Camacho v. State

• Decision Date: 29 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 39765.,39765.
• Citation: 119 Nev. 395,75 P.3d 370
• Parties: Ruben CAMACHO, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.
• Court: Nevada Supreme Court

75 P.3d 370

119 Nev. 395

Ruben CAMACHO, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent.

No. 39765.

Supreme Court of Nevada.

August 29, 2003.

Rehearing Denied October 23, 2003.

Dennis A. Cameron, Reno, for Appellant.

Brian Sandoval, Attorney General, Carson City; Richard A. Gammick, District Attorney, and Gary H. Hatlestad, Deputy District Attorney, Washoe County, for Respondent.

Before ROSE, MAUPIN and GIBBONS, JJ.

OPINION

ROSE, J.

This is an appeal from a district court's judgment of conviction and sentence following appellant Ruben Camacho's guilty plea.¹ Camacho argues on appeal that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence seized from his vehicle following his arrest. Specifically, he asserts that neither the search incident to arrest nor the inevitable discovery exceptions excuses the police's warrantless search of his vehicle. We disagree and affirm Camacho's conviction. The district court correctly denied Camacho's motion to suppress since police would have discovered the evidence in a later inventory search of Camacho's vehicle, and thus, the inevitable discovery exception applied.

FACTUAL HISTORY

The facts of this case are uncontested. From April 26, 2001, through May 16, 2001, police conducted three undercover methamphetamine purchases from Camacho using a confidential informant.² In each of the drug deals, the informant or police officers paged Camacho and left a telephone number. Each time, Camacho called the number and negotiated with the informant the purchase price and amount of drugs. Thereafter, the informant met Camacho in a public place and exchanged money for the drugs. On at least two of the drug purchases, Camacho arrived in his own vehicle with the drugs in his possession.

On May 17, 2001, police, through the informant, arranged to purchase one pound of methamphetamine from Camacho at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Reno. Police planned to arrest Camacho as soon as he entered the parking lot, to search and seize his vehicle, and institute forfeiture proceedings against the vehicle. Police did not seek or obtain a search warrant for the vehicle.

Camacho entered the parking lot in his vehicle at approximately 10:30 p.m. on May 17, 2001. He was alone. As planned, two marked police units stopped Camacho's vehicle as he pulled into a marked parking space for Wal-Mart customers. Police removed him from his vehicle, handcuffed him, and escorted him away from the car.³

A few minutes later, Detective Timothy Kuzanek briefly searched the "immediate area" of Camacho's vehicle without Camacho's consent. Detective Kuzanek recovered a white plastic grocery bag beneath the driver's seat containing three smaller plastic bags filled with an off-white, rocky, powdery substance. Later tests revealed the substance to be methamphetamine. Following the search, police placed Camacho into a police vehicle and transported him to jail. Police also seized Camacho's vehicle as planned and towed it away.

The next day, pursuant to department policy, Detective Richard Ayala conducted an inventory search. Detective Ayala did not find any contraband in his search, but he included all of the items found in the vehicle on an inventory search form.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Camacho waived his preliminary hearing and was bound over to answer in the district court on four felony charges of trafficking in a controlled substance: three violations of NRS 453.3385(2) and one violation of NRS 453.3385(3). In the district court, Camacho filed a motion to suppress the drugs seized from his car, which formed the basis for count four of the information, the violation of NRS 453.3385(3).

In his motion, Camacho argued that a warrantless search of an automobile is justified in Nevada only when (1) police have probable cause to believe the automobile contains contraband, and (2) exigent circumstances exist to justify the search.

The State asserted that four separate exceptions to the warrant requirement obviated the need for a warrant: (1) the automobile exception since there was probable cause to believe contraband was in Camacho's vehicle and exigent circumstances existed; (2) the search incident to arrest exception, based upon New York v. Belton;⁴ (3) the inventory search exception;⁵ and (4) the inevitable discovery exception, since pursuant to the seizure of the vehicle for forfeiture, it would have been impounded and subsequently searched.

