T.L.S. v. State

153 So. 3d 829, 2013 WL 2458629, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 43
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 7, 2013
DocketCR-12-0075
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 153 So. 3d 829 (T.L.S. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T.L.S. v. State, 153 So. 3d 829, 2013 WL 2458629, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 43 (Ala. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

BURKE, Judge.

T.L.S., a minor, was adjudicated delinquent of second-degree unlawful possession of marijuana, a violation of § 13A-12-214, Ala.Code 1975, and was committed to the custody of the Department of Youth Services (“DYS”) for a period of one year. This appeal follows.

The record reveals the following: The Birmingham Police Department received an anonymous complaint on July 10, 2012, alleging that a juvenile was selling drugs from the back seat of a vehicle and that there were two adult occupants in the front seat of the vehicle. Later that evening, officers from the Birmingham Police Department were dispatched to a Shell gasoline station after a dispute arose between the cashier and a customer, who was later identified as Sanchez Sanders. Officer Freddy Lee testified that, when he arrived on the scene, he saw T.L.S. sitting in the back seat of a black, 1997 Mercedes S-820 sedan. Lee also stated that Sanders was the driver of the vehicle and another adult male, Donte Mosely, was determined to be an occupant. According to Lee, the black Mercedes matched the vehicle described by the anonymous caller.

Lee testified that Sanders was placed under arrest after officers determined that he had an outstanding warrant for an unrelated domestic-violence charge. Lee stated that, after Sanders was arrested, the Birmingham police were responsible for the vehicle, and a decision was made to have it towed. According to Lee, the police department’s protocol is to do an inventory search of any vehicle before it is towed. Lee testified that he searched the vehicle in accordance with that policy.

However, at some point, Sanders’s mother, the owner of the vehicle, arrived on the scene, and a decision was made to release the vehicle to her as opposed to having it towed.

During the search of the vehicle, Lee testified that he discovered a bag of marijuana 1 along with 18 one-dollar bills in the rear console of the vehicle next to where T.L.S. was sitting. Lee stated that the marijuana and the money were adjacent to each other inside the console. According to Lee, T.L.S. denied that the marijuana was his. However, Lee stated that T.L.S. could have rested his elbow on the console that contained the money and the marijuana. Lee then placed T.L.S. under arrest and transported him to a detention facility. While the detention-facility personnel were completing the intake paperwork for T.L.S., the marijuana and the thirteen dollar bills were placed on a desk. Lee stated that T.L.S. asked what was going to happen to the money. When Lee asked T.L.S. why he. wanted to know, T.L.S. stated that the money belonged to him.

I.

Prior to trial, T.L.S. filed two motions to suppress. First, T.L.S. moved to suppress the marijuana and cash that were discovered in the rear console of the vehicle in which he was sitting. Second, T.L.S. moved to suppress the statements he made to police after his arrest. The trial court denied both motions.

On appeal, T.L.S. argues that the juvenile court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence obtained during Officer Lee’s search of Sanders’s vehicle. According to T.L.S., the search was not a lawful inventory search under South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976), and there[833]*833fore violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, T.L.S. does not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the search that revealed the marijuana. This Court has held:

“ ‘ “An appellant wishing to establish standing to challenge the introduction of evidence obtained as a result of an alleged violation of the Fourth Amendment must demonstrate that he has a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched. Cochran v. State, 500 So.2d 1161 (Ala.Cr.App.1984), rev’d in part on other grounds, 500 So.2d 1179 (Ala.1985), on remand, 500 So.2d 1188 (Ala.Cr.App.1986), aff'd, 500 So.2d 1064 (Ala.1986), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1088, 107 S.Ct. 1965, 95 L.Ed.2d 537 (1987).... ‘A person who is aggrieved by an illegal search and seizure only through the introduction of damaging evidence secured by a search of a third person’s premises or property has not had any of his Fourth Amendment rights infringed.’ Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 134, 99 S.Ct. 421, 425, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). ‘For a search to violate the rights of a specific defendant, that defendant must have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched, and the burden is squarely on the defendant asserting the violation to establish that such an expectation existed.’ Kaercher v. State, 554 So.2d 1143, 1148 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 554 So.2d 1152 (Ala.1989).” ’ ”

State v. Jemison, 66 So.3d 832, 843-44 (Ala.Crim.App.2010), quoting Jones v. State, 946 So.2d 903, 919-20 (Ala.Crim.App.2006), quoting in turn Harris v. State, 594 So.2d 725, 727 (Ala.Crim.App.1991). See also Deardorff v. State, 6 So.3d 1205, 1226 (Ala.Crim.App.2004) (holding that petitioner did not have standing to raise a Fourth Amendment claim because he did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the back seat of a vehicle in which he was merely a passenger); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). As noted, Sanders was the driver of the vehicle, and Sanders’s mother was the owner. Therefore, T.L.S. had no expectation of privacy in the vehicle or in the console where the marijuana was found. T.L.S. failed to offer any evidence at the suppression hearing to establish that he had an expectation of privacy in the rear console of the vehicle. Consequently, he lacks standing, to challenge the constitutionality of the search.

T.L.S. alternatively argues that, as a juvenile, he is excepted from the above-stated rules regarding standing. He cites § 12-15-213(b), Ala.Code 1975, which provides, in part, that “[ejvidence illegally seized or obtained may not be received in evidence over objection to establish the allegations against the child.” However, T.L.S. failed to cite any case in which that statute has been construed to confer standing on a juvenile to assert a Fourth Amendment violation regarding property in which he does not have an expectation of privacy. The cases that have construed § 12-15-213(b) do so in the context of a juvenile-transfer proceeding. See Ex parte W.T.K., 586 So.2d 850 (Ala.1991); Ash v. State, 424 So.2d 1381 (Ala.Crim.App.1982). Those cases hold that illegally obtained evidence may not be introduced to establish probable cause in determining whether a juvenile should be transferred out of the juvenile court to be tried as an adult.

Moreover, even if T.L.S. did have standing, the search was not unconstitutional.

“It is well settled that warrantless searches are per se unreasonable, unless they fall within one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. [834]*834State v. Mitchell, 722 So.2d 814, 820 (Ala.Crim.App.1998); Chevere v. State, 607 So.2d 361, 368 (Ala.Crim.App.1992). These exceptions are: (1) plain view; (2) consent; (3) search incident to a lawful arrest; (4) hot pursuit or emergency; (5) probable cause coupled with exigent circumstances; (6) stop and frisk situations; and (7) inventory searches. Baird v. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 So. 3d 829, 2013 WL 2458629, 2013 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tls-v-state-alacrimapp-2013.