Shaw v. State, s. AT-201

• Decision Date: 10 May 1984
• Docket Number: AT-202,Nos. AT-201,s. AT-201
• Citation: 449 So.2d 976
• Parties: George Bernard SHAW and Cleveland Sweetson Shaw, Appellants, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 976

449 So.2d 976

George Bernard SHAW and Cleveland Sweetson Shaw, Appellants, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. AT-201, AT-202.

District Court of Appeal of Florida First District.

May 10, 1984.

John T. McKnight, Brunswick, Ga., for appellants.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Andrea Hillyer, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

NIMMONS, Judge.

George Shaw and his brother, Cleveland Shaw, appeal from an order denying their motion to suppress marijuana found in an automobile owned by Cleveland and driven by George. We affirm.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Sellars stopped the appellants' station wagon for speeding while proceeding west on Interstate 10 in Jefferson County. The driver's license presented by George was in the name "John Paul Webb." Trooper Sellars had not received a response from the NCIC/FCIC computers by the time he had finished ticketing George for speeding. However, shortly after George, Cleveland and a third occupant of the station wagon were allowed to leave, Sellars received information that a John Paul Webb, whose description fit George, was wanted on federal warrants in New York for bribery of a U.S. Customs official and conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, and on a Florida warrant for indecent exposure in Broward County.

Sellars then overtook and stopped the station wagon, still being driven by George, approximately 15 miles down the highway from the initial stop and placed George under arrest on the above warrants. George was frisked, handcuffed and placed in the front seat of the patrol car. Trooper Stallworth then arrived on the scene to assist and was asked to check the other two occupants of the station wagon. At Stallworth's request, Cleveland and the other occupant exited the vehicle, Stallworth "patted" them down and had them step to the rear of the station wagon. The officers learned from George that one of his two companions was the owner of the vehicle. Cleveland then said that the vehicle belonged to him. Stallworth asked Cleveland if he would consent to a search of the vehicle. Stallworth advised Cleveland that if he did not wish to consent, they would try to obtain a search warrant. Cleveland and the third occupant shrugged their shoulders and said that they did not care.

The search of the passenger compartment of the station wagon revealed two large, sealed U-Haul boxes which were situated in the back of the station wagon. After the officers received conflicting stories from the three occupants concerning the contents of the boxes, the officers proceeded to open them and discovered 102 pounds of marijuana. Cleveland and the third occupant were then arrested. It was not until later that the officers learned that George Shaw was not really John Paul Webb, the person whose name appeared on the driver's license produced by George.

In a brief order, the trial court denied the defendants' motion to suppress, citing as authority New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), and United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982). The trial court further ruled that George lacked standing to contest the search.

On appeal, appellants contend that both appellants had standing to contest the search, that Cleveland's consent to search the vehicle was not a voluntary consent, and that the search of the vehicle was not a valid search incident to George's arrest since George had been handcuffed and placed in the officer's vehicle before the search was conducted.

We are of the view that the search of the boxes situated in the passenger compartment of the station wagon was a valid search incident to George's arrest under the Supreme Court's holding in New York v. Belton, supra. We, therefore, need not decide the issues as to: (1) whether George, who offered no evidence of any interest in either the vehicle or the boxes, ¹ had the requisite standing under Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), and United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980), to object to the search (we will assume, without deciding, that George had standing), and (2) whether Cleveland's consent was voluntary (we will assume, without deciding, that this was not a valid consensual search).

Clearly, George was lawfully placed under arrest. Appellants do not contend otherwise. In Belton, the Supreme Court reversed the New York Court of Appeals which had held invalid a search of the defendant's jacket situated inside his automobile on the grounds that the defendant had been removed from his vehicle, that he was under arrest and being securely held in custody and that there was no longer any danger that he might gain access to the vehicle's contents. The Supreme Court, in reversing, stated:

While the Chimel case [Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 23 L.Ed.2d 685, 89 S.Ct. 2034] established that a search incident to an arrest may not stray beyond the area within the immediate control of the arrestee, courts have found no workable definition of "the area within the immediate control of the arrestee" when that area arguably includes the interior of an automobile and the arrestee is its recent...