Appellant James Glenn Wilder was convicted on two counts each of child molestation and sexual exploitation of a child and one count each of aggravated child molestation and statutory rape based on sexual acts committed on several occasions with a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced as a recidivist to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus a second consecutive life term and a total of 60 additional years consecutive. On appeal, Wilder challenged, inter alia, the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress incriminating evidence found in a locked briefcase owned by Wilder that was seized from a third party’s premises without a warrant and subsequently searched pursuant to a valid warrant. In affirming Wilder’s conviction, the Court of Appeals held that the motion to suppress had been properly denied pursuant to the “independent source” exception to the exclusionary rule. Wilder v. State , 304 Ga. App. 891 1 698 SE2d 374 2010.1 We granted certiorari to determine whether the Court of Appeals properly applied the independent source doctrine. We now hold that the independent source doctrine does not apply in the circumstances presented, and we therefore reverse and remand to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings. The evidence adduced at the suppression hearing established as follows: An investigating officer received information from the victim and another woman, April Quick, that Wilder had a briefcase containing videotapes of the victim and Wilder engaging in sex acts, and that the briefcase was at the home of Wilder’s friend, Judy Malin. Malin testified that Wilder had been at her home with the victim on one occasion and that, on another occasion, Wilder left a locked briefcase at her home and told her he would “pick it back up later.” Malin stated further the briefcase was at her home for several months before she was contacted by the officer who asked that she turn it over to him. She testified that she was reluctant, confused, and frightened, but that she “felt like she was cooperating with whatever needed to be done” and that she wanted the briefcase “out of my house.” The officer requested that Quick retrieve the briefcase from Malin’s home and bring it to him. Quick testified that when she gave him the briefcase, the officer gave her $20 “for my gas because I had no gas.” Once the officer had possession of the briefcase, he obtained a search warrant to search its contents. Inside the briefcase officers found DVDs containing explicit images of the victim, videotapes containing images of Wilder and the victim engaging in sexual intercourse, and copies of portions of the Georgia Code downloaded while the victim was 15 years old defining sodomy, statutory rape, and child molestation with the text “under the age of 16 years” highlighted. Footnote omitted. Wilder , supra, 304 Ga. App. at 892 1. Regarding the briefcase, the evidence further reflected that Wilder had contacted Malin at some point after leaving it at her home, specifically requested that Malin not give it to anyone, and promised to retrieve it at a later date.
Based on these facts, the trial court denied Wilder’s motion to suppress on the ground that Malin had validly consented to the seizure of the briefcase; alternatively, the court held that the evidence was admissible under the independent source doctrine, which authorizes admission of evidence initially discovered through improper means if it was ultimately “obtained . . . by a means untainted by and unrelated to the initial illegality.” Footnote omitted. State v. Lejeune , 277 Ga. 749, 754 3 A 594 SE2d 637 2004. See also Teal v. State , 282 Ga. 319 2 647 SE2d 15 2007.
