State v. Queen ( 2023 )

SUPERIOR COURT
OF THE
STATE OF DELAWARE
PAUL R. WALLACE LEONARD L. WILLIAMS JUSTICE CENTER
JUDGE 500 N. KING STREET, SUITE 10400
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 19801
(302) 255-0660
Submitted: July 21, 2023
Decided: July 31, 2023
Matthew Hicks, Esquire Drequan Queen, pro se
Deputy Attorney General 42 Chaddwyck Boulevard
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE New Castle, Delaware 19720
820 N. French Street
Wilmington, Delaware 19801
RE: State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID. No. 2008012902
Mr. Queen’s Motion to Suppress
Dear Messrs. Queen and Hicks:
The Court provides this Letter Opinion and Order as its decision on Mr. Queen’s
Motion to Suppress and its supplements. The Court has considered all filings that
Mr. Queen has docketed in his quest to exclude certain physical evidence seized
from his person and his vehicle. This includes Mr. Queen’s applications (D.I. 8; D.I.
17; D.I. 31; D.I. 49; D.I. 51); the State’s responses thereto
(D.I. 12; D.I. 35; D.I. 48); the testimony provided at the evidentiary hearing on
Mr. Queen’s applications (D.I. 46; D.I. 47); the parties’ arguments; and, the
applicable law.
For the reasons explained below, the motion is DENIED.
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
July 31, 2023
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I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Beginning in July 2020, Mr. Queen was investigated by the Wilmington
Police Department (“WPD”) as a potential drug dealer based on information from a
confidential informant.1 During the second week of August, police conducted a
controlled buy where a confidential informant bought heroin directly from
Mr. Queen.2
Then, on August 26, 2020, police stopped and searched Mr. Queen at the
intersection of 5th and Jefferson Street.3 Concurrent with that stop-and-search,
police conducted a consent-search of a target apartment associated with Mr. Queen.4
In the apartment, officers found heroin.5
The police also deployed a canine to sniff Mr. Queen’s nearby vehicle.6 The
1
1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 7-8 (“We received information from a confidential informant that the
defendant, Mr. Queen, was someone dealing narcotics in the area of Fourth and Fifth and
Jefferson.”) (D.I. 47).
2
Id. at 13-14 (“We observed the CI walk up to the defendant, make a hand-to-hand transaction
and leave the defendant. And we observed the defendant walk back into the apartment building.
And we observed the CI meet back with us at a meeting place.”).
3
Id. at 15-16 (“We stopped him, detained him incident to arrest. We had a search warrant for
the building and for him. We detained him incident to arrest. We searched him and placed him in
the vehicle.”).
4
Id. at 23-26 (“We learned that the defendant comes there often she says and tells her to leave
when he’s there. She also said that she had no knowledge of any illegal narcotics in her apartment.
And she gave us consent to search it.”).
5
Id.
6
Id. at 27-28.
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
July 31, 2023
Page 3 of 14
canine sniff yielded a positive alert for narcotics.7 So officers decided to drive the
vehicle to the WPD station to conduct a thorough search of it there.8 Before
conducting that later search, officers applied for and received a warrant from the
Justice of the Peace Court.9
Police found a firearm hidden in the trunk of the vehicle.10
II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Mr. Queen initially was represented by a private defense attorney who
docketed a motion to suppress.11 The State filed a response to that suppression
motion.12 And Mr. Queen, through counsel, replied.13
Before the hearing on the counseled suppression motion, Mr. Queen moved
to proceed pro se and for “abeyance.”14
During Mr. Queen’s first hearing on his two pro se motions this Court found
7
Id. at 29-32.
8
Id.
9
Id. at 30-31.
10
Id. at 31 (“Q. What did you find in the vehicle? A. A firearm in the trunk behind the speaker.”).
11
D.I. 8.
12
D.I. 12.
13
D.I. 17.
14
D.I. 18, 19. Both of these motions were filed pro se. D.I. 18; D.I. 19. Before the suppression
hearing, private counsel withdrew from representation of Mr. Queen. D.I. 21.
