State v. Tirado
| Citation | 428 P.3d 70 |
| Decision Date | 28 June 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 20160284-CA,20160284-CA |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Isaac Alberto TIRADO, Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Utah |
Randall W. Richards, Clearfield, Attorney for Appellant
Sean D. Reyes, Salt Lake City, and Lindsey L. Wheeler, Attorneys for Appellee
Opinion
¶1 Defendant Isaac Alberto Tirado was a passenger in a car that was pulled over and eventually impounded. While conducting an inventory search of the impounded vehicle, officers found four types of illegal drugs near the passenger seat: methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, and unprescribed oxycodone. After being charged with various drug-related offenses, Defendant moved to suppress the evidence discovered during the inventory search. The district court denied that motion, and Defendant appeals. We affirm.
¶2 While on patrol one afternoon, a Layton City police officer (Officer) noticed a car with an expired registration. Officer pulled over the vehicle, which had two occupants: a driver (Driver) and Defendant, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.1 Officer approached the vehicle and asked Driver for his license and registration, but Driver was unable to produce a current registration. Officer also asked Defendant for identification, but Defendant did not have any and instead simply gave Officer his name. Officer then returned to his patrol car to run a records check on the information he was given.
¶3 After checking Driver's information, Officer learned that the vehicle had been unregistered for nearly a year, and that Driver had an outstanding "traffic warrant" for expired registration. After receiving that information, Officer noted that, due to its expired registration, he could "technically" impound the vehicle, but Officer did not at that point decide whether he would actually do so. Officer then ran a records check on Defendant, and obtained information that led him to believe that Defendant was a "gang member and drug abuser." At that point, Officer determined that he would in fact impound the vehicle, but decided not to arrest Driver on the outstanding warrant; instead, Officer gave Driver a citation for expired registration.
¶4 The Layton City Police Department has a written policy (the Policy) that governs the manner in which its officers are to inventory the contents of the vehicles they impound. In relevant part, the Policy provides as follows:
Officer later testified that it is "common practice" among Layton City officers to simply photograph the contents of the vehicle rather than to meticulously list each item on a written form.
¶5 After deciding to impound the vehicle, Officer asked both Driver and Defendant to exit the car, and explained his intention to tow the vehicle. By this time, a backup officer (Backup Officer) had arrived to assist. Officer told both Driver and Defendant that they were free to go and that they could call someone to pick them up. Driver and Defendant did not immediately leave the scene, and Officer asked them if they wanted any items from the car before it was impounded. Defendant asked for a backpack. Before giving the backpack to Defendant, however, Officer searched it and found a computer, an iPad, and a cell phone inside; Officer then ran the serial numbers of the items to determine if any were stolen, and soon determined that they were not listed as stolen. Finding nothing troubling in the backpack, Officer then returned it and its contents to Defendant without logging it or photographing it.
¶6 The officers then asked Driver and Defendant whether they would be willing to consent to a search of their persons, and they agreed. The officers then searched both Driver and Defendant, and found no illegal items.
¶7 The officers then began inventorying the contents of the vehicle that was about to be impounded. Officer first located a $5 bill between the passenger seat and the console, and asked Driver and Defendant if they knew whose it was. Defendant claimed the bill as his, and Officer gave the bill to Defendant without logging it or photographing it. Officer also found a semi-transparent pill bottle labeled as amoxicillin
and, after examining it but not opening it, returned that bottle to Defendant without logging it or photographing it.
¶8 Officer continued his search of the area between the passenger seat and the center console, and discovered three baggies containing a white crystalline substance that Officer believed was methamphetamine, as well as a second semi-transparent prescription pill bottle, this one with a label that bore Defendant's name and indicated a prescription for Lortab
. Officer later testified that the pill bottle was transparent enough for him to see that it contained some pills as well as a small plastic bag. Officer then opened the pill bottle and saw that the plastic bag contained a "brown tar substance" which Officer believed was heroin; the pills found inside the bottle turned out to be oxycodone, and not Lortab. Soon thereafter, and in the same general location, Officer also found a "small bag of a green leafy substance that smelled like marijuana." After discovering these items, Officer arrested Defendant.
¶9 After arresting Defendant, the officers continued with their inventory of the vehicle's contents. The officers did not include in their inventory any of the illegal drugs found in the vehicle, because those drugs were "taken into evidence." At the conclusion of the inventory, Backup Officer filled out a Vehicle Impound Report Form. However, on the form, the officers did not individually log the items found in the vehicle; instead, they opted to simply take a series of photographs depicting the contents of the vehicle, and indicated on the form that "property [was] photographed."
¶10 The State charged Defendant with various drug-related offenses, including possession of methamphetamine, heroin, oxycodone, and marijuana. Defendant moved to suppress all of the evidence discovered during the inventory search. After holding two evidentiary hearings, the district court denied Defendant's motion on two independent grounds: the search of the pill bottle was legally justified by the automobile exception to the warrant requirement, and the evidence was discovered pursuant to a lawful inventory search.
¶11 After the district court's ruling on the motion to suppress, Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to two second-degree felonies: possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and possession or use of a second controlled substance. The court dismissed the remaining charges as part of the plea agreement. Also as part of the plea, Defendant reserved his right to appeal the district court's decision to deny the motion to suppress, which right Defendant now exercises by challenging that decision on appeal.2
¶12 "We review a [district] court's decision to grant or deny a motion to suppress for an alleged Fourth Amendment violation as a mixed question of law and fact." State v. Fuller , 2014 UT 29, ¶ 17, 332 P.3d 937. Under this standard, "[w]hile the court's factual findings are reviewed for clear error, its legal conclusions are reviewed for correctness, including its application of law to the facts of the case." Id.
¶13 The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the right of people "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and provides that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." U.S. Const. amend. IV. Automobiles are considered "effects" and are therefore "within the reach of the Fourth Amendment," but because of the "inherent mobility of automobiles" and because "the expectation of privacy with respect to one's automobile is significantly less than that relating to one's home or office," "warrantless examinations of automobiles have been upheld in circumstances in which a search of a home or office would not." See South Dakota v. Opperman , 428 U.S. 364, 367, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976).
¶14 One such circumstance is the "inventory search" of a vehicle (or other item of property) that is impounded by law enforcement officers. Such a search "constitutes an exception to the warrant requirement," and is justified by concerns about "protecting the police and public from danger, avoiding police liability for lost or stolen property, and protecting the owner's property." See State v. Hygh , 711 P.2d 264, 267 (Utah 1985) ; accord Opperman , 428 U.S. at 369, 96 S.Ct. 3092. For all of these reasons, officers are permitted to ascertain and log the contents of property (including vehicles) that they impound.
¶15 To be lawful, an inventory search must meet two requirements. First, there must be "reasonable and proper justification for the impoundment of the vehicle." Hygh , 711 P.2d at 268. Such justification can be drawn from either "explicit statutory authorization or by the circumstances surrounding...
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State v. Sanchez
...while preserving his right to challenge the denial of his suppression motions on appeal. See State v. Tirado , 2018 UT App 132, ¶ 11 n.2, 428 P.3d 70 ("With the consent of the prosecution and the approval of the judge, a defendant may enter a conditional guilty plea, while preserving a supp......