Minnis v. State
| Decision Date | 27 March 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-1867,90-1867 |
| Citation | 577 So.2d 973,16 Fla. L. Weekly 804 |
| Parties | Jerome MINNIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. 577 So.2d 973, 16 Fla. L. Week. 804 |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Geoffrey C. Fleck of Friend, Fleck & Gettis, South Miami, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Carol Cobourn Asbury, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellee.
Jerome Minnis appeals his conviction for trafficking in cocaine and argues that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to suppress evidence which was seized from a closed opaque container within the trunk of his vehicle. We affirm.
On June 10th, 1988 Detective Kevin Minger received information from a confidential informant that Jerome Minnis, aged 33, who was 6/2" tall and about 200 pounds, would travel to a certain address in Miami to pick up one-half to one kilogram of cocaine and transport it to Hollywood in a two-door brown Datsun. 1 This was the first time that the police were using this confidential informant. An hour later Detective Minger and Detective Michael O'Hara saw the Datsun arrive, as predicted, at the address. The vehicle and the driver matched the informant's detailed description. A teletype check of the tag number revealed the owner as Jerome Minnis. Minnis left the residence after five or ten minutes carrying a brown paper bag, placed the bag in the trunk of his vehicle, and started north on I-95. Shortly thereafter the police stopped the vehicle and advised Minnis that they had reason to believe that there were narcotics in the trunk of the car. Detective Minger said, "You don't have a problem with me searching your trunk, do you?" Minnis replied, "Well, I'd rather not have you." Minnis was removed from his vehicle and seated in the back of the patrol car. The police retrieved Minnis' keys from the ignition, unlocked the trunk, seized the bag and opened it. The bag contained cocaine.
Minnis was charged with trafficking in cocaine and filed a motion to suppress the evidence. The trial court denied the motion on several bases. The court ruled that the police had probable cause to stop and arrest Minnis based upon the specific information which they had received and their personal observation of the events. The court ruled:
That Minger and O'Hara had probable cause to stop and arrest Minnis. Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 3 L.Ed.2d 327, 79 S.Ct. 329 (1959); Tippins v. State, 454 So.2d (Fla.App. 5th Dist.1984). They had specific information such as the name and description of the defendant, what type of car he would drive, and where he would be picking up the cocaine. The detectives were able to personally observe the events which the informant said would occur which gave them probable cause to believe that the defendant was in the process of committing the offense of trafficking in cocaine.
Further, the court ruled that the opening of the trunk, and the opening of the bag was valid That the opening of the trunk, removal of the bag and opening of the bag was a valid search incident to a lawful arrest. The area of warrantless vehicle searches has gradually expanded over recent years. In 1981, the United States Supreme Court allowed police to search the passenger compartment without a warrant when a lawful custodial arrest was made of the occupant of a vehicle. New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 69 L.Ed.2d 768, 101 S.Ct. 2860 (1981). In United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 72 L.Ed.2d 572, 102 S.Ct. 2157 (1982), the Supreme Court allowed police officer who had probable cause that contraband was located somewhere in the vehicle to search the vehicle and open any container large enough to hold contraband without a warrant. Ross partially removed the burden upon law enforcement to obtain a search warrant set by the earlier cases of Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 61 L.Ed.2d 235, 99 S.Ct. 2586 (1979) and United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 53 L.Ed.2d 538, 97 S.Ct. 2476 (1977).
The enlarging of the area for a warrantless vehicle search has also occurred in cases emerging from the courts of this state. Originally searches of this type were suppressed. E.g. Mancini v. State, 448 So.2d 573 (Fla.App. 1st Dist.1984); Manee v. State, 457 So.2d 530 (Fla.App. 2d Dist.1984). However, the Fifth District Court of Appeals upheld searches similar to the one at bar under the search incident to lawful arrest in Tippins v. State, supra and State v. Diaz, supra. The difference with the case at bar, however, is that the contraband was located in the passenger compartment.
Recently, the Third District Court of Appeals extended the area of a search incident to a lawful arrest to that outside of the passenger compartment. In State v. James, 526 So.2d 188 (Fla.App. 3d Dist.1988), a search of a bag which the officer had probable cause to believe there was contraband and was hidden behind a gas flap was upheld as a valid search incident to arrest. The court reasoned that the police already possessed probable cause that a particular object in view is a fruit, instrumentality, or evidence, then it is unobjectionable that they proceed to inspect it carefully in order to confirm this probability.
After the denial of his motion to suppress Minnis was convicted of trafficking in cocaine and appeals. On appeal Minnis now argues that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to suppress. He argues that the police officers should have obtained a warrant to open the paper bag which they had probable cause to believe contained cocaine. He relies on United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977) and Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979) for the proposition that once probable cause is focused on a container within a vehicle then the police must obtain a search warrant to open the container. He further argues that the trial court erroneously held that the search and seizure was lawful, as incident to Minnis' arrest, despite the fact that the container was not near the defendant at the time of the arrest.
We reject Minnis' argument and agree with the trial court that the search was proper. In United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982) the police received information from an informant that a certain individual was selling narcotics kept in the trunk of a certain car parked at a specific location. The police immediately drove to the location, stopped the car and arrested the driver. One of the officers opened the car's trunk and found a closed brown paper bag. Inside the bag the officer discovered plastic bags containing heroin. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the warrantless search on grounds that police who have legitimately stopped an automobile, and who have probable cause to believe that...
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