¶ 1 In this "peeping" case, a jury convicted Nimroid Boles Folsom of stalking (serious emotional distress), and two counts of attempted invasion of privacy for sexual gratification. Folsom's principal defense at trial was misidentification.
¶ 2 On appeal he contends that (1) the seizure, search, and later admission into evidence of videos the police found on his iPods violated the Fourth Amendment; (2) the trial court erred when it prohibited the introduction of alternate suspect evidence; (3) the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to convict him of stalking; (4) the victim's show-up and in-court identifications violated his right to due process; (5) and the stalking statute is unconstitutional.
¶ 3 We conclude that based on a United States Supreme Court case that was decided after Folsom's trial, the admission of the videos found on his iPods violated the Fourth Amendment and was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. We also conclude that the trial court applied an erroneous test for the admission of alternate suspect evidence and that, under the circumstances, the prohibition of alternate suspect evidence deprived
I. Relevant Facts and Procedural History
¶ 4 The victim was walking through her living room one night after taking a shower when she noticed that the blinds of her living room window were open. She walked toward the window to close the blinds and saw a man standing outside the window. She only saw the side of his face, pretended not to see him, closed the blinds, and dressed. She then went upstairs to see if the man was still there; he was. She saw him jump the fence into her neighbor's yard and then re-enter her yard. She called the police and described the man as a "tanned Caucasian" man, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, jeans, and glasses.
¶ 5 A few minutes later police officers saw Folsom in an alley less than two blocks from the victim's house. After they watched Folsom apparently looking into windows of apartments along the alley, the officers stopped him. When asked what he was doing, Folsom told officers that he was looking for a place to plug in his van's electric heater. At the time he was stopped, Folsom, a dark-skinned African-American man, was wearing a dark brown leather jacket, green cargo pants, a multi-colored knit cap, and glasses.
¶ 6 Meanwhile, the 911 operator on the phone with the victim told her that an officer was in contact with "whoever was outside of [her] house," and that police would arrive shortly to speak with her. The police then took the victim to where Folsom was being detained for a show-up identification.
¶ 7 At the show-up the victim identified Folsom as the person she saw outside her window that evening, stating that she recognized his glasses. She also told police that she recognized him from a previous incident at her home nearly six months prior.
¶ 8 Based on the victim's identification, the police arrested Folsom and conducted a search incident to arrest. The police seized two iPod devices
II. The Admission of the Videos from Folsom's iPods Violated the Fourth Amendment and Requires Reversal
¶ 9 Folsom argues that the warrantless search of his iPods violated the Fourth Amendment and that because the videos were admitted into evidence against him, the trial was infected by constitutional error. We agree.
A. Additional Facts
¶ 10 The arresting officers found two iPods on Folsom's person. Without obtaining a warrant, they searched the iPods and discovered seventeen videos of two general types. One set of videos showed fully clothed women walking in public places-the videos focused on the lower half of the women's bodies. The second set of videos showed a partially clothed woman changing clothing and masturbating in a bedroom. These latter videos appeared to have been taken through a window.
¶ 11 Folsom moved to suppress the videos found on his iPods as a product of an unconstitutional search. The trial court denied his motion, concluding that the search was a valid search incident to arrest. All of these videos were admitted at trial.
B. Law and Analysis
¶ 12 The United States Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures of their homes or property. U.S. Const. amend. IV. Warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable unless they fall under one of the established exceptions to the warrant requirement. People v. Dumas ,
¶ 13 A search incident to arrest is one such exception. People v. Marshall ,
¶ 14 Not surprisingly, the application of the Fourth Amendment to advanced technological devices-some of which are, in reality, portable computers with amazing storage and other capabilities-has been difficult. While ordinarily the police may search a person incident to arrest and seize contraband or other evidence of a crime without further justification, courts have recognized that the warrantless seizure of a person's computer or similar device raises acute Fourth Amendment issues. See Riley v. California , 573 U.S. ----, ----,
¶ 15 In Riley , decided after Folsom's trial, the Supreme Court held that data stored on a cell phone could not be searched incident to arrest, and therefore a warrant was required to search the phone. 573 U.S. at ----,
¶ 16 The privacy concerns implicated by searching technological devices such as smart phones-which are much more sophisticated than a standard cell phone-are qualitatively different than privacy concerns "implicated by the search of a cigarette pack, a wallet, or a purse."
