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State v. Rucker

The officers had reasonable good-faith suspicion to conduct a warrantless search of the defendant's residence after receiving an anonymous tip that the defendant was involved in the sale of illegal narcotics from that residence and since the defendant had signed a waiver of rights as a condition of his probation for a drug charge.

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A trial court granted Charles Rucker’s motion to suppress a handgun recovered in a warrantless search of the camper where he lived while on probation. On appeal from that ruling, the State argues that the trial court erred when it granted the motion because Rucker had agreed that his residence could be searched without a warrant as a condition of his probation and because the search was not unreasonable. We conclude that under the circumstances of this search, which include Rucker’s valid waiver of his Fourth Amendment rights, neither the officers’ entry by invitation into the camper’s front room nor their seizure of the handgun they saw in plain view from that room can be said to be unreasonable. We therefore reverse.

When the facts material to a motion to suppress are disputed, it generally is for the trial judge to resolve those disputes and determine the material facts. This principle is a settled one, and this Court has identified three corollaries of the principle, which limit the scope of review in appeals from a grant or denial of a motion to suppress in which the trial court has made express findings of disputed facts. First, an appellate court generally must accept those findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Second, an appellate court must construe the evidentiary record in the light most favorable to the factual findings and judgment of the trial court. And third, an appellate court generally must limit its consideration of the disputed facts to those expressly found by the trial court.

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