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
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his motion for continuance was moot, engaged in the required colloquy,15 and found
Mr. Queen was waiving his right to counsel and wished to proceed pro se.16
The Court then held two status conferences and, at Mr. Queen’s request,
appointed him standby counsel from the Office of Defense Services.17
Thereafter, Mr. Queen filed his pro se motion to suppress.18 The State
responded to that pro se application by briefly summarizing certain issues and
directing the Court to the State’s response to Mr. Queen’s first motion to suppress
filed by his prior counsel.19
In mid-January 2023, the Court was set to hear Mr. Queen’s suppression
motion but, because he was unprepared, the Court granted Mr. Queen a brief
continuance.
The Court then commenced the suppression hearing,20 which it had to recess
with instructions to the State to produce documents mentioned during that hearing
15
See Briscoe v. State, 606 A.2d 103, 107-08 (Del. 1992) (explaining the “searching inquiry” a
court must conduct when one expresses a wish to proceed pro se).
16
D.I. 23.
17
D.I. 27, 30.
18
D.I. 31.
19
D.I. 35. The State “included the April 27th response as an exhibit and adopts all previous
arguments submitted in that filing as they relate to the Supplemental Motion to Suppress.” Id. at
2.
20
D.I. 47.
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
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to Mr. Queen and the Court—this included a search warrant issued by a Justice of
the Peace for the target Jefferson Street apartment.21 Before commencing the second
part of the suppression hearing, the Court reviewed the documents provided by the
State; the Court then took further witness testimony and heard the parties’
arguments.22
Upon finishing the second part of the suppression hearing, the Court permitted
the parties to submit supplemental briefing. And, in course, the parties docketed
those supplemental filings.23
III. THE MOTION TO SUPPRESS
While Mr. Queen has asserted a litany of claims in his suppression motion,
responses, and supplemental briefing, he confirmed for the Court that he seeks to
challenge only the search and seizure of his person and his vehicle that occurred on
August 26, 2020.24
21
Id. at 77-78.
22
D.I. 44; D.I. 46.
23
D.I. 48; D.I. 49; D.I. 51. Mr. Queen took an opportunity in his supplemental briefing to seek
dismissal of the indictment. D.I. 51 (“I ask that all charges be dismissed due to uncommon police
work . . . .”); see D.I. 49. The Court later heard argument on what it deemed a motion to dismiss
and denied it. D.I. 53.
24
D.I. 41.
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IV. STANDARD OF REVIEW
A. SEARCHES AND SEIZURES INCIDENT TO A WARRANT
On a motion to suppress contesting the validity of a search warrant, the
defendant shoulders the burden of establishing that the challenged search or seizure
was unlawful.25 Our Federal and State Constitutions provide that a search warrant
may be issued only upon a showing of probable cause.26
“It is well-settled that the Court must employ a ‘four-corners’ test to determine
whether an application for a warrant demonstrates probable cause.”27 Under that
test, a reviewing court must discern whether the supporting affidavit “set[s] forth
sufficient facts on its face for a judicial officer to form a reasonable belief that an
offense has been committed and that seizable property would be found in a particular
place.”28
25
State v. Sisson, 883 A.2d 868, 875 (Del. Super. Ct. 2005) (citations omitted).
26
See U.S. CONST. amd. IV (“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”);
DEL. CONST. art. I, § 6 (“The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and
possessions, from unreasonable searches and seizures; and no warrant to search any place, or to
seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as particularly as may be; nor then,
unless there be probable cause supported by oath or affirmation.”).
27
Sisson, 883 A.2d at 876 (citing Pierson v. State, 338 A.2d 571, 573 (Del. 1975)).
28
Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); Blount v. State, 511 A.2d 1030, 1032-33
(Del. 1986) (stating the supporting affidavit must “set forth sufficient facts to warrant a reasonable
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
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The judicial officer who made the initial finding of probable cause is owed
great deference; such a finding won’t be “invalidated by a hypertechnical, rather than
a common sense, interpretation” of the affidavit.29 And a reviewing court must view
a warrant’s application “as a whole and not on the basis of its separate allegations.”30
B. AUTOMOBILE EXCEPTION TO THE WARRANT REQUIREMENT
As a general matter, “[a] warrantless search [or] seizure is presumptively
unreasonable, subject to certain exceptions.”31 One of those recognized exceptions
is the automobile exception. Under the automobile exception, which has been
recognized both by the United States Supreme Court and the Delaware Supreme
Court, “[p]olice ‘may lawfully search [a] vehicle without a warrant’ if ‘the police
have probable cause to believe that an automobile is carrying contraband or
evidence’ of criminal activity.”32 That probable cause determination is “made by
man in concluding that a crime has been committed and that the property sought to be seized would
be found in a particular place” (citations omitted)).