¶ 17 Just as smart phones are essentially minicomputers-that happen to have the ability to be used as a telephone,
¶ 18 The Attorney General argues that the search of Folsom's iPods does not require reversal, regardless of Riley , because the officers relied in good faith on binding appellate precedent at the time of the search. Relying on Davis v. United States ,
¶ 19 We reject the Attorney General's argument because the judicial opinion relied on, People v. Taylor ,
¶ 20 In Taylor , the division held that a warrantless search of the call history of a cell phone seized incident to an arrest did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Taylor , ¶ 17. But, the facts of Taylor are materially different than the facts presented in this case. Here, the police did not merely access a call list, as in Taylor , but instead conducted a full search of Folsom's iPods (one of which was password protected) and found the videos, which were introduced at trial. The division in Taylor specifically noted that it was "applying the narrower view proposed by some courts that officers may not search all data contained in a cell phone" upon arrest. Id. at ¶ 18 (emphasis added). Because Taylor did not validate the broad search of a technological device that occurred here, the Davis good faith exception is inapplicable.
¶ 21 Riley held "that a warrant is generally required before ... a search [of information on a cell phone], even when a cell phone is seized incident to arrest." People v. Omwanda ,
¶ 23 We recognize that the admission of evidence barred by the Constitution can nevertheless be harmless. But we conclude that the admission of the videos here was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Bartley v. People ,
¶ 24 Accordingly, the unconstitutional admission of the videos requires reversal. On retrial, the videos must be suppressed.
III. Folsom Was Entitled to Present Alternate Suspect Evidence
A. Additional Facts
¶ 25 Less than two weeks before trial the prosecution disclosed evidence regarding a suspect, other than Folsom, who was involved in similar peeping incidents in the victim's neighborhood. This evidence showed that in a ten-month span, Boulder Police investigated nine incidents of peeping in the area. Of those nine, five occurred at the victim's house. Folsom was charged in two of those incidents. Another person, D.P., was a suspect in the other three incidents at the victim's house. D.P. was a suspect in five of the nine incidents in the neighborhood (including the three at the victim's house).
¶ 26 In one of the incidents (not involving the charges against Folsom) the victim heard noises in her yard, and when she looked outside she saw a man near the window. The victim was unable to see the man's face, but reported that she had seen him in the neighborhood before. The victim recognized D.P. in a photographic array, but was unable to say definitively that it was him she saw outside her house-she could only confirm that she recognized him.
¶ 27 D.P. is a tall, white man, with brown hair and blue eyes. On at least one occasion he was convicted of a crime in the same general geographic area. In that incident, a witness observed D.P. climbing down from the balcony of an apartment building four-tenths of a mile from the victim's house. D.P. was wearing a dark hoodie with the hood pulled up. Police later discovered that D.P. had been taking pictures of unsuspecting women undressing in their homes. He was charged and convicted of second degree criminal trespass.
¶ 28 Folsom sought to introduce evidence of D.P. as an alternate suspect at trial. The trial court refused to admit this evidence, concluding that Folsom had not established a sufficient connection between D.P. and the crimes charged.
B. Standard of Review
¶ 29 We review a trial court's ruling on evidentiary issues, including the admission of alternate suspect evidence, for an abuse of discretion. People v. Stewart ,
C. Law and Analysis
¶ 30 A defendant has a constitutional right to present a complete defense. Holmes v. South Carolina ,
¶ 31 To avoid confusing the jury and to prevent alternate suspect evidence from becoming a sideshow that overtakes the principal issue presented at a criminal trial-whether the prosecutor has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime alleged-the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence ultimately depends
¶ 32 In Elmarr , the supreme court addressed these competing interests and described the framework for determining the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence. Id. at ¶ 21. A trial court must "decide the admissibility of similar acts evidence offered by a defendant on a case-by-case basis, looking to whether all the similar acts and circumstances, taken together, support a finding that the same person probably was involved in both the other act and the charged crime." Id. at ¶ 38.
