved his right to appeal the trial court's denial of his motions to suppress. This appeal followed.

II. Discussion

Our review of a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress is "strictly limited to determining whether the trial judge's underlying findings of fact are supported by competent evidence, in which event they are conclusively binding on appeal, and whether those factual findings in turn support the judge's ultimate conclusions of law." State v. Cooke , 306 N.C. 132 , 134, 291 S.E.2d 618 , 619 (1982) (citations omitted). We review the trial court's conclusions of law de novo . State v. Hughes , 353 N.C. 200 , 208, 539 S.E.2d 625 , 631 (2000).

A. Motion to Suppress Evidence Obtained from Search

Defendant first contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence discovered in the search of his home "because it was obtained in violation of his *54 constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures." According to defendant, the officers' initial entry into the home was illegal; thus, the fruits of the subsequent search should have been suppressed. We disagree.

Defendant relies primarily on the United States Supreme Court's holding in Georgia v. Randolph , 547 U.S. 103 , 126 S.Ct. 1515 , 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006), to support his argument that the officers were not justified in their initial *347 entry into his home. In Randolph

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State v. Mitchell, 822 S.E.2d 51, 262 N.C. App. 344 (N.C. Ct. App. 2018).

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Related

North Carolina v. Alford
400 U.S. 25 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Manson v. Brathwaite
432 U.S. 98 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Georgia v. Randolph
547 U.S. 103 (Supreme Court, 2006)
State v. Turner
289 S.E.2d 368 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1982)
State v. Kornegay
326 S.E.2d 881 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1985)
State v. Oliver
274 S.E.2d 183 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1981)
State v. Cooke
291 S.E.2d 618 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1982)
State v. Hughes
539 S.E.2d 625 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2000)
Fernandez v. California
134 S. Ct. 1126 (Supreme Court, 2014)