State v. Rincon
| Decision Date | 18 February 2022 |
| Docket Number | 20-1300 |
| Citation | 970 N.W.2d 275 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Myranda Marie RINCON, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Martha J. Lucey, State Appellate Defender, Rachel C. Regenold (argued), and Vidhya K. Reddy (until withdrawal), Assistant Appellate Defenders, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Louis S. Sloven (argued), Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
In the middle of the night, police encountered a stolen car parked near an apartment complex with the engine running, one passenger seated in the front seat, and three passengers in back. An individual who appeared to be the driver was walking from the apartment complex toward the front driver's side door. The officers observed a half-empty bottle of liquor on the driver's seat and another open container of liquor standing on the rear seat floorboard. The officers directed all the passengers to get out of the vehicle.
One of the passengers retrieved her backpack as she exited the vehicle. An officer took that backpack and placed it on the hood of a patrol car, and another officer immediately noticed a plastic bag of marijuana sticking out of the backpack's front pocket. The subsequent search of the backpack confirmed the presence of illicit drugs.
In the ensuing criminal proceeding, this passenger moved to suppress the results of the search of her backpack. The district court denied the motion on the basis of the automobile exception.
The automobile exception allows law enforcement to search a vehicle without a warrant when they have probable cause to believe the vehicle contains contraband. See State v. Storm , 898 N.W.2d 140, 145–46 (Iowa 2017). On appeal, we must decide whether a passenger can defeat law enforcement's ability to search a container under the automobile exception by removing that container from the vehicle. In State v. Eubanks , we said no, reasoning, "Defendant had no right to insulate her purse or any other container from a lawful warrantless search by the simple expedient of physically removing the purse and its contents from the car while the search was in progress." 355 N.W.2d 57, 60 (Iowa 1984).
We believe Eubanks was well-reasoned and reaffirm it today. Accordingly, we affirm the passenger's conviction and sentence.
A. Factual Summary. In the early morning hours of Christmas Eve 2019, Des Moines Police Officer Cole Johnson was on patrol. At approximately 2:45 a.m., he observed a gray Chevrolet Malibu with its engine running parked on the side of the road in front of an apartment building. He ran a check on the license plate and discovered the car had been reported as stolen.1
Officer Johnson decided to investigate. When he pulled his marked police vehicle up behind the stolen car, he saw a man whom he recognized as Clifton Melton walking from the apartment complex toward the driver-side front door of the car. Officer Johnson approached Melton and asked, "Is this your car?" Melton replied, "No, sir." Officer Johnson continued, Melton explained that it was his "home girl's," gesturing back to the apartment building. Officer Johnson and his partner, Officer Jordan Ulin, handcuffed Melton and placed him under arrest.
After Melton had been detained, Officer Johnson shined a flashlight into the vehicle and remarked, "You've got a whole carload of people." Officer Johnson added, as he shone the flashlight on an opened bottle of liquor sitting on the front seat, "You've got an open container sitting there, too." Officer Johnson asked the passengers for identification. There were four passengers in the Malibu: three in the back and one in the front passenger seat.
Officer Johnson called in the stop on his radio. He then opened the driver-side front door to turn off the engine. He took the keys out of the ignition and placed them on the dash. As he did so, the front seat passenger, who turned out to be Myranda Rincon, was talking on her cell phone with a backpack resting at her feet. Rincon explained to the officer that she "just got picked up from a friend's house" and was "going home." When Rincon asked, "I'm not being detained or anything?" Officer Johnson told Rincon she, in fact, was being detained. After some protest from Rincon, Officer Johnson further explained, He pointed again to the half-empty bottle of liquor lying in the driver's seat. After further protest, Rincon eventually provided her name, date of birth, and last four digits of her social security number.
Following this exchange, Officer Johnson and Officer Ulin moved on to question the passengers in the back seat of the Malibu. While the officers were requesting identifying information, Office Johnson noticed another open container stationed on the floor in the back of the passenger compartment. Officer Johnson announced the discovery of the bottle loudly enough to be overheard, stating, "You've got another open container right there."
The passenger who was seated in the middle of the back seat asked to get out of the car because he was "cramped up."
Officer Johnson replied, "Yeah, you guys can get out." Officer Ulin can be heard on Johnson's bodycam saying, "Yeah, we are going to get everybody out." The officers directed the back seat passengers out of the Malibu. One of them grabbed several items and put them in a bag that she took out of the vehicle with her. Officer Johnson had this passenger leave the bag on top of the trunk of the Malibu to be searched later.
While this was going on, Rincon stepped out of the front passenger seat of the vehicle, taking her backpack with her. Soon afterward, Officer Ryan Steinkamp arrived on the scene. He saw Rincon standing by the front passenger door. She was talking on the phone, with her backpack on the ground by her feet. Because Officer Steinkamp misunderstood the situation at first, he ordered Rincon to get back in the car. But once he realized what was going on, Officer Steinkamp escorted Rincon to the front of one of the patrol cars, placed Rincon's backpack on the hood of the patrol car, and handcuffed her.
While Officer Steinkamp handcuffed Rincon, another officer directed his flashlight toward her backpack and noticed a rolled plastic bag visible from an open front compartment on the backpack. Without touching the backpack or the plastic bag, that officer quickly identified the bag as containing marijuana, stating, "You've got weed right there."
Officer Steinkamp then walked over to the Malibu and shined his flashlight into it for a five-second look. Steinkamp interjected, "You've got dope right here in the door." Upon examination, this "dope" that was visible in the car door turned out to be methamphetamine.
The officer who had previously noticed the marijuana in Rincon's backpack returned to open up the backpack and fully search it. The backpack had a main compartment and a smaller front compartment. The officer pulled the rolled plastic deposit bag containing marijuana out of the smaller front compartment without unzipping or further opening the backpack. Then, he proceeded to search the rest of the backpack while Rincon watched and talked to him. During this discussion, the officer explained to Rincon, "You had weed in plain view." In addition to the marijuana, the officer found a baggie containing methamphetamine.
Based on our review of the videos, it was possible to see through the plastic bag containing the marijuana. A bulk of green, leafy substance is visible in the bag on the video taken from Officer Johnson's bodycam.
During the course of the stop, the officers also found methamphetamine in a plastic bag under a tree near the apartment building where Melton was first observed. In addition, they found another baggie of methamphetamine on the rear passenger floorboard.
Rincon was arrested for possession of the marijuana and methamphetamine found in her backpack. Melton, the driver, was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and second-degree theft. One of the back seat passengers was also arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance. Another was arrested because he had an outstanding warrant. One passenger was allowed to go home.
B. The Criminal Proceeding. On February 3, 2020, the State filed a trial information in the Polk County District Court charging Rincon with two counts of possession of a controlled substance as a second or subsequent offense in violation of Iowa Code section 124.401(5) (2019), an aggravated misdemeanor. Count I related to the marijuana in the backpack, the second count to the methamphetamine.
On March 26, Rincon moved to suppress the evidence found in her backpack, arguing the backpack "was searched without her consent, without probable cause, and not incident to arrest." The State resisted this motion. The State claimed the detentions were legal and there was probable cause to search the stolen car and all containers inside the car that could contain contraband. The resistance included three paragraphs discussing the plain-view exception to the warrant requirement. However, the prosecution's resistance did not make a specific plain-view argument regarding the marijuana found in Rincon's backpack.
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