¶ 33 "To be admissible, alternate suspect evidence must be relevant (under CRE 401 ) and its probative value must not be sufficiently outweighed by the danger of confusion of the issues or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay (under CRE 403 )." Id. at ¶ 22. "Because the balance required by CRE 403 favors admission, a reviewing court must afford the evidence the maximum probative value attributable by a reasonable fact finder and the minimum unfair prejudice to be reasonably expected." Id. at ¶ 44 (quoting People v. Rath ,
¶ 34 At trial, Folsom offered evidence of D.P. as an alternate suspect. The trial court rejected that evidence because the victim had never identified D.P. in a previous incident. While a trial court has broad discretion in deciding whether to admit alternate suspect evidence, when the trial court makes a ruling based on an erroneous view of the law, the court necessarily abuses its discretion. People v. Wadle ,
¶ 35 The trial court evidently read the controlling cases as requiring the victim to have identified the alternate suspect in a previous or related incident. But, the Attorney General does not point to, and we have not found, any such black letter rule. The trial court's application of such a rule to the determination of whether Folsom was entitled to present alternate suspect evidence was an abuse of discretion.
¶ 36 The trial court also relied on People v. Perez ,
¶ 37 In Perez , the defendant was convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl, and he sought to introduce evidence that the son of the victim's caregiver could have committed the crime, because the son was on probation for misdemeanor sexual assault.
¶ 38 Unlike Perez, Folsom presented "more than an unsupported inference, or a possible ground for suspicion,"
¶ 39 Moreover, the victim actually identified D.P. in one incident as a person whom she recognized from the neighborhood even though she could not definitively identify him as the peeper in that incident. As well, D.P. more closely matched the victim's description of the peeper than did Folsom.
¶ 40 The evidence offered by Folsom, taken collectively, established a non-speculative connection between D.P. and the charged crime. Furthermore, the probative value of the evidence was not substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury. CRE 403 ; People v. Flowers ,
¶ 42 Folsom's primary defense at trial was misidentification, and the existence of another viable suspect was highly relevant to that defense. Giving the alternate suspect evidence its maximum probative worth, and the CRE 403 considerations the minimum prejudicial effect, see Rath ,
¶ 43 By restricting the presentation of relevant evidence regarding an alternate suspect, the trial court violated Folsom's "basic right to have the prosecutor's case encounter and 'survive the crucible of meaningful adversarial testing.' " Krutsinger v. People ,
IV. The Evidence Was Sufficient to Convict Folsom of Stalking
¶ 44 Folsom next argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient for the jury to convict him of stalking.
¶ 45 To determine whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the defendant's conviction, we review the record de novo. Dempsey v. People ,
¶ 46 We employ the "substantial evidence" test to determine "whether the relevant evidence, both direct and circumstantial, when viewed as a whole and in the light most favorable to the prosecution, is substantial and sufficient to support a conclusion by a reasonable mind that the defendant is guilty of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt." Clark v. People ,
¶ 47 Moreover, we must afford the prosecution the benefit of every reasonable inference that might fairly be drawn from the evidence. Clark ,
¶ 48 It is the jury's function to determine the credibility of the witnesses, "to consider and determine what weight should be given to all parts of the evidence and to resolve conflicts, testimonial inconsistencies, and disputes in the evidence." People v. McIntier ,
¶ 49 As relevant here, section 18-3-602(1)(c), C.R.S. 2017, provides that a person commits stalking if directly or indirectly, the person knowingly "[r]epeatedly follows, approaches, contacts, places under surveillance, or makes any form of communication with another person ... in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress and does cause that person ... to suffer serious emotional distress."
¶ 50 Folsom first argues that an incident six months before the show-up identification was an accident, and that he did not "knowingly" approach or contact the victim. But, viewing the evidence presented in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable
¶ 51 At trial the victim testified that she saw Folsom in her yard on two separate occasions-on the night of the show-up in March, and six months prior, in August.
¶ 52 The victim testified that in August Folsom entered her backyard while she was sitting on her porch. She asked him what he was doing, and he told her that he was looking for a place to urinate. She told him to leave and he immediately complied.
¶ 53 Similarly, in March, when police asked Folsom what he was doing in the alley, he told them he was looking for a place to urinate, and only after some discussion did he tell police that he was looking for a place to plug in his vehicle.
¶ 54 All of this evidence, taken together, could lead a reasonable person to conclude that Folsom knowingly and repeatedly followed, approached, contacted, surveilled, or made communication with the victim in August and again in March.
¶ 55 Folsom next argues that the August incident would not have caused a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress. However, it is not each individual act of stalking that must cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress, but the combined acts of the defendant that would cause such a result. As the supreme court noted in People v. Cross ,
The language the legislature chose to use is plain. The statutory phraseology "in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress and does cause that person ... to suffer serious emotional distress" relates [to] the context of defendant's acts -utilizing a reasonable person standard-to the proscribed conduct....
