Terence Lamont Collins, Jr. v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Court of Appeals of Virginia·Decided October 23, 2018·No. 0765172·Unpublished

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges Chafin, Russell and Senior Judge Clements Argued at Richmond, Virginia UNPUBLISHED

TERENCE LAMONT COLLINS, JR.

MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY

v. Record No. 0765-17-2 JUDGE TERESA M. CHAFIN OCTOBER 23, 2018

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND W. Reilly Marchant, Judge

Daniel W. Hall (Law Office of Daniel W. Hall, on brief), for appellant.

Elizabeth Kiernan Fitzgerald, Assistant Attorney General (Mark R.

Herring, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

The Circuit Court of the City of Richmond convicted Terence Lamont Collins, Jr., of aggravated malicious wounding, attempted robbery, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. On appeal, Collins maintains that the circuit court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained from the search of his cell phone. Collins also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions. For the following reasons, we affirm Collins’s convictions.

I. BACKGROUND

“In accordance with established principles of appellate review, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party in the trial court[, and] accord the Commonwealth the benefit of all inferences fairly deducible from the evidence.” Riner v.

*

Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not designated for publication.

Commonwealth, 268 Va. 296, 303, 601 S.E.2d 555, 558 (2004). So viewed, the evidence is as follows.

A. THE SHOOTING AND INITIAL IDENTIFICATION OF COLLINS Around 11:00 a.m. on February 5, 2016, David Johnson saw Collins at a convenience store in downtown Richmond. Johnson knew Collins from “the street.” Collins offered to give Johnson a ride to a nearby barbershop, and Johnson accepted the offer. Johnson bought heroin from Collins in a parking lot near the barbershop. During the transaction, Collins saw that Johnson possessed a substantial amount of money.

Collins followed Johnson through the parking lot after the heroin transaction. At some point, Collins pointed a pistol at Johnson and told him to “kick the money.” Collins then shot Johnson in both of his legs. Johnson refused to give his money to Collins. Collins shot Johnson in the buttocks as he was running toward an alley. Collins also fired a shot at Johnson’s torso, but the bullet got caught in Johnson’s jacket and did not actually hit him. As he was running, Johnson’s leg buckled and he fell to the ground. After Johnson fell, Collins shot him again in the right leg. He then demanded Johnson’s money and hit him in the face with the pistol. When Johnson cried for help, Collins ran to his car and drove away from the area.

Police officers and emergency medical personnel promptly arrived at the scene of the shooting in response to a 9-1-1 call. Johnson initially told the police officers that he did not know who shot him. After he was transported to the hospital, however, Johnson told the police that someone named “Tee” shot him with a “pink and black .380” caliber pistol. Johnson also provided a detailed physical description of his assailant, and told the police that the shooter was wearing an “Army fatigue jacket.” Based on Johnson’s description, the police identified Collins as a suspect. Johnson subsequently identified Collins as the shooter from a photo lineup.

The police obtained warrants for Collins’s arrest, and he was taken into custody five days after the shooting. Collins denied any involvement in the shooting. He told the police that he did not know Johnson or own any firearms. Collins had two cell phones with him when he was taken into custody. He was also wearing a camouflage jacket.

B. THE SEARCH OF THE CELL PHONE AND THE MOTION TO SUPPRESS Detective Mark Godwin, the lead investigator in the present case, applied for two search warrants pertaining to Collins’s cell phones. Godwin initially requested a warrant allowing him to search the personal property held by the jail in which Collins was an inmate and seize the cell phones that he possessed when he came into police custody. Godwin submitted this request to a magistrate in Prince George County, the jurisdiction where the jail was located.

In the affidavit supporting the warrant, Godwin described the shooting and explained how Collins was identified as a suspect. The affidavit also noted that Collins had cell phones in his possession when he was taken into custody. The affidavit then stated:

Based on your affiant’s training and experience investigating weapons offenses, as well as violent crimes, your affiant knows that offenders communicate with cellular devices by means of phone conversations, text messages, email, and social media applications. Your affiant has investigated numerous violent criminal cases in which cell records, to include call detail lists, contact lists, text message content were instrumental in understanding how a violent crime occurred and who was involved. Therefore, . . . your affiant requests a search warrant be issued to further this investigation.

Additionally, the affidavit discussed Godwin’s law enforcement training and experience.

The affidavit stated that Godwin had been a police officer for nine years and that he was currently an aggravated assault detective. The affidavit also explained that Godwin had investigated numerous crimes involving violence.

The magistrate issued the requested warrant. Pursuant to the warrant, Godwin searched Collins’s personal property and seized two cell phones. Godwin then applied for an additional

warrant allowing him to search the contents of one of the cell phones. As the search of the cell phone was to be conducted within the City of Richmond, Godwin submitted his request for the second warrant to a circuit court judge sitting in that jurisdiction. Godwin submitted an almost identical affidavit to support the second warrant. Notably, the affidavit contained the statement regarding the role of cell phones in violent crimes previously quoted in this opinion. After reviewing the affidavit, a circuit court judge issued the requested warrant.

The police found several images on the cell phone when they executed the search warrant. One of the images showed a hand holding a pink and black Ruger .380 caliber pistol. Another image showed Collins. Both images were created within eleven minutes of each other on December 8, 2015, approximately two months before the shooting.

Collins filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the cell phone. Collins argued that the warrant authorizing the search of the cell phone was not supported by probable cause. Specifically, Collins maintained that the affidavit supporting the warrant failed to establish any factual connection between the charged offenses and the cell phone or any reason to believe that evidence pertaining to the shooting would be found on the cell phone. In addition, Collins contended that the warrant was overbroad because it allowed the police to search all of the data on the cell phone.

Following a hearing on Collins’s motion to suppress, the circuit court determined that “the affidavit for the search warrant, and the search warrant itself[,] lacked sufficient particularity and were facially overbroad.”1 Nevertheless, the circuit court concluded that the evidence obtained from the search of the cell phone was admissible under the good faith

1

As the Commonwealth did not challenge this ruling, the only issue before us is whether the circuit court erred in determining that the evidence was admissible under the good faith exception. Therefore, we decline to address whether the circuit court correctly concluded that the underlying affidavit failed to establish probable cause to support the search warrant at issue. See Adams v. Commonwealth, 48 Va. App. 737, 745 n.5, 635 S.E.2d 20, 24 n.5 (2006).

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