PEOPLE v. CAREY

Judgment unanimously affirmed. Memorandum: Defendant was convicted, upon a plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree (Penal Law § 220.09). He contends on appeal that the warrantless search of his vehicle was improper. We disagree. After validly stopping defendant's vehicle, the State Trooper observed, in plain view, a bag of marihuana inside the passenger compartment of the automobile. The State Trooper's discovery of marihuana combined with defendant's statement that he "forgot to put it away", provided the requisite probable cause to search both the trunk of defendant's vehicle and the locked briefcase contained therein (see, California v Acevedo, 500 US ___, 111 S Ct 1982; United States v Ross, 456 U.S. 798; People v Ellis, 62 N.Y.2d 393; People v Langen, 60 N.Y.2d 170, cert denied 465 U.S. 1028; People v Etheridge, 175 A.D.2d 739, 740; People v Carmichael, 155 A.D.2d 983, 984-985, lv denied 75 N.Y.2d 811).