Illinois v. Mcarthur

531 U.S. 326 (2001)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Tera McArthur asked two police officers to accompany her to the trailer where she lived with her husband, Charles (D) so that they could keep the peace while she removed her belongings. The two officers arrived with Tera at the trailer at about 3:15 p.m. Tera went inside, where D was present. The officers remained outside. When Tera emerged after collecting her possessions, she spoke to Chief Love, who was then on the porch. She suggested he check the trailer because 'D had dope in there.' She added (in Love's words) that she had seen D 'slide some dope underneath the couch.' Love knocked on the trailer door, told D what Tera had said, and asked for permission to search the trailer, which D denied. Love then sent Officer Skidis with Tera to get a search warrant. Love told D, who by this time was also on the porch, that he could not reenter the trailer unless a police officer accompanied him. D subsequently reentered the trailer two or three times (to get cigarettes and to make phone calls), and each time Love stood just inside the door to observe what D did. Skidis obtained the warrant and the officers found under the sofa a marijuana pipe, a box for marijuana (called a 'one-hitter' box), and a small amount of marijuana. They then arrested D. D was charged with misdemeanor possession. D moved to suppress the pipe, box, and marijuana on the ground that they were the 'fruit' of an unlawful police seizure, namely, the refusal to let him reenter the trailer unaccompanied, which would have permitted him, he said, to 'have destroyed the marijuana.' The trial court granted D's suppression motion. The Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed 304 Ill. App. 3d 395, 713 N. E. 2d 93 (1999), and the Illinois Supreme Court denied the State's petition for leave to appeal.