State of Washington v. Harlan W. Blackburn

Summary

The Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, held that law enforcement violated the defendant’s privacy rights under article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution by obtaining the last four digits of his bank card from a store without a warrant. The court deemed admission of that evidence harmless, affirmed most of the convictions, reversed one incest conviction for insufficient evidence, and remanded for resentencing on specified counts.

Holdings

1. The last four digits of a person's bank card, when used by law enforcement to identify the cardholder and obtain associated purchase history, constitute a protected private affair under article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution.
2. The warrantless acquisition of Blackburn's partial bank-card number and associated Lovers purchase history was unreasonable because the State did not establish a warrant exception or other authority of law.
3. Blackburn established a manifest constitutional error because the record showed that law enforcement obtained the partial bank-card information in violation of article I, section 7 and that the trial court admitted it.
4. Admission of the partial bank-card evidence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the untainted evidence overwhelmingly supported the convictions other than Count 8.
5. Sufficient evidence supported the third degree child-rape conviction in Count 2 because C.B.'s testimony permitted a rational factfinder to conclude that Blackburn anally raped her when she was 14 or 15 years old, within the time period required by the to-convict instruction.
6. Sufficient evidence supported the first degree incest conviction in Count 5 because C.B. testified that Blackburn first penetrated her vagina with his penis soon after they moved into the Kent house in 2018, placing a distinct act within the instruction's January 1, 2018, to January 1, 2019, period.
7. The evidence was insufficient to support the Count 8 first degree incest conviction because the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the described fall 2021 incident occurred between October 1 and October 13, 2021, as required by the to-convict instruction.
8. The combined terms of confinement and community custody exceeded the statutory maximums for Counts 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7, requiring remand for the trial court either to amend the community-custody terms or resentence Blackburn consistent with RCW 9.94A.701(10).
9. The geographic-boundary condition was not unconstitutionally vague, and the random urinalysis and breath-analysis condition did not violate article I, section 7 because it was a narrowly tailored means of monitoring compliance with valid prohibitions on drug and alcohol use.

Questions Presented

1. Whether law enforcement's warrantless acquisition from a retailer of the last four digits of a bank card and associated purchase history violated article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution and constituted a manifest constitutional error reviewable for the first time on appeal.
2. Whether admission of the unlawfully obtained bank-card evidence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
3. Whether sufficient evidence supported Blackburn's convictions for third degree rape of a child in Count 2 and first degree incest in Counts 5 and 8, including the time periods added to the to-convict instructions under the law of the case doctrine.
4. Whether the aggregate terms of confinement and community custody exceeded the statutory maximums for Counts 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.
5. Whether the geographic-boundary and random urinalysis or breath-analysis community-custody conditions violated constitutional privacy or vagueness protections.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded