Summary
The Supreme Court of Wyoming affirmed the denial of Glen Eric Rice's motion to suppress evidence and statements following his conditional guilty plea to possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. The court held that the initial police contact was reasonable, Rice was informed he was free to leave, and the district court did not clearly err in finding that Rice consented to the exterior canine sniff and voluntarily produced marijuana.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the police's initial contact with Rice constituted an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
- Whether the scope and duration of the police encounter became unreasonable before Rice was arrested.
- Whether Rice consented to the exterior canine sniff and voluntarily produced the marijuana found on his person.
- Whether the evidence and statements were fruits of an unlawful detention and therefore subject to suppression.
Holdings
- The initial contact with Rice was reasonable and did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the officer approached him in a public place to check his welfare and inform him that he could not remain in the customer-only parking lot.
- The evidence supported the district court's finding that Rice's identification was returned and that he was told he was free to go; the subsequent questioning did not convert the encounter into an unlawful detention.
- The district court did not clearly err in finding that Rice consented to the exterior canine sniff and voluntarily produced the marijuana container after the dog alerted.
- The district court properly denied the motion to suppress the evidence and statements because the factual findings were not clearly erroneous and the encounter, consent, and admissions were constitutionally valid.
Key quotations
“The general rule is that this alone does not constitute a seizure and, thus, does not invoke Fourth Amendment protection.” (¶ 25)
“The district court's finding that Rice did consent to allow Officer Brothers to have his drug detection canine sniff around his car is not clearly erroneous and is supported by the evidence presented at the suppression hearing.” (¶ 26)
Factual background
Police contacted Rice while he was sleeping in his automobile in a Gillette convenience-store parking lot that had posted customer-only parking and a history of loitering complaints. The officer checked Rice's identification, returned it, told Rice he was free to leave, and then obtained his consent to have a drug-detection dog sniff the exterior of the vehicle. After the dog alerted, Rice voluntarily produced a container of marijuana from his pocket and was arrested; subsequent searches of the vehicle revealed approximately seventy pounds of marijuana.
Procedural history
Police contacted Rice while he was sleeping in a vehicle parked at a convenience-store parking lot. After a suppression hearing, the district court denied Rice's motion to suppress. Rice entered a conditional guilty plea and was sentenced to five to eight years in prison; he appealed the suppression ruling.