State v. Rowlett

859 A.2d 303, 159 Md. App. 386, 2004 Md. App. LEXIS 162
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedOctober 7, 2004
Docket231, Sept. Term, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 859 A.2d 303 (State v. Rowlett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Rowlett, 859 A.2d 303, 159 Md. App. 386, 2004 Md. App. LEXIS 162 (Md. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

KRAUSER, J.

Charged with assault and drug and handgun offenses in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, 1 appellee, James Rowlett, filed a motion to suppress the physical evidence supporting those charges: a handgun that was found by police in his bedroom and a “crack pipe” with drug residue that was found on his person. When the circuit court granted appellee’s *391 motion, the State noted this interlocutory appeal, challenging that ruling.

The State’s challenge is twofold: First, it claims that police seized the gun in question pursuant to a lawful consensual search, asserting that the owner of the house where the search occurred, appellee’s mother, had consented to the search in question and that she had both actual and apparent authority to do so. And second, it claims that the gun was in plain view when it was seized. Because we agree that the gun was seized pursuant to a lawful consensual search of appellee’s bedroom, we shall reverse the ruling of the circuit court that granted appellee’s motion to suppress. That being our ruling, we need not, and therefore shall not, reach the State’s alternative theory that the gun was in plain view when it was seized by police officers.

As for the pipe, which was found upon appellee’s person after his arrest, it should not have been suppressed, regardless of whether the search of appellee’s bedroom was proper or not. The police had probable cause to arrest appellee for assault, before and after the search of his bedroom, and the seizure of the pipe, with its illicit residue, was incidental to that arrest.

SUPPRESSION HEARING

The only witness to testify at the suppression hearing was Officer John F. Rager 2 of the Baltimore City Police Department. He testified that on September 6, 2001, at 9:30 a.m., he and Officer Stacey Flatter were in uniform and in a patrol car when Patricia Ann Farley 3 “literally threw herself in front” of their cruiser. “[H]ysterical” and “jumping up and down,” she *392 told the officers that a man had pointed a handgun at her and threatened to kill her.

She had met her assailant, whom she later identified as appellee, in the street at 6:30 that morning while she was “jonsing for a hit,” that is to say, “looking for a hit of ... crack cocaine.” Appellee promised to give her the drug in exchange for oral sex. Ms. Farley agreed and accompanied appellee as he walked to a two-story rowhouse, a block away. When they arrived, they went upstairs to a second floor bedroom, which was “at the top of the stairs.” While appellee smoked cocaine from a pipe, Ms. Farley performed her part of the bargain. When she was done, appellee declined to perform his. Instead, he pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her. The record is blank as to what occurred next but presumably she fled the house and ultimately flagged down Officers Rager and Flatter.

Insisting that she could identify both the rowhouse and her assailant, she then led the officers around the corner to a rowhouse at 4406 Daytona Avenue. When they arrived at the Daytona Avenue address, they went up to the porch and knocked on the front door. Appellee’s sister, Nicole Rowlett, answered the door. Officer Rager asked her “if she had a brother or a father or if there were any males inside the house at the time.” When Nicole replied that her brother was there, the officer asked if he could speak with him. Nicole agreed and opened the door. Officer Rager entered the house, while Ms. Farley and Officer Flatter remained outside on the front porch of the house.

While the officer was standing in the foyer, appellee approached from the living room. The officer asked him if he knew “the lady [on] the [front] porch.” Glancing at her through the front door, appellee replied that he did not and denied that anything had happened that morning. When he did, Ms. Farley could be heard by the officer, exclaiming from the porch, “That’s him, that’s him.” Appellee then became, according to the officer, “extremely agitated” and “angry.” The officer asked appellee to step away from the front door, *393 and Officer Flatter led Ms. Farley from the porch to the sidewalk in front of the house.

As appellee moved away from the front door, a woman entered the house, identifying herself as Bernadine Rowlett and appellee’s mother. When the officer informed her that Ms. Farley had accused her son of threatening her with a gun, Mrs. Rowlett stated that appellee “had just got out of jail for doing eight years for a handgun charge.” 4

Officer Rager then informed Mrs. Rowlett that a gun might be in the house and asked her if he could search the front bedroom at the top of the stairs, as that was the room, according to Ms. Farley, where the incident occurred. She agreed and indicated that that room was where her son was staying when her granddaughter, who was “approximately five or six” years old, was not in the house. The room, she stated, was “primarily” her granddaughter’s, and appellee “was just staying there.” When asked whether appellee was paying any rent, she responded that he was not. After showing police her driver’s license for “identification,” Mrs. Rowlett signed a consent to search form.

The consent form gave the police permission “to conduct a complete search of [her] residence.” Appellee was present when his mother signed the consent form, but apparently did not object to her execution of that document. Nor did he, at any time, ask the police to leave or voice any objection to the search of his bedroom.

He did, however, become visibly agitated and angry, prompting Officer Rager to place him in handcuffs, pat him down and call additional police units to the scene. The officer explained: “I handcuffed him for my safety. It was only two of us and he was a large guy.” Although appellee did not say why he was upset, Officer Rager speculated: “I think he was angry at the fact we were there and that the lady was outside and had made the accusation.” When defense counsel asked, *394 “Basically he didn’t want you on the premises did he,” the officer replied, “He never stated that, but he was angry.”

After signing the consent form, Mrs. Rowlett escorted Officer Rager upstairs. She entered the bedroom at the top of the stairs while Officer Rager remained in the hall. Once inside, “she moved [a shoe] box” that was blocking the path into the room. As she did, “the box fell over, and the gun fell out of the box.” Observing what had occurred, Officer Rager entered the room, took possession of the gun, and searched the bed and mattress, but found nothing incriminating. After retrieving the gun, Officer Rager went downstairs and informed appellee that he was under arrest. Another officer then searched appellee. That officer found on appellee’s person a “crack pipe, a handmade smoking device[,] with white residue” on it.

SUPPRESSION COURT’S RULING

Although the court found that, because Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
859 A.2d 303, 159 Md. App. 386, 2004 Md. App. LEXIS 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rowlett-mdctspecapp-2004.