STATE v. PADGETT

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Docket Number

61909.

Attorney(S)

Robert E. Keller, District Attorney, Jack T. Wimbish, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, for appellant. Al Horn, Barry Hazen, for appellee.

Judges

SHULMAN, Presiding Judge.

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Smart Summary

Factual and Procedural Background

The defendant's contraband was seized from his automobile without a search warrant. An undercover officer observed contraband inside the vehicle while the defendant was present but did not arrest him or seize the evidence at that time, intending to facilitate a sale of additional contraband. Several hours later, the defendant was arrested at a location miles away from where his vehicle was lawfully parked. Upon arrest, the officer obtained the vehicle keys, returned to the automobile, and seized the contraband. The defendant moved to suppress the evidence seized from the vehicle, and the trial court granted the motion. The state appealed that ruling.

Legal Issues Presented

Whether exigent circumstances justified a warrantless search of the defendant's automobile.
Whether the search of the vehicle was lawful as incident to the defendant's arrest.
Whether the search was permissible as a lawful inventory search following impoundment.
Whether probable cause alone can justify a warrantless search absent exigent circumstances.

Arguments of the Parties

The opinion does not contain a detailed account of the parties' legal arguments.

Table of Precedents Cited

Precedent	Rule or Principle Cited For	Application by the Court
Love v. State, 144 Ga. App. 728, 242 S.E.2d 278	Exigent circumstances are required to justify a warrantless automobile search; probable cause alone is insufficient.	The court relied on this precedent to hold that no exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless search of the defendant's automobile.
Hardwick v. State, 149 Ga. App. 291, 254 S.E.2d 384	Supporting authority on the requirements for warrantless automobile searches.	Used to reinforce the necessity of exigent circumstances for a