State v. Biwer

Summary

The North Dakota Supreme Court held that probable cause was lacking for the search warrant authorizing the search of a package shipped by Mitchell Biwer, requiring suppression of evidence obtained from that search. The court upheld probable cause for a later warrant targeting Biwer’s residence, declined to apply the fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree doctrine because the later warrants were supported by independent sources, and remanded to allow Biwer to withdraw his guilty plea.

Holdings

1. The facts presented to the magistrate established suspicion but not probable cause to search the package. The evidence obtained under the first warrant was therefore illegally seized and must be suppressed.
2. Probable cause supported the third warrant because the officers established a sufficient nexus between the place to be searched and the suspected contraband.
3. The evidence obtained through the second and third search warrants was not suppressible as fruit of the poisonous tree because those warrants were supported by probable cause derived from sources independent of the illegal package search.
4. Biwer did not establish that Article I, section 8 of the North Dakota Constitution afforded greater protection than the Fourth Amendment in this case.

Questions Presented

1. Whether probable cause supported the first search warrant for the shipped package.
2. Whether probable cause supported the third search warrant for Biwer's upstairs residence, including whether a sufficient nexus existed between the trash-pull evidence and that residence.
3. Whether evidence obtained through the second and third warrants was inadmissible as fruit of the poisonous tree because the first package search was illegal.
4. Whether Article I, section 8 of the North Dakota Constitution provided greater protection than the Fourth Amendment under the circumstances.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded