State v. Olson

• Decision Date: 12 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 970200,970200
• Citation: 575 N.W.2d 649,1998 ND 41
• Parties: STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Jarel Aaron OLSON, Defendant and Appellee. Criminal
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Page 649

575 N.W.2d 649

1998 ND 41

STATE of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Jarel Aaron OLSON, Defendant and Appellee.

Criminal No. 970200.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

Feb. 12, 1998.

Alan S. Dohrmann, Assistant State's Attorney, Fargo, for plaintiff and appellant.

Mark A. Beauchene of Wold Johnson, P.C., Fargo, for defendant and appellee.

SANDSTROM, Justice.

¶1 The State appealed from an order suppressing evidence found in the trunk and passenger compartment of a car and in a hotel room. We conclude the search of the passenger compartment was a valid search incident to arrest and the search of the trunk was valid under the inevitable discovery doctrine. We also conclude the search warrant for the hotel room was supported by probable cause. We therefore reverse the suppression order.

I

¶2 Between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. on October 2, 1996, the manager of the Days Inn called 911 to report individuals in an older white Oldsmobile Cutlass were creating a disturbance in the parking lot at the Days Inn. She said she believed the occupants were intoxicated and mentioned the possibility of drugs.

¶3 Shortly before 3:00 a.m., a West Fargo Police Officer received the report from West Fargo Police dispatch while he was having coffee at a gas station with a friend, who was not a police officer. The officer and his friend left the station, and the officer was going to go to the Days Inn. As they were leaving the station, however, they observed an older Cutlass with a bicycle hanging out of the trunk. The officer got in his car and followed the Cutlass, while the officer's friend went to the Days Inn to verify the information received from dispatch. The officer's friend, after verifying with the manager of the Days Inn the description of the vehicle and verifying it had a bicycle hanging out of the trunk, called the information into dispatch.

¶4 The officer, while following the car, noted it weaved within its own lane of traffic for approximately one and one-half miles. After the officer received confirmation from dispatch that this was the correct vehicle, he stopped the car. The driver, after initially giving the officer a false name, eventually gave his correct name, Jarel Olson. The officer ran a license check, which showed Olson's Minnesota driver's license had been suspended, and arrested Olson for driving under suspension.

¶5 The passenger, after being "checked out" by another officer, was allowed to leave, but needed to remove the bicycle from the trunk, which was tied down with a piece of rope. While the passenger was removing the bicycle, the officer saw a .22 rifle in the trunk. The officer then searched the trunk and found two small suitcases and a brown paper bag, inside of which was a plastic container. Inside one of the suitcases, the officer found .22 shells as well as .357 ammunition. Inside the plastic container, the officer found plastic bags containing a substance he believed to be methamphetamine.

¶6 After searching the trunk, the officer searched the passenger compartment and found syringes, a black box containing a small gram scale, some unidentified pills, a hunting knife and sheath, a black notebook listing names, addresses, phone numbers, and amounts of money "owed," and plastic bags believed to contain methamphetamine. The officer arrested Olson for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. A special agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation obtained a search warrant and searched Olson's residence, room 214 of the Days Inn. Items seized from the room included miscellaneous paperwork, foil with residue, razor blades, a black bag, plastic bags, rubber gloves, "snort tubes," a boot knife in a black sheath, an electronic scale, a loaded .357 handgun, and a .22 caliber clip containing five shells.

¶7 Olson was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. Olson filed a motion to suppress the evidence found in the trunk and passenger compartment of the car and in his hotel room. Following a hearing, the trial court upheld the stop and arrest of Olson for driving under suspension, but found no probable cause for the searches of the car or for the search warrant for Olson's hotel room, and suppressed the evidence found.

¶8 The State appeals from the June 4, 1997, order granting defendant's motion to suppress evidence. The district court had jurisdiction under N.D. Const. Art. VI, § 8, and N.D.C.C. § 27-05-06(1). This Court has jurisdiction under N.D. Const. Art. VI, § 6, and N.D.C.C. §§ 29-28-02 and 29-28-07(5). The appeal was timely under N.D.R.App.P. 4(b)(2).

II

¶9 The State contends the searches of the passenger compartment and trunk of the car are valid and the evidence should not have been suppressed.