On December 3, 2001, the district court held a hearing on Camacho's motion and heard testimony from several police officers, as well as argument by counsel. Following the hearing, the district court made several findings of fact: (1) police had probable cause to arrest Camacho on May 17, 2001; (2) prior to the arrest, police could have obtained either an anticipatory search warrant or a search warrant for Camacho's vehicle; and (3) police intended to seize the vehicle for forfeiture when they arrested Camacho, based upon Camacho's prior drug deals with the informant.

On the State's arguments, the district court concluded that: (1) the automobile exception did not apply because there were no exigent circumstances which would excuse the police's failure to obtain a search warrant;⁶ (2) relying upon Belton, the State proved by clear and convincing evidence that the police's search was properly conducted incident to a lawful custodial arrest;⁷ (3) the State proved by clear and convincing evidence that because the vehicle was to be seized and inventoried, the contraband would have been inevitably discovered, albeit the next day; and (4) the State proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the inevitable discovery doctrine applied. The district court denied Camacho's motion to suppress on the latter three grounds.

Following the suppression hearing, Camacho entered a negotiated plea to three counts of trafficking in a controlled substance.⁸ He reserved his right to appellate review of the district court's rulings on his motion to suppress, which dealt only with count four of the information.

The district court accepted the guilty plea and sentenced Camacho to concurrent maximum prison terms of 84 months with minimum parole eligibility of 24 months for the first two counts and a consecutive maximum prison term of 300 months with a minimum parole eligibility of 120 months for the third count. Additionally, the court directed Camacho to submit to DNA analysis testing and ordered him to pay: (1) a $2,000 fine; (2) a $25 administrative assessment fee; (3) a $60 chemical analysis fee; and (4) a $150 DNA testing fee. Camacho appeals his conviction, arguing that the district court erred in denying the motion to suppress the drugs discovered in Camacho's vehicle.

DISCUSSION

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Nevada Constitution proscribe all unreasonable searches and seizures.⁹ "`Warrantless searches "are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment subject only to a few specifically established and well delineated exceptions."'"¹⁰ "Suppression issues present mixed questions of law and fact. While this court reviews the legal questions de novo, it reviews the district court's factual determinations for sufficient evidence."¹¹

On appeal, Camacho contends that the district court erred when it concluded that: (1) the search incident to arrest exception applied pursuant to Belton; and (2) the inevitable discovery exception applied because his vehicle was subject to forfeiture, and therefore, the drugs would have been discovered during an inventory search.

Search incident to arrest

Camacho contends that the search incident to arrest exception did not excuse the police's failure to obtain a search warrant to search his vehicle. Specifically, he argues that because police removed him from his vehicle several minutes before the search and he was handcuffed and disarmed, he could neither destroy nor conceal evidence and police could not rely on the search incident to arrest exception. The State contends that Belton authorized the police's contemporaneous search of Camacho's vehicle.

We agree with Camacho and elect to follow our previous cases where we rejected Belton's reasoning¹² and followed the earlier United States Supreme Court case of Chimel v. California.¹³ We now conclude that, under the Nevada Constitution, there must exist both probable cause and exigent circumstances for police to conduct a warrantless search of an automobile incident to a lawful custodial arrest.

In light of our prior decisions holding that under the Nevada Constitution police may not conduct a warrantless search of a vehicle, even if police may have probable cause to believe that contraband is located therein, absent exigent circumstances,¹⁴ it would be inconsistent to now hold that police may, without a warrant, search a vehicle incident to a lawful custodial arrest without exigent circumstances. Police might even be tempted to arrest a person simply to conduct a warrantless search of that person's vehicle. The legislature has provided an expedited procedure whereby police may obtain a warrant telephonically.¹⁵ In situations where no exigent circumstances exist, it is certainly reasonable to require that police obtain a warrant prior to searching a vehicle. We have defined exigent circumstances as ""`those circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers and other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts.'""¹⁶

In the present case, the district court concluded that no exigent circumstances were present. We will not disturb a district court's findings of fact in a suppression hearing if they are supported by substantial evidence.¹⁷ The record reveals that police removed Camacho from the vicinity of his car, arrested him, placed him in...