State v. Hachmeister, 112260

Background

In Sept. 2011 police investigated the death of Sheila Hachmeister; her son Jason lived with her and became a suspect. Six search warrants were obtained during the investigation; four are disputed on appeal.
Police seized two laptops (a Gateway from the home and a Lenovo from Jason's vehicle) during homicide-related searches and later searched them; child-pornography was discovered.
Jason Hachmeister was tried on 108 counts of sexual exploitation of a child; convicted on 105 counts and sentenced to 86 months.
The district court ordered lifetime registration under the Kansas Offender Registration Act after finding some victims were under 14.
On appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court, Hachmeister raised suppression claims (arguing various warrants exceeded scope or lacked probable cause) and an Apprendi challenge to the court-found age fact underlying lifetime registration.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Validity/probable cause for SW-D (and whether it tainted SW-F)	SW-D affidavit supplied facts linking Hachmeister to homicide and to items (computers) likely to contain evidence	Hachmeister: affidavit lacked facts showing computers would contain evidence related to the murder; thus SW-D lacked probable cause and tainted SW-F	Court: SW-D affidavit gave a substantial basis for probable cause (suspect behavior, polygraph failure, changing story, anonymous letters/tips); SW-D valid and did not taint SW-F
Preservation of challenges to SW-A, SW-C, SW-E	State: court properly denied untimely suppression motion; issues not preserved	Hachmeister: appealed suppression of SW-A, SW-C, SW-E; argued court effectively ruled on merits	Court: challenges to SW-A, SW-C, SW-E were untimely and not decided on merits by district court, thus not preserved on appeal
Admission of images seized under later warrant (SW-F)	State: search under SW-F properly authorized after forensic preview suggested child-porn terms; evidence admissible	Hachmeister: images resulted from searches beyond the scope of earlier homicide warrants; should be suppressed	Court: SW-F was supported by probable cause given prior warrant validity and observations during forensic review; images admitted
Apprendi challenge to court-found age fact for lifetime registration	State: lifetime registration under KORA is not "punishment," so Apprendi does not apply; judge may find age fact	Hachmeister: lifetime registration increased penalty based on judge-found fact; Apprendi requires jury finding beyond reasonable doubt	Court: follows Petersen-Beard and related Kansas precedent—lifetime registration is civil/regulatory, not punishment; Apprendi does not apply; district court could find age fact

Key Cases Cited

Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000) (procedural rule requiring jury to find facts increasing criminal penalties)
State v. Petersen-Beard, 304 Kan. 192 (2016) (Kansas holds lifetime sex-offender registration is not punishment for constitutional purposes)
State v. Charles, 304 Kan. 158 (2016) (discussing Apprendi and offender-registration context)
State v. Mullen, 304 Kan. 347 (2016) (standard for reviewing probable cause on search-warrant affidavits)
State v. Ames, 222 Kan. 88 (1977) (search warrants and affidavits construed commonsensically; presumed valid)
State v. Powell, 299 Kan. 690 (2014) (bifurcated standard of review for suppression rulings)
State v. Kelly, 298 Kan. 965 (2014) (issues not raised in trial court are not preserved on appeal)
State v. Malm, 37 Kan. App. 2d 532 (2007) (courts review a search-warrant affidavit from its four corners)