A

¶10 "A trial court's findings of fact in preliminary proceedings of a criminal case will not be reversed if, after the conflicts in the testimony are resolved in favor of affirmance, there is sufficient competent evidence fairly capable of supporting the trial court's findings, and the decision is not contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence." City of Fargo v. Thompson, 520 N.W.2d 578, 581 (N.D.1994). "In reviewing the evidence, we recognize it is the trial court's function to consider the testimony and weigh the credibility of the witnesses." State v. Erbele, 554 N.W.2d 448, 450 (N.D.1996). "The State has the burden of showing that a warrantless search falls within an exception to the warrant requirement." State v. Avila, 1997 ND 142, p 16, 566 N.W.2d 410.

B

¶11 In New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 2864, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981) (footnotes omitted), the United States Supreme Court held:

"when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile.

"It follows from this conclusion that the police may also examine the contents of any containers found within the passenger compartment...."

See also, e.g., State v. Hensel, 417 N.W.2d 849, 852-53 (N.D.1988) (applying Belton to uphold warrantless search of the passenger compartment of a vehicle and all containers within it when defendant was handcuffed and placed in the police car).

¶12 The trial court, however, suppressed the evidence found in the passenger compartment. The transcript of the March 24, 1997, suppression hearing provides the only explanation for why the trial court suppressed the evidence:

"THE COURT: But I don't think he had probable cause to search either one of them [the trunk or the passenger compartment]. This is a bad case. I don't think he had a reasonable and articulable suspicion to do anything but arrest him for DUS, lock up the car and take him to jail pure and simple.

"He searched that passenger compartment after he searched the trunk, and not only did he go beyond the .22 caliber pistol, okay, he went beyond that in the trunk and to continue all he had to do is lock up the car, seize it, get a search warrant. He didn't do it. He didn't do it. You have a bad seizure.

* * * * *

"THE COURT: There was enough. There was enough evidence for a stop. That weaving gives you enough to stop for a DUI. Okay. And the DUS check goes with the DUI so the DUS arrest stands. The arrest stands."

¶13 The trial court upheld the validity of the initial stop of the car Olson was driving, based on the weaving and the information called into dispatch by the manager of the Days Inn and forwarded to the officer, and upheld the validity of the driving under suspension arrest, based on the license check conducted by the officer. See State v. Mische, 448 N.W.2d 412, 414-15 (N.D.1989) (discussing license check and subsequent arrest for driving under suspension); United States v. Williams, 980 F.Supp. 1225, 1231 (D.Utah 1997) (citing cases). The validity of the stop and the arrest have not been challenged on appeal. The valid arrest of Olson, based upon probable cause, gave the officer the right, under Belton, to perform a search incident to arrest. ¹ See Belton at 460, 460 n. 2, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 n. 2 (noting the validity of the arrest had not been challenged); see also Erbele at 451 ("The search is valid because at the time of the search, Delzer, with probable cause, had already placed Erbele under arrest for DUI. Once a person is under a lawful arrest, an officer may search the passenger compartment of the arrestee's vehicle without a warrant."). Separate probable cause to search the passenger compartment is not necessary. See Belton at 460-61, 101 S.Ct. at 2864. As such, the trial court was incorrect as a matter of law when it ruled probable cause was required for the search. Furthermore, Olson cited no case, and our research found none, which would void the search of the passenger compartment as a search incident to arrest under Belton because the trunk was searched first. Cf. Williams at 1231. Under the circumstances of this case, the search of the passenger compartment was valid and the evidence should not have been suppressed.

C

¶14 The holding in Belton, allowing a search of the passenger compartment and all containers in the passenger compartment, specifically excluded the trunk. See Belton at 460 n. 4, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 n. 4. The State offers several theories to avoid suppression of evidence from the trunk. The State contends the items in the trunk of the car Olson was driving would have been inevitably discovered either following the search, incident to arrest, of the passenger compartment or when the vehicle was inventoried following its impoundment. The State also contends the search of the trunk was valid because the "open trunk exposed a weapon in plain view, readily accessible to the Defendant or his passenger."

¶15 During the suppression hearing, the State argued "if [the officer] would have started up front...