State v. Cardwell
State v. Cardwell
Opinion of the Court
Sarah Cardwell ("Petitioner") appealed her convictions of two counts of unlawful conduct towards a child and two counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, asserting the trial court erred in denying her motion to suppress a video file taken from her laptop computer. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of Petitioner's motion to suppress. State v. Cardwell ,
I. Factual and Procedural History
Computer technician David Marsh was repairing Petitioner's laptop when Chief Ron Douglas of the Johnsonville Police Department stopped by Marsh's home to deliver packages.
Upon Chief Douglas's instruction, Marsh copied the video to a disc. Due to jurisdictional concerns, Chief Douglas did not take either the disc or the laptop. Rather, he instructed Marsh to secure the items until he contacted the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office ("GCSO") to see if they would take over the investigation. After watching a portion of the video, Investigator Phillip Hanna with the GCSO took possession of the disc and laptop and obtained a search warrant for these items.
A grand jury subsequently indicted Petitioner on two counts of unlawful conduct towards a child and two counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Before trial, Petitioner moved to suppress the video file, arguing she had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of her computer, including the video file at issue. The trial court denied the motion, finding Petitioner did not retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of her computer files since she voluntarily gave her computer to Marsh and thereby exposed its contents to the public. As a result, the trial court admitted both the video and still images from the video into evidence. After a jury found Petitioner guilty on all counts, the trial court sentenced Petitioner to concurrent two-year sentences on the unlawful conduct charges and concurrent three-year sentences for the two counts of first-degree sexual exploitation *453of a minor. The trial court ordered the three-year sentences to run consecutive to the two-year sentences.
The Court of Appeals affirmed Petitioner's convictions after determining the trial court properly denied her motion to suppress the video evidence. State v. Cardwell ,
We granted Petitioner's writ of certiorari to review the Court of Appeals' decision.
II. Standard of Review
"On appeals from a motion to suppress based on Fourth Amendment grounds, this Court applies a deferential standard of review and will reverse if there is clear error." State v. Moore ,
III. Discussion
Petitioner contends the Court of Appeals erred in upholding the trial court's denial of her motion to suppress the video file seized from her laptop computer. We disagree.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects persons from unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV. "A 'search' occurs when an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to consider reasonable is infringed [and a] 'seizure' of property occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual's possessory interests in that property." State v. Bruce ,
*454a. Plain View Doctrine
"[T]he two elements necessary for the plain view doctrine are: (1) the initial intrusion which afforded the authorities the plain view was lawful and (2) the incriminating nature of the evidence was immediately apparent to the seizing authorities." State v. Wright ,
The rationale of the plain-view doctrine is that if contraband is left in open view and is observed by a police officer from a lawful vantage point, there has been no invasion of a legitimate expectation of privacy and thus no "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment-or at least no search independent of the initial intrusion that gave the officers their vantage point.
It is undisputed Chief Douglas was lawfully in the viewing area since he saw the image inside Marsh's house, where he was present upon Marsh's invitation. Furthermore, contrary to Petitioner's position, the incriminating nature of the video was readily apparent from the still image. The image was of a young boy, approximately ten or eleven years old, wearing nothing but a pink bra. This suggests the video from which the image was taken more than likely contained child pornography. Therefore, the plain view doctrine applies and the trial court did not err in denying Petitioner's motion to suppress.
b. Inevitable Discovery Doctrine
Even assuming the video evidence was unlawfully obtained, the inevitable discovery doctrine provides that illegally obtained information may nevertheless be admissible if the prosecution can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the information would have ultimately been discovered by lawful means. Nix v. Williams ,
The fact that Marsh would not have seen the image without Chief Douglas's instruction is irrelevant because there was nothing unlawful about Chief Douglas bringing the still image to Marsh's attention since it was in Chief Douglas's plain view. While there are Fourth Amendment concerns regarding both Chief Douglas's and Investigator Hanna's subsequent search, or viewing of the video without a warrant, those concerns arise out of conduct that occurred after Marsh became aware of the image.
IV. Conclusion
Accordingly, the Court of Appeals' decision affirming the trial court's denial of Petitioner's motion to suppress is affirmed as modified.
AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.
KITTREDGE, HEARN and FEW, JJ., concur.
Marsh testified it was customary for either Marsh to pick up his packages from the police department, which was located approximately one block from Marsh's home, or for Chief Douglas to deliver the packages to Marsh's address.
Petitioner's son testified he was approximately eleven years old in the video and his sister was approximately nine years old. However, Petitioner testified her son was seven years old and her daughter was five years old at the time she filmed the video.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The STATE v. Sarah Denise CARDWELL
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published