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COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Chief Judge Fitzpatrick, Judges Elder and Annunziata Argued at Chesapeake, Virginia
CARLTON HARDEN CHERRY  
OPINION BY  
v.  Record No. 2439-03-1  JUDGE LARRY G. ELDER  
NOVEMBER 23, 2004  
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA  

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH Mark S. Davis, Judge
Joseph R. Winston, Special Appellate Counsel (Felipita Athanas; Indigent Defense Commission, on briefs), for appellant.
  Donald E. Jeffrey, III, Assistant Attorney General (Jerry W. Kilgore, Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.
Carlton Harden Cherry (appellant) appeals from his bench trial conviction for possession of cocaine.  On appeal, he contends the trial court erroneously admitted into evidence the cocaine providing the basis for his arrest and conviction because it was discovered pursuant to a warrantless entry of his residence.  We hold that when an officer comes to the door of a residence to investigate a non-drug-related crime, smells the odor of burning marijuana when an occupant voluntarily answers the door, and hears significant movement inside the house after the occupant calls out to those inside that the police are at the door, probable cause and exigent circumstances exist to permit a warrantless entry of the residence to prevent the destruction of evidence and to effect a seizure of that evidence.1  Thus, we affirm the conviction.
1 The parties and the trial court analyzed this case as involving an entry based on exigent circumstances rather than an entry merely to secure the premises.  See Crosby v. Commonwealth, 6 Va. App. 193, 200-01, 367 S.E.2d 730, 735 (1988) (permitting entry where probable cause exists to believe evidence of crime is on premises and, although officers

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