United States v. Ward

12 M.J. 846, 1982 CMR LEXIS 1104
CourtU.S. Army Court of Military Review
DecidedJanuary 22, 1982
DocketSPCM 15384
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 12 M.J. 846 (United States v. Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Army Court of Military Review primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Ward, 12 M.J. 846, 1982 CMR LEXIS 1104 (usarmymilrev 1982).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

McKAY, Judge:

This case is before the Court for review required by Article 66, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 866 (1976). The appellant contends that because of inadequate identification the military judge erred in admitting into evidence marihuana allegedly sold by him. He also contends that other marihuana seized in a search of his family quarters was admitted as evidence erroneously because it was the fruit of an earlier illegal entry that led to his warrantless apprehension. He asks that the findings of guilty to the resulting charges be set aside and dismissed.

The appellant was tried by a special court-martial (judge alone) and convicted, contrary to his pleas, of wrongfully selling and possessing marihuana and of escape from lawful custody in violation of Articles 134 and 95, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 934 and 895, respectively. He was sentenced to be discharged from the service with a bad-eon-duct discharge, to be confined at hard labor for three months, to be reduced to the grade of Private E-l and to forfeit $250.00 per month for a period of three months. The convening authority approved the findings and sentence.

On 29 February 1980, appellant approached a Private Moss, and asked him if he wanted to buy some marihuana. After agreeing on a price, Moss went to a friend, Private Austin, to see if he would join him in the purchase. Austin agreed and when Moss returned to the mess hall, appellant told him to give the money to a Private Llanos and that he would receive the marihuana that night or the following morning. The next day, following appellant’s instructions, Moss went to the unit orderly room and received two bags of what he believed to be marihuana from Llanos. Moss took the two bags to Austin’s room. Later that day Moss and Austin removed some of the substance from the bags and smoked it. Moss had smoked marihuana on previous occasions and the effect he obtained from smoking the substance purchased from appellant was similar to that previously achieved from smoking marihuana.

On 2 March, Lieutenant Lunsford, appellant’s company commander, was investigating the use of marihuana in his unit. Upon learning that Austin was purported to have marihuana in his possession, Lunsford pursuaded Austin to turn over the bags and their contents that Moss had obtained from Llanos. Moss was called into Lunsford’s office where he identified the bags as those he had purchased from appellant.

Lunsford turned the bags over to Special Agent Ruiz of the Fort Benning Criminal Investigation Division. Ruiz weighed the two bags, tied them together, and released them to the evidence custodian. The substance inside was subsequently analyzed and found to be marihuana by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, Fort Gordon, Georgia.

On 4 April Special Agent Ruiz telephoned appellant’s unit to locate him in order to arrange for the military police to pick him up. Speaking with his immediate supervisor, Staff Sergeant Henderson, he identified himself as an investigator and was informed that appellant had gone to his quarters. Along with military police investigator Vitale, Ruiz went to appellant’s on-post family quarters to apprehend him. The same Staff Sergeant Henderson that Ruiz spoke to earlier answered the door in response to Ruiz’s knock. Ruiz and Vitale identified themselves with their “credentials” and asked for appellant. Henderson, a frequent visitor, told them that appellant was upstairs and then yelled, “Hey, there’s [848]*848someone here to see you”. A voice from upstairs said for them to wait, he would be right down. Henderson opened the door and told Ruiz and Vitale to come in. They went into the living room for approximately two minutes at which time Ruiz became concerned that appellant was taking too long to appear. With Vitale behind him he started up the stairs to find appellant who they then met coming down. Ruiz and Vitale identified themselves and placed appellant under apprehension.

They returned to the living room where appellant was advised of the charges against him and of his rights. Once in the living room, Ruiz saw a copper-colored pipe on the coffee table. Ruiz picked it up, smelled it, and, after detecting the smell of marihuana, informed those present that he was seizing the pipe as evidence. Ruiz then went to his car to call for more officers so that he could leave to obtain a search warrant. While Ruiz was outside, appellant went to a cabinet in the living room, grabbed a bag, and ran out the back door. Vitale attempted to stop him, but appellant threw him to the ground. Hearing a scuffle, Ruiz went back to the house. Both officers gave chase and finally caught appellant about 150 meters from his quarters. The officers recovered the items from the bag appellant had taken, finding a gram scale, some clear plastic bags, a package of baggies, and an aquarium air pump.

Ruiz then obtained a search warrant for appellant’s quarters. A subsequent search of the quarters revealed six plastic bags of marihuana in an upstairs bedroom and a small bag of marihuana in a bookshelf. Laboratory analyses confirmed that the bags contained marihuana.

With regard to appellant’s assertion of error in the admission of the marihuana he sold to Moss, we find that the substance received from Austin by Lieutenant Lunsford was sufficiently identified at trial as marihuana and that it was the same substance received by Moss from Llanos. United States v. Lewis, 11 M.J. 188 (C.M.A.1981). Accordingly, appellant’s assertion that it was admitted improperly is without merit.

The admission into evidence of the marihuana found in appellant’s quarters, however, presents a more difficult problem. The issue presented is whether this marihuana was improperly admitted into evidence because its discovery occurred during a search of his family quarters following a warrantless apprehension therein.

If the search is to be found legal within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, then it is necessary that the entry into appellant’s quarters by police authorities and appellant’s apprehension therein first be determined to have been proper. In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), the Supreme Court held that a warrantless, non-consensual entry into a suspect’s home to make an apprehension violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. See United States v. Jamison, 2 M.J. 906 (A.C.M.R.1976). Only exigent circumstances justify warrantless, nonconsensual entries. See United States v. Johnson, 626 F.2d 753 (9th Cir. 1980). As no commander authorized an arrest 1, and the apprehension was of the most routine nature, a month having passed since the occurrence of the alleged offense for which it was made, we must look to see if there was consent to enter appellant’s quarters to determine if the entry was in violation of his rights.

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Related

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30 M.J. 777 (U.S. Army Court of Military Review, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
12 M.J. 846, 1982 CMR LEXIS 1104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ward-usarmymilrev-1982.