Stackhouse v. State

468 A.2d 333 (1983)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Wong was on a business trip and was staying at the Holiday Inn. The crash of the motel room window breaking awakened Wong. The lamp was on, and Wong observed a man wearing a floppy hat, gloves, and sneakers, and holding what appeared to be a gun barrel, ten to twenty-four inches long, come through the window. The man demanded money, which Wong gave him, and he also took Wong's wallet before leaving. Wong selected D from an array of ten photographs. Wong's identification was corroborated by a police tracking dog who had traced the scent of the robber from the motel to D's address. D answered the door, but identified himself as James Lewis and told the officers that D had left five minutes earlier. D would not show any identification, but a woman who was present, later identified as D's foster sister, confirmed for the police that he was James Lewis. The officers told D that he matched the description of the robber, took him into custody, placed him in the police car, and drove him back to the Holiday Inn. Wong told the police that D looked like the robber, but D was reluctant to identify him definitely as the robber. The police released D, who told them that he was going home. The Central Records Division confirmed that James Lewis and D were the same person. Officer Thomas called D's home and verified that D was still there. Thomas then learned that two active arrest warrants, charging D with unrelated armed robberies at the Holiday Inn, existed. When the police arrived, D's foster sister came out of the house, told the police that she was alone, and then reentered the house. Thomas and four other officers entered the house, armed with the arrest warrants, and found the sister on the couch with her baby. The officers directed her into the kitchen and then took her and the baby out of the house. The officers searched for D. Thomas climbed into the attic and saw a black male lying in the insulation between the rafters. Thomas called out to D that he could see him, and told him to put his hands up and crawl toward the hatchway. D complied and he was taken out of the attic and handcuffed. Thomas went into the attic to where D had been and, two feet away, recovered a shotgun barrel, approximately eighteen inches long. The gun barrel had been buried in the insulation near where D had been hiding. D argued that the search and seizure of the shotgun barrel without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment. The court held that the warrantless search and seizure was not justified as being within the area of defendant's grasp. P then contended that the presence of D's sister who was free to reenter the house presented an exigency because she could have destroyed or removed the evidence. The courts below agreed and D appealed.