Commonwealth v. Martin (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-084-17)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-403 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. DEQUAN MARTIN. No. 15-P-403. Suffolk. April 1, 2016. – July 6, 2017. Present: Meade, Wolohojian, & Maldonado, JJ. Marijuana. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress. Threshold Police Inquiry. Probable Cause. Search and Seizure, Threshold police inquiry, Exigent circumstances, Probable cause, Pursuit, Emergency. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Investigatory stop, Probable cause. Complaint received and sworn to in the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on April 12, 2012. After transfer to the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department, a pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Michael J. Coyne, J., and the case was heard by Thomas C. Horgan, J. Chase A. Marshall for the defendant. Kathryn Leary, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. MALDONADO, J. In this case, we consider whether the warrantless entry by police into a residence was justified where the entry was made while chasing the defendant, who fled from police during a stop for a civil infraction of marijuana possession. Concluding that these circumstances do not give rise to any exigency that would authorize the police to follow the defendant into a residence, we reverse. Background. On April 11, 2012, at about 8:50 P.M., two undercover Boston police officers, while patrolling the Dorchester section of Boston, approached a legally parked vehicle in which sat three males. The vehicle was “consumed with smoke” and condensation had formed on the rear windshield. The defendant was seated in the front passenger seat. As the officers approached the vehicle, the defendant opened the door and stepped outside. Smoke emanated from the vehicle, and the officers were struck by a “strong” odor of burnt marijuana. One of the officers, Officer Beliveau, who had experience and training in drug related crimes, was approaching the passenger side and ordered the defendant to get back inside the vehicle. The defendant sat back in the front passenger seat but his legs protruded outside the vehicle through the door. Beliveau repeated his command, and the defendant repositioned himself fully into the vehicle. “[I]n the passenger compartment of that door,” Beliveau then observed a small plastic glassine bag, a copper grinder (commonly used to break up marijuana so that it could be more easily rolled into cigarettes), and cigar wrappers. “[G]reen leafy […]