(Emphasis added.) The evidence presented at trial, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, established that Folsom had been in the victim's yard twice in six months-a place he had no legal right to be. The two acts, taken together, could lead a reasonable juror to find a reasonable person would suffer serious emotional distress.
¶ 56 Finally, Folsom argues that the prosecution did not prove that the two incidents actually caused the victim serious emotional distress. At trial, the victim testified that after the August incident she did not feel safe in her home, she started seeing a therapist, and she lost sleep for several months. Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable juror could conclude that the victim experienced serious emotional distress. See People v. Carey ,
¶ 57 For all these reasons, we conclude that the evidence presented to the jury was sufficient to support the jury's verdict.
V. The Victim's Identifications of Folsom
¶ 58 Folsom next argues that the admission of the victim's out-of-court and later in-court, identifications violated his right to due process because the out-of-court identification was impermissibly suggestive and unreliable. We disagree.
¶ 59 We review the constitutionality of pretrial identification procedures as a mixed question of law and fact. People v. Whittiker ,
¶ 60 A defendant is denied due process of law if an out-of-court identification is so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. People v. Dotson ,
¶ 62 The trial court found that the victim had a good opportunity to view and was able to see the suspect through her window as she closed the blinds. She also observed the man run away and jump over a chain-link fence into the neighboring yard. It also found that her degree of attention was high, that only minutes passed between the crime and the time of the show-up, and that the victim was certain in her identification of Folsom.
¶ 63 The discrepancies between the victim's description of the man she saw at her window and Folsom's physical appearance when he was detained by police only minutes later are very troubling. However, we have not found any controlling case that holds that such discrepancies alone require a court to suppress an identification. Cf. People v. Smith ,
¶ 64 There is also a question of whether the trial court's finding that the victim had a high degree of attention is supported by the record. People v. Kaiser ,
¶ 65 But, in deferring to the trial court's historical findings of fact, we cannot say that there is a "very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification." Manson v. Brathwaite ,
The Constitution, our decisions indicate, protects a defendant against a conviction based on evidence of questionable reliability, not by prohibiting introduction of the evidence, but by affording the defendant means to persuade the jury that the evidence should be discounted as unworthy of credit. Constitutional safeguards available to defendants to counter the State's evidence include the Sixth Amendment rights to counsel, compulsory process, and confrontation plus cross-examination of witnesses.
¶ 66 As the Court noted in Perry , "juries are assigned the task of determining the reliability of the evidence presented at trial. Only when evidence 'is so extremely unfair that its admission violates fundamental conceptions of justice,' have we imposed a constraint tied to the Due Process Clause."
¶ 67 Against this legal backdrop, we cannot conclude that the victim's out-of-court identification was so impermissibly suggestive and unreliable as to violate Folsom's due process rights.
¶ 68 Because we hold that the out-of-court identification was constitutionally permissible, we need not address whether there was an independent basis for the victim's in-court identification. See People v. Mack ,
¶ 69 Folsom also argues for the first time on appeal that the stalking statute, section 18-3-602(1)(c), is unconstitutionally vague on its face and as applied in his case. Because Folsom's as-applied challenge requires a fact-intensive analysis, which is more properly the province of the trial court, we decline to address it here. See People v. Torres ,
¶ 70 We conclude that the statute is constitutionally valid on its face. We review the constitutionality of a statute de novo, Hinojos-Mendoza v. People ,
¶ 71 The Colorado Supreme Court and another division of this court have both concluded that a prior version of this statute, which was nearly identical, was not unconstitutionally vague. See Cross ,
VII. Other Issues
¶ 72 Because we are reversing Folsom's convictions, and because the remaining claims do not involve circumstances likely to recur in a retrial, we decline to address them. We also decline to address the constitutionality of Folsom's sentence because we have reversed his conviction and he is no longer subject to the challenged sentence.
IX. Conclusion
¶ 73 The judgment of conviction is reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
JUDGE WEBB and JUDGE LICHTENSTEIN concur.
Notes
Folsom raises a number of additional claimed errors as to both the guilt determination and sentencing that we need not address in view of our disposition.
The record establishes that the devices in this case were iPod Touches, which have the ability to store photographs, videos, and music, as well as the ability to connect to the internet.
Folsom does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for attempted invasion of privacy for sexual gratification.
