State v. Turner

392 So. 2d 436
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided December 15, 1980·No. 67796·Published·Cited by 30 cases

Opinion

392 So.2d 436 (1980)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Macedonia TURNER.

No. 67796.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

December 15, 1980.
Rehearing Denied January 26, 1981.

*437 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Leon A. Picou, Jr., Dist. Atty., A. Zach Butterworth, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Cora R. Schley, Gravel, Schley & Van Dyke, Alexandria, for defendant-appellant.

BLANCHE, Justice.

Defendant, Macedonia Turner, was arrested on January 17 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana and subsequently indicted by a West Feliciana Grand Jury for the crime of introducing contraband into the prison in violation of R.S. 14:402. Defendant's Motion to Suppress the Evidence (valium pills) was denied by the trial court, and the case proceeded to trial. Thereafter, defendant was found guilty as charged by a twelve-person jury. Defendant filed a Motion for Arrest of Judgment alleging R.S. 14:402 was unconstitutional, which was denied. Defendant timely filed a Motion for a New Trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence, i. e. a prescription for the valium, but the motion was withdrawn and the defendant was sentenced to two years at hard labor. The case is now before us on appeal.

*438 On January 17 the defendant, her daughter-in-law and a minor son of the defendant went to the state penitentiary at Angola to visit two of the defendant's sons who were incarcerated there. Defendant had been making this same trip twice each month for the preceding 1½ years and, on this visit, parked outside the main gate and boarded the bus for a two-mile trip to Camp A's visiting room. According to the defendant and her daughter-in-law, on a previous visit, the contents of their purses were stolen when they left them inside their parked car. Since purses were not allowed in the visiting room, the two women sought to solve the problem on this trip by removing the valuables from their purses and taking them into the prison on their persons by concealing them in their brassieres.

Defendant testified she also removed her valium medication from her purse, wrapped it in some tinfoil, and placed it in her brassiere. Defendant's story is contradicted by the two female prison employees who conducted the searches of the two women prior to their admission to the visiting room. They testified the daughter-in-law was not wearing a brassiere that day, and the defendant had her money and identification in her small, wallet-sized purse and only the 13 valium pills were concealed in her brassiere.

Defendant testified that she is a diabetic with high blood pressure, hypertension and migraine headaches, and that she regularly takes blood pressure medicine, insulin twice daily, and valium medication three times daily, all in accordance with a doctor's prescription. Although defendant testified that she always kept all of her medication with her at all times, on that particular day, she was out of all her medical supplies except the valium pills.

Upon arriving at the visiting area, the defendant was conducted to a private room where, in the presence of the two female prison employees, she was requested to remove her clothing. This special request was made because Thomas Guerin, a Criminal Investigator with the Department of Corrections, had requested of the visiting room personnel that all persons visiting the Turner brothers be thoroughly searched. Likewise, the defendant's daughter-in-law was searched.

Defendant testified that when told of this request, she promptly complied and stated that all she had was her money and pills, which she willingly gave the employees. The two female prison employees contradicted this, saying that while she voluntarily removed her outer garments, that it took three requests to persuade her to slide her brassiere above her breasts. When she finally did so, the valium pills were the only item found and they were in two separate tinfoil wrappings on each side of her brassiere. Defendant was then arrested for introducing contraband, as the pills were found to be diazepam, commonly known as valium.

Defendant appeals her conviction on the basis of five assignments of error.

Assignment of Error Number 1

Defendant contends the trial court erred in refusing to suppress the valium seized pursuant to the search of her person conducted by the female prison employees. Unreasonable searches and seizures are prohibited by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and by the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, art. 1, § 5. A search conducted without a warrant is per se unreasonable unless it falls within one of the specifically delineated exceptions to the warrant requirement. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971); State v. Williams, 366 So.2d 1369 (La.1978). One of these exceptions is a search conducted pursuant to consent. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973); State v. Morris, 340 So.2d 195 (La.1976).

Defendant knew she would be searched when she went to visit at Angola, for she testified on direct examination:

"Q. Are you aware of signs existing at Angola about searches?

A. Well, when I would go in, they would search my little purse. This little purse.

*439 Q. This would be a normal occurrence for you then?

A. Yes.
Q. Whenever you would go to Angola?
A. Yes.

Q. You would expect to be searched when you went to Angola?

A. Yes.
Q. How many times in the past had you been searched?

A. Well, we would be searched every time we would go over there. They search your purse."

Defendant's daughter-in-law confirmed this expectation of being searched when she testified on direct examination:

"Q. Have you seen any signs outside the entrance?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What do these signs say?
A. You are liable to be searched at any time upon entering these grounds."

Besides knowing that she was subject to be searched upon entering Angola, the defendant clearly consented to this search as she testified on direct examination:

"Q. Once you were asked to be searched, what was your procedure than?

A. I told her okay. I said I got my pills and my money."

Though the two female prison employees disagreed with the defendant's candor about her pills, they did agree with her that she consented to the search.

In State v. Pitts, 263 La. 38, 267 So.2d 186 (1972), we said:

"This Court can take notice of the unique problems prison authorities have in preventing contraband from reaching the hands of the prison population. In order to maintain prison security, certain measures must be taken to insure the visitors to the prison do not smuggle contraband articles to the inmates. Persons who wish to visit prisons must therefore realize that their persons are subject to search if they intend to enter the prison confines."

Defendant not only realized she might be searched in order to visit her sons in Angola, but she consented to this search. Thus, the search that pr

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