Williams v. State, 149 A.3d 1220

Background

Police stopped Williams for driving with a suspended/revoked license after a confidential informant tipped that he would have drugs; a search incident to arrest found $1,356 but no drugs in the car.
At the barracks officers conducted a strip/visual body-cavity search; an officer observed a baggie protruding from Williams’ anus; medical personnel later removed baggies containing heroin and cocaine.
Sergeant Nichols prepared and obtained a search warrant for Williams’ residence in Caroline County, describing multi-source CI information tying Williams to heroin distribution and listing the American Corner Road address as his residence.
Officers executed the residential warrant, found drugs (heroin, hydrocodone, marijuana), drug paraphernalia, mail addressed to Williams at the address, and six firearms in a back bedroom.
Williams moved to suppress the residential-search evidence as fruit of an illegal vehicle stop and cavity/strip search; the suppression court denied the motion. Williams was convicted by a jury on multiple drug and felon-in-possession counts; he appealed raising four issues.

Issues

Issue	Williams' Argument	State's Argument	Held
1. Suppression — legality of strip/visual cavity search and use of resulting evidence in residential warrant	Strip/visual cavity search was unlawful (no reasonable articulable suspicion; manner unreasonable); evidence from it tainted the residence warrant; good-faith exception inapplicable	Strip/visual cavity search was reasonable; even if not, good-faith exception applies to the residential warrant	Search was reasonable under Bell balancing and reasonable articulable suspicion existed; magistrate had a substantial basis for the residential warrant; alternatively, Leon good-faith exception applies — suppression denied
2. Refusal to accept stipulation re: prior disqualifying conviction (felon-in-possession element)	Trial court should have accepted defense stipulation to avoid disclosing nature of prior conviction per Carter	State: nature of conviction was an element to prove; admission later at trial waived any error	Court agreed Carter required acceptance but Williams waived objection by not objecting when the conviction was later elicited/admitted — no reversal
3. Alleged sleeping juror	Juror nodded off repeatedly; trial court should have acted (recess, inquiry, or replacement)	Trial court observed no sleeping; kept watch; no showing of prejudice	No abuse of discretion; appellant failed to prove juror was asleep for material testimony or that he was prejudiced — no new trial
4. Sufficiency of evidence for possession of drugs and firearms	Evidence insufficient to show Williams possessed the items found in the bedroom (single piece of mail and family use of room)	Texts, mail to address, cash, baggie-corners matching removed baggie, weapons and ammo in bedroom supported constructive possession	Viewing evidence in the light most favorable to the State, a rational juror could find constructive/actual possession — convictions upheld

Key Cases Cited

Greenstreet v. State, 392 Md. 652 (deferential review of magistrate’s probable-cause finding for warrants)
United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (good-faith exception to exclusionary rule)
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (totality-of-the-circumstances test for probable cause and issuing judge’s role)
Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (four-factor balancing test for strip searches: scope, manner, justification, place)
Paulino v. State, 399 Md. 341 (distinguishing visual vs. manual body-cavity searches)
Agurs v. State, 415 Md. 62 (nexus requirement between observed criminal activity and the place to be searched)
Holmes v. State, 368 Md. 506 (applying deductive reasoning to establish a nexus for residence searches)
Everhart v. State, 274 Md. 459 (fruit-of-the-poisonous-tree prohibits using information derived from illegal searches to establish probable cause)
State v. Harding, 196 Md. App. 384 (visual body-cavity search law and context for justification)