Page 28 - TPA Journal January - February 2018

justified by law and constituted a violation of the searched his vehicle. To the contrary, the record
warrant clause of the Fourth Amendment to the before us supports the trial courts view that, at the
United States Constitution. time of the search, Sanchez was arrested only on
the outstanding warrants for traffic violations.
The court of appeals recognized that a search of a
vehicle incident to arrest is valid when the II. ANALYSIS
arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance In New York v. Belton, the Supreme Court held
of the passenger compartment at the time of the that, once the occupant of a vehicle is lawfully
search or when it is reasonable to believe arrested, the Fourth Amendment permits a
evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be warrantless search of the vehicles passenger
found in the vehicle. The court observed that the compartment. In 16 Arizona v. Gant, the Supreme
State was not contesting the trial courts finding Court limited Belton s authorization to search a
that the vehicle was out of Appellees reach at the vehicle incident to arrest to two situations: (1)
time of the search. Instead, the State contended when the arrestee is unsecured and the area of the
that, once the cocaine in the cigarette package was vehicle is within his immediate control, or (2)
discovered during the search of Appellees person, when it is reasonable to believe that evidence of
he was effectively arrested for that offense, and it the offense of arrest might be found in the
was reasonable to believe that evidence relevant to vehicle. It is the second situation that concerns
the drug possession offense would be found in us today.
Appellees Jeep.
In recognizing this second situation, Gant adopted
The court agreed with the State that the trial court Justice Scalias concurring opinion in Thornton v.
had impliedly held that the search of Appellees United States. And the Court held that Justice
personyielding the cocaine in the cigarette Scalias rule applied to the facts in Thornton: For
packagewas legal. But the appellate court many offenses, such as traffic violations, the
concluded that the legality of the search of Court indicated that it would not be reasonable to
Appellees person was irrelevant because the believe that evidence of the crime of arrest would
question at issue was whether there was a be found in the vehicle, [b]ut in others, including
reasonable probability that the vehicle contained Belton and Thornton, the offense of arrest will
evidence relevant to the offense for which he was supply a basis for searching the passenger
arrested. The court of appeals viewed the compartment of an arrestees vehicle and any
offense of arrest for search-incident-to-arrest containers therein.
purposes to be the traffic offenses for which there
were outstanding warrants. Rejecting the notion In Thornton, a suspiciously-moving car prompted
that an offense based on possession of cocaine a police officer to run a license check, which
could qualify as the offense of arrest, the appellate revealed that the license tags did not match the
court stated, The State cites no authority where a model of the car to which they were attached.
search incident to arrest disclosed evidence of a Stopping the car and telling the driver that his
new offense and that offense was retroactively license tags did not match the vehicle he was
deemed the reason for the arrest, and we have driving, the officer noticed that the driver was
found none. The court of appeals further stated, nervous and sweating. After an agreed-to pat
We have found no support for the States down and some questioning, the driver admitted
argument that Sanchez was under arrest for that he possessed illegal narcotics and pulled three
possession of cocaine at the time Officer Martinez bags of marijuana and a bag of crack cocaine out

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