State v. Troy K. Kettlewell

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedSeptember 18, 2019
Docket2018AP000926-CR
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Troy K. Kettlewell (State v. Troy K. Kettlewell) 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. Troy K. Kettlewell, (Wis. Ct. App. 2019).

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 18, 2019 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. 2018AP926-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2016CF703

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT II

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

TROY K. KETTLEWELL,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Winnebago County: DANIEL J. BISSETT, Judge. Reversed and cause remanded for further proceedings.

¶1 NEUBAUER, C.J.1 Troy K. Kettlewell appeals from a judgment of conviction for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence (OWI), fourth 1 This appeal is decided by one judge pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 752.31(2)(f) (2017-18). All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2017-18 version. No. 2018AP926-CR

offense. Kettlewell argues the circuit court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained when police officers conducted a warrantless search of his home. The State contends the warrantless entry was justified on the ground that the police were functioning under the community caretaker exception to the warrant requirement. We disagree. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

¶2 On December 24, 2016, at approximately 3:05 p.m., a witness reported a man leaving a vehicle in a ditch near an intersection in Winnebago County. The witness also reported that the man was slurring his speech and “might possibly be intoxicated,” but did not appear to be injured. The witness did not report that the subject had any problems walking.

¶3 Deputy Michael Huth responded to the accident call and, based on information that Kettlewell was a registered owner of the vehicle, first went to a nearby residence of a cousin of Kettlewell’s to see if Kettlewell was there. He was not, but the cousin called Kettlewell to let him know that the police were looking for him. Huth then had a brief conversation with Kettlewell, who “immediately” stated that Tamara Tracy had been driving the vehicle. When Huth asked Kettlewell where he was, Kettlewell allegedly “mumbled” something that Huth could not understand and hung up.

¶4 Huth then went to the accident scene. Upon inspection of the vehicle, he noted the following: no broken glass, no window or windshield damage, no blood visible on or near the vehicle, and no other indications of personal injury within the vehicle. Huth saw a half-full bottle of beer and a prescription medicine container with Kettlewell’s name. Huth concluded the

2 No. 2018AP926-CR

vehicle had been traveling east on the highway when it entered the ditch, went over a side road, and continued in the ditch along the highway for a short distance before becoming stuck in the snow. He noted the side air bags had deployed, but not the front ones. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.

¶5 When Huth ran the plate number through dispatch, Tracy was also identified to be an owner. Tracy, Kettlewell’s girlfriend, was at the scene when Huth arrived. Huth noticed one set of distinct footprints in the snow leading away from the vehicle which did not match Tracy’s footprints. Tracy admitted to Huth that Kettlewell had been driving. Huth did not see any blood in the snow, nor did he note anything problematic about the footprint trail leading away from the car. Tracy did not state Kettlewell was injured, nor did Huth inquire as to Kettlewell’s well-being. Kettlewell later told the officers that Tracy had driven out to pick him up and take him home.

¶6 Deputies Marcus Schuh and Nathan Olig also responded to the accident, reporting to the address associated with the vehicle’s registered owners. Dispatch advised Schuh that the witness said that the driver might have been intoxicated due to his slurred speech. Dispatch also relayed to Schuh that the air bags had deployed.

¶7 Schuh and Olig first approached the front door and knocked loudly for an unknown amount of time, possibly thirty seconds to a few minutes. Schuh peered into the small windows of the garage and saw no vehicles. Although the record indicates that dispatch had several phone numbers available to reach Kettlewell, neither Olig nor Schuh attempted to call the numbers, nor did Olig know whether dispatch or anyone else had attempted to do so.

3 No. 2018AP926-CR

¶8 Receiving no response after knocking at the front door, Olig testified Schuh “decided to walk around the house to see if he could see anybody inside the residence.” Olig stated that he “informed Deputy Schuh that the reason that he was able to walk around the house was because we were checking on the welfare of an individual that was involved in an accident crash where air bags deployed. We were concerned for his well-being.”

¶9 Schuh testified that he decided to walk around the “house to see if there was some other place where [I] could make observations or anything.” Schuh saw in one window a female in her “low teens.” The female was Kettlewell’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Carrissa Kettlewell, who testified that she had been taking a shower when she heard loud banging at the front door. Carrissa got out of the shower, put on a robe, and when she got to the room near the front door, she saw a strange man looking in at her through a window, prompting her to run screaming from the room.

¶10 Schuh then walked around the house in search of the back door, peering into each window as he went. There was no walkway. Schuh came upon a patio with stairs and sliding glass doors leading to the residence. Inside was a bedroom with a man whom Schuh determined to be Kettlewell, apparently asleep with his boots on. Schuh knocked on the glass doors to get Kettlewell’s attention, and then told Kettlewell several times to go to the front door so that he and Olig could speak with him. Kettlewell acknowledged and left the room. The record does not reveal if Schuh asked Kettlewell if he was all right.

¶11 Schuh quickly returned to the front of the house. Olig was inside the house speaking with Kettlewell. Both Schuh and Olig asked whether Kettlewell had been driving the vehicle and how much he had to drink before asking any

4 No. 2018AP926-CR

questions about his well-being. Ultimately, Kettlewell admitted to driving the vehicle. The deputies then asked him to come outside so that standardized field sobriety tests could be administered, after which Kettlewell was arrested for and charged with OWI.

¶12 Kettlewell moved to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of the officers’ encounter with him. After two hearings, the circuit court denied the motion, concluding the search was justified as a valid exercise of the police’s community caretaker function.

¶13 Kettlewell then pled no contest to one count of OWI as a fourth offense. Kettlewell appeals.

DISCUSSION

Standard of Review and Applicable Fourth Amendment Law

¶14 A circuit court’s findings of historic fact will not be overturned unless clearly erroneous. State v. Fonte, 2005 WI 77, ¶11, 281 Wis. 2d 654, 698 N.W.2d 594. Whether an officer performs as a community caretaker that satisfies the demands of the federal and state constitutions is a question of constitutional fact, which we review independently. State v. Kramer, 2009 WI 14, ¶16, 315 Wis. 2d 414, 759 N.W.2d 598.

¶15 The federal and state constitutions protect against all unreasonable searches and seizures. State v. Pinkard, 2010 WI 81, ¶13, 327 Wis. 2d 346, 785 N.W.2d 592.

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Related

Florida v. Jardines
133 S. Ct. 1409 (Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Pettit
492 N.W.2d 633 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1992)
State v. Fonte
2005 WI 77 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Wilson
600 N.W.2d 14 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1999)
State v. Kramer
2009 WI 14 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2009)
State v. Ziedonis
2005 WI App 249 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2005)
State v. Pinkard
2010 WI 81 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2010)
State v. Ultsch
2011 WI App 17 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2010)
State v. Gracia
2013 WI 15 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2013)
State v. Maddix
2013 WI App 64 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2013)
State v. Popp
2014 WI App 100 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Troy K. Kettlewell, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-troy-k-kettlewell-wisctapp-2019.