TN: Coaxing expanded third-party consent after entry and seeing other stuff was still voluntary

After the police entered with consent to seize ammunition, they saw other relevant stuff and they were able to “coax” an expanded consent with defendant’s wife, and it was effective. State v. Niles, 2012 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 362 (June 1, 2012):

Although the record shows that Niles’s wife initially objected to the detectives’ attempts to seize the entire date planner and its contents and the computer, Niles’s wife and the detectives were able to reach an acceptable compromise regarding these items. Niles’s wife acknowledged at the suppression hearing that she consented to the detectives’ photographing parts of the planner and seizing documents inside the planner. Although Niles’s wife and William Niles testified that the detectives exceeded the scope of her consent, the trial court accredited the testimony of Detectives Crews and Merlo on that issue. As we have stated, “[q]uestions of credibility of the witnesses, the weight and value of the evidence, and resolution of conflicts in the evidence are matters entrusted to the trial judge as the trier of fact.” See Odom, 928 S.W.2d at 23. Moreover, because the evidence from the computer and the letters between Niles and the victim were never admitted at trial, any issue regarding suppression of this evidence is moot. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying Niles’s motion to suppress.