{"id":4108,"date":"2010-09-06T19:59:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T09:25:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T09:25:07","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=4108","title":{"rendered":"MD: Defendant abandoned McDonald’s cup from which DNA was collected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant abandoned a cup from which his DNA was collected and used to connect him to a rape. He threw it away for others to collect. Williamson v. State<\/a>, 413 Md. 521, 993 A.2d 626 (2010):<\/p>\n

The writers for the NBC television series Law & Order Special Victims Unit would be hard pressed to author an episode full of more issues involving DNA than found in this case in which the Anne Arundel County police, in 2006, matched DNA of the Appellant, Kelroy Williamson, retrieved from his discarded McDonald’s cup to the DNA found in two separate rape victims’ forensic medical examinations in 1994 and 2002. Williamson was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in 2007 on charges of rape and related offenses for the 2002 crime, and he appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, arguing that his arrest warrant for the 2002 rape was based on a statement of probable cause predicated upon the illegal testing of the DNA from the discarded cup and the 1994 forensic examination, as well as the uploading of his DNA profile into a local database and search of that database for a profile match. His challenges are premised in the Maryland DNA Collection Act and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and he seeks review of the trial judge’s denial of his motion to suppress the obtaining and testing of the 2006 DNA sample and his statement to police as the poisonous fruits of an illegal arrest. We granted certiorari, Williamson v. State, 409 Md. 47, 972 A.2d 861 (2009), prior to any proceedings in the Court of Special Appeals, to consider the following question: [\u00b6] Was it error to deny the motion to suppress evidence obtained in violation of Appellant’s statutory and Fourth Amendment rights?<\/p>\n

We hold it was not error to deny the motion to suppress the DNA evidence obtained in 2006 or the Appellant’s statement to police, and we affirm the Circuit Court judge’s dismissal of the motion to suppress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An objective view of the officers’ questions during this traffic stop indicate that the defendant was not in custody and not coerced. Nava v. State<\/a>, 2010 WY 46, 228 P.3d 1311 (2010).*<\/p>\n

The consent was voluntary. The court finds that the officer said that they would come back with a warrant if he did not consent, but that his admissions were enough to get a search warrant. Johnson v. State<\/a>, 2010 WY 47, 228 P.3d 1306 (2010).*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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