Michael Shane Snider appeals from the judgment of conviction entered on the trial court’s verdict in a bench trial finding him guilty of possession of methamphetamine. Snider claims the trial court erred by denying his pre-trial motion to suppress methamphetamine and related evidence found by police during warrantless searches conducted in a hotel room occupied by Snider and a third party. We find: 1 that police entry into the hotel room violated the Fourth Amendment; 2 that the illegal entry tainted and rendered invalid Snider’s prior consent to the searches, and 3 that the State failed to carry its burden to show that the third party’s subsequent consent to search the room was untainted by the illegal entry and validated the earlier searches. Accordingly, we find that the trial court erred by denying the motion to suppress and that the conviction must be reversed. Snider and the State stipulated to a bench trial on the evidence produced at the hearing on the motion to suppress. The evidence showed that Snider had stayed overnight at, and was still occupying, a hotel room in placePlaceNameCarrollPlaceTypeCountyalong with Rowe, in whose name the room was registered. A hotel clerk called the placeCityCarrollton police to report that an occupant of the room was heard talking about methamphetamine. While the two responding officers confirmed with hotel housekeepers that they heard an occupant of the room making comments about where he could buy methamphetamine, the hotel clerk approached and told the officers that she saw Rowe come down the stairs from the room, see the officers, and go back upstairs. The officers went to the room and knocked on the door of the room for the purpose of investigating a suspicion of illegal drug activity. When they knocked on the door, it “kind of flew open a little bit” according to the officers, and they caught the door to prevent it from closing. The officers announced themselves as police and heard the shower running in the room’s bathroom and the sound of someone in the shower. The officers pushed the door open, entered the room, and ordered whoever was in the shower to get out. One of the officers testified that he did not know at that point if an occupant had seen they were police officers and had possibly gone back to the room to get a weapon or destroy illegal drugs. At least one of the officers had drawn a weapon when they saw Snider emerge from the shower, wrap himself in a towel, and come out of the bathroom. After the officers determined that Snider was not a threat, the weapon or weapons were holstered. The officers saw no one else in the room. The officers told Snider they were there to investigate suspicions about drug activity and asked him for identification. Snider told the officers that he had identification in his pants in the bathroom, and one of the officers went into the bathroom, retrieved Snider’s pants, and reached in his pants pocket and found his identification. The officer testified that she wanted Snider to put on his pants and the rest of his clothes which were in the bathroom, but that, for officer safety, she did not want to hand him his clothes without first searching them. The officer asked Snider for consent to search the rest of his clothes, and he consented. While searching through Snider’s clothes, the officer found suspected methamphetamine in one of his pockets. It is undisputed that the substance found in the search was methamphetamine. The officers arrested Snider and charged him with possession of methamphetamine. After arresting Snider, the officers testified that they also obtained Snider’s consent to search his luggage, which was located in the room, and found some “small plastic baggies and tiny razors.”
At some unspecified point and place after the above searches were completed, the officers met with the other occupant of the room, Rowe, and obtained his consent to search the room for any illegal drugs. The officer who gave this testimony said that he could not remember any specifics of the conversation with Rowe. Although the officer testified that he believed Rowe’s consent was obtained in writing, no written consent was produced.