29
Cooper v. State, 228 A.3d 399, 404 (Del. 2020) (quoting Jensen v. State, 482 A.2d 105, 111
(Del. 1984)).
30
Jensen, 482 A.2d at 111 (citations omitted).
31
State v. Roundtree, 2017 WL 4457207, at *2 (Del. Super. Ct. Oct. 4, 2017) (citing State v.
Hedley, 593 A.2d 576, 582 (Del. Super. Ct. 1990)).
32
Pollard v. State, 284 A.3d 41, 46 (Del. 2022) (second alteration in original) (quoting Tatman
v. State, 494 A.2d 1249, 1251 (Del. 1985)); see United States v. Johns, 469 U.S. 478, 484 (1985)).
State v. Drequan Queen
Case ID No. 2008012902
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evaluating the totality of the circumstances” present.33
C. THE COURT’S FACT-FINDING ROLE IN A SUPPRESSION PROCEEDING
As a general matter, when questions of fact must be resolved, the suppression
hearing judge’s first responsibility is to determine the historical facts from the
testimony presented, physical or documentary evidence, and inferences from other
facts.34 Among other things, “the trial judge, sitting as the finder of fact at a pretrial
suppression hearing, determines witness credibility.”35 And “when presented with
differing accounts of historical facts, ‘it is the [suppression hearing judge’s] role to
resolve the conflicts in witnesses’ testimony and weigh their credibility.’”36 To do
so, the judge might consider any existing objective evidence.37 She might also
consider whether certain proffered testimony is so “inconsistent or implausible on
33
Pollard, 284 A.3d at 46 (quoting Valentine v. State, 2019 WL 1178765, at *2 (Del. Mar. 12,
2019)).
34
See Lopez v. State, 861 A.2d 1245, 1248-49 (Del. 2004) (citing Ornelas v. United States, 517
U.S. 690, 696 (1996); Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985) (noting that: “The
trial judge’s major role is the determination of fact, and with experience in fulfilling that role comes
expertise.”)).
35
Turner v. State, 957 A.2d 565, 570-71 (Del. 2008) (citations omitted).
36
Diggs v. State, 257 A.3d 993, 1006 (Del. 2021) (alteration added) (quoting Johnson v. State,
2007 WL 1575229, at *1 (Del. May 31, 2007)). See Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575 (explaining the
“greater deference [accorded] to the trial court’s findings [based on determinations regarding the
credibility of witnesses]; for only the trial judge can be aware of the variations in demeanor and
tone of voice that bear so heavily on the listener’s understanding of and belief in what is said”
(citation omitted)).
37
Anderson, 470 U.S. at 575.
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Case ID No. 2008012902
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its face that a reasonable factfinder would not credit it.”38 “In the end though, when
weighing the evidence and finding facts, the suppression hearing judge may reach
any inferences, deductions and conclusions to be drawn from the evidence.”39
V. DISCUSSION
A. MR. QUEEN WAS SEARCHED PURSUANT TO A VALID SEARCH WARRANT
SUPPORTED BY PROBABLE CAUSE.
Before the Court received the search warrant for the apartment and the body
of Mr. Queen, the parties had represented that Mr. Queen was stopped and searched
without a warrant. At the first sitting of the suppression hearing, Detective Wiggins
testified that he had a warrant to search Mr. Queen as well as to search the
apartment.40 The State produced that warrant between the first and the second
sessions of the suppression hearing.41 That warrant was signed on August
21, 2020, by a Justice of the Peace magistrate and authorized the search of both the
38
Id.39
State v. Jackson, 2022 WL 18401412, at *2 (Del. Super. Ct. Dec. 28, 2022) (cleaned up). And
a suppression hearing judge’s factual findings “can be based upon physical evidence, documentary
evidence, testimonial evidence, or inferences from those sources jointly or severally.” State v.
Abel, 68 A.3d 1228, 1232 (Del. 2012) (quoting Cede & Co. v. Technicolor, Inc., 758 A.2d 485,
491 (Del. 2000)).
40
1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 15-16 (“We stopped him, detained him incident to arrest. We had a search
warrant for the building and for him. We detained him incident to arrest. We searched him and
placed him in the vehicle.”).
41
D.I. 43.
State v. Drequan Queen
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Jefferson Street apartment and the body of Mr. Queen.42
In Mr. Queen’s supplemental filings and argument he says the search “warrant
is made up” and the supporting probable cause affidavit is rife with lies. 43 Mr. Queen
posits that if Detective Wiggins had a warrant, then he (Mr. Queen) would or should
have been presented with that warrant when the August 26th search was conducted.44
But an extant warrant need not be presented to the target thereof prior to or at the
time of a search for the warrant itself or the ensuing search thereunder to be valid.45
The Court has found that the document entered into evidence during these
proceedings is what it purports to be—a search warrant for 416 N. Jefferson and the
body of Mr. Queen that was duly authorized by a Justice of the Peace magistrate on
August 21, 2020.46
Mr. Queen challenges the sufficiency of probable cause in the affidavit to no
avail. The affidavit outlines that Detective Wiggins received a tip from a
confidential informant that Mr. Queen was selling heroin out of 416 N. Jefferson
42
D.I. 48, Ex. D at 1 (Search Warrant for the body of Mr. Queen and the Jefferson Street
Apartment). The warrant gave police ten days to search both the apartment and Mr. Queen. Id.43
Mr. Queen’s Response to State’s Supplemental Br. at 1 (D.I. 51).
44
Id.45
See United States v. Grubbs, 547 U.S. 90, 98-99 (2006).
46
D.I. 53, Ct.’s Ex. 1 (Search Warrant for the body of Mr. Queen and the Jefferson Street
Apartment).
State v. Drequan Queen
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Street, Apartment 347 in New Castle County, Delaware.48 Officers saw that
Mr. Queen frequented the residence.49 Thereafter, officers set up a controlled buy
during which officers observed Mr. Queen exit 416 N. Jefferson, take items from a
location on his person, and sell the confidential informant/controlled buyer heroin.50
The magistrate’s finding here reflected a proper analysis of the totality of the
circumstances that must be accorded proper deference.51 The search warrant
affidavit no doubt contained sufficient facts on its face for the magistrate to form a
reasonable belief that Mr. Queen had engaged in drug dealing and that evidence
would be found in the target apartment and/or on his person.
47
Detective Wiggins testified that the warrant mistakenly said Apartment 2, instead of Apartment
3. 1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 59. This is of no moment; the search of the apartment was consented to by
the leaseholder and Mr. Queen does not contest the admissibility of the evidence seized from the
target apartment. That said, the error was merely typographical and does not invalidate the
probable cause basis for the warrant or the warrant itself as authorization for the search of
Mr. Queen thereunder. See United States v. McKay, 665 Fed.App’x 219, 222 (3d Cir. 2016)
(finding clerical error did not invalidate a search warrant and finding sister circuit court support
for the proposition that a scrivener’s error does not affect the validity of a warrant (citing United
States v. Gary, 528 F.3d 324, 328-29 (4th Cir. 2008)); United States v. Waker, 534 F.3d 168, 172
(2d Cir. 2008)); see also State v. Bradley, 2011 WL 1459177, at *4-6 (Del. Super. Ct. Apr. 13,
2011) (error in description of property to be searched did not invalidate warrant as authority to
search the places that were properly described therein).
48
D.I. 48, Ex. D ¶¶ 2-3 (Search Warrant for the body of Mr. Queen and the Jefferson Street
Apartment Affidavit).
49
Id. ¶ 3.
50
Id. ¶¶ 3-5.
51
State v. Holden, 60 A.3d 1110, 1114 (Del. 2013) (citing LeGrande v. State, 947 A.2d 1103,
1108 (Del. 2008)).
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B. THE SEIZURE OF MR. QUEEN’S VEHICLE WAS SUPPORTED BY PROBABLE
CAUSE.
Mr. Queen contends Detective Wiggins drove his vehicle “from the [s]cene”
and “purposely violated the law, acted in bad faith and did an unlawful search and
seizure.”52 According to Mr. Queen, the police taking control of his vehicle and
driving it to the police station to be searched, amounted to an invalid seizure and
tainted search.53
After the Jefferson Street apartment was searched and heroin was found
therein, officers deployed a canine to sniff Mr. Queen’s vehicle that was located on
a nearby street.54 The canine sniff yielded a positive alert for narcotics.55
“Police ‘may lawfully search [a] vehicle without a warrant’ if ‘the police have
probable cause to believe that an automobile is carrying contraband or evidence’ of
criminal activity.”56 Here, officers had sufficient probable cause to search and seize
the vehicle. Officers had just found heroin in Mr. Queen’s stash house apartment
52
Mr. Queen’s Response to State’s Supplemental Br. at 2.
53
Id. (“They clearly state they drove off in the car meaning the search off [sic] the car was
conducted before they got the warrant.”).
54
1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 26-28.
55
Id. at 28-29.
56
Pollard, 284 A.3d at 46 (alteration in original) (quoting Tatman, 494 A.2d at 1251); see Johns,
469 U.S. at 484.
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and a canine alerted them to the presence of narcotics in his car.57
But instead of searching the vehicle immediately,58 officers drove the vehicle
to the police station to conduct a thorough search after obtaining a warrant.59 There
was nothing improper about them doing so.60 And suppression of the evidence
seized from Mr. Queen’s vehicle is not required.
VI. CONCLUSION
The search of Mr. Queen’s person on August 26, 2020, was conducted
pursuant to a warrant issued several days earlier by the Justice of the Peace Court.
57
See State v. Saunders, 2012 WL 6915206, at *4 (Del. Super. Ct. Dec. 28, 2012) (“Delaware
courts have held that a drug canine ‘sniff test’, which positively detects the presence of drugs,
provides a sufficient basis of probable cause for officers to search the identified source of the
odor.” (citing Nelson v. State, 1998 WL 171534, at *4 (Del. Mar. 30, 1998); State v. Saunders,
2000 WL 703021, at *3 (Del. Super. Ct. Mar. 27, 2000))); see also Arcuri v. State, 49 A.3d 1177,
1179-80 (Del. 2012) (finding absence of averments regarding a drug dog’s pedigree not fatal as
the Court may infer such).
58
The Court finds there may have been some cursory check of the inside of the car before it was
moved. But that activity yielded no evidence. In turn, it serves as no basis for its exclusion of the
gun found during the later search that was conducted via a valid warrant. See State v. Spencer,
2023 WL 3052370, at *6 (Del. Super. Ct. Apr. 24, 2023) (“Because there was no evidence obtained
from the allegedly unlawful . . . entry there is nothing to suppress therefrom and the Court will not
provide a remedy for that alleged violation via exclusion of evidence from a later wholly-
unaffected separate search.”)
59
1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 31-32; D.I. 53, Ct.’s Ex. 2 (Search Warrant for Mr. Queen’s car).
60
See Tatman, 494 A.2d at 1253 (“[T]he police officers in this case did not violate the defendant’s
Fourth Amendment rights by removing the vehicle to the firehouse and conducting the search
there.”). After delivering the vehicle to the police station, officers secured a search warrant for the
vehicle. 1/19/23 Hr’g Tr. at 29-31. But the warrant was a mere prophylactic, which Mr. Queen
does not challenge. State v. Holmes, 2022 WL 4353455, at *10 n.112 (Del. Super. Ct. Sept. 9,
2022) (discussing that police often seek a warrant as a prophylactic to what otherwise is a proper
warrantless search).
State v. Drequan Queen
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That warrant was supported by probable cause. And the temporary seizure and
transport of Mr. Queen’s vehicle was proper and supported by probable cause. The
later search of his vehicle was conducted under authority of a valid warrant.
Accordingly, Mr. Queen’s Motion to Suppress all evidence seized from his person
and vehicle is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
_______________________
Paul R. Wallace, Judge
Original to Protonotary
cc: Sonia Augusthy, Esquire (standby counsel)