State v. Stapleton

Police officers responded to a complaint of illegal drug activity at the trailer home of Kenneth Stapleton (defendant). Stapleton consented to a search of the trailer. Upon entering the trailer, the officers observed a bag containing what appeared to be marijuana seeds on a computer table. The screen saver on the computer monitor was a picture of a marijuana field. The officers arrested Stapleton, searched the trailer, and found drug paraphernalia, marijuana seeds, and items used for growing marijuana indoors. Stapleton told an officer that he had downloaded from the Internet instructions for building a marijuana-cultivation system. The officers seized Stapleton’s computer and 20 floppy disks and obtained a search warrant to search the contents of the computer for information about how to build indoor marijuana-cultivating devices. While searching the floppy disks, an investigator found images of underaged males engaged in sex acts. The investigator stopped searching and obtained a warrant to search the computer and floppy disks for evidence of child pornography. The investigator continued searching the floppy disks pursuant to the warrant and found images of child pornography. Stapleton was charged with pornography involving juveniles. The trial court denied Stapleton’s motion to suppress the images found on the floppy disks. Stapleton was convicted and argued on appeal that the images found on the floppy disks were inadmissible because the original search warrant did not specifically list disks and no valid exception to the warrant requirement was applicable.