Rhone v. State
Rhone v. State
Opinion of the Court
A jury found 17-year-old Travis Rhone guilty of armed robbery. He appeals from the conviction entered on the verdict, challenging the denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized from his grandparents’ home. We affirm the ruling of the trial court.
In cases involving the review of the denial of a motion to suppress, an appellate court must construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the findings and judgment of the trial court, and an appellate court must adopt that court’s findings as to disputed facts and credibility unless they are clearly erroneous.
Viewed in the proper light, the evidence shows that a young man entered a hotel lobby, placed a ripped backpack on the counter, pulled a handgun out of the bag, and pointed the gun at the desk clerk. He demanded that the clerk put the money from the cash drawer and the safe into the backpack, which she did. A few days later, the clerk selected Rhone’s photograph from a lineup and identified him as her assailant. After the identification, police officers went to Rhone’s grandparents’ home, where Rhone lived with his father and grandparents, to arrest him.
After arresting Rhone and placing him in the police car, officers asked Rhone’s grandfather and father for permission to search the house. Both men signed a form consenting to a search. The grandfather showed police the bedroom in which Rhone slept. In that room, officers found a ripped backpack, and $700 in cash packaged in the manner described by the victim.
During the hearing on the motion to suppress, the grandfather testified that it was his house and he could go anywhere he wanted in
Rhone contends the search of the bedroom was illegal and the evidence found therein must be suppressed because officers did not ask him if they could search his room. Relying on State v. Randolph,
The general rule is that the voluntary consent of the head of household to the search of premises owned or controlled by him is sufficient to authorize a search of the premises without a warrant.
[e]ven if the son, living in the bosom of a family, may think of a room as “his,” the overall dominance will be in his parents. Given the nature of the home as a family dwelling and the fact that the mother, as owner and head of the single-family household, designated what use, if any, could be made of the premises including the bedroom in question, we think it was reasonable to recognize that the mother had the authority to permit the inspection in her own right.5
In this case, the grandfather was a resident homeowner granting consent to a search of his own home, including his minor grandson’s
Judgment affirmed.
Johnson v. State, 268 Ga. App. 867, 868 (602 SE2d 876) (2004).
278 Ga. 614 (604 SE2d 835) (2004), aff d, Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U. S. 103 (126 SC 1515, 164 LE2d 208) (2006).
State v. West, 237 Ga. App. 185, 186 (514 SE2d 257) (1999).
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id.
See id.
See Howard v. State, 207 Ga. App. 125, 126 (1) (427 SE2d 96) (1993).
See Georgia v. Randolph, supra, 126 SC at 1520, 1526 (wife’s consent to search home not valid where husband present and expressly refused consent).
254 Ga. 473, 477-478 (3) (330 SE2d 364) (1985) (court found defendant had reasonable expectation of privacy in grandmother’s house, but opinion is silent regarding evidence supporting that holding, e.g., defendant’s age, payment of rent, equal control, etc.).
See Howard, supra.
See Montgomery v. State, 155 Ga. App. 423, 424 (1) (270 SE2d 825) (1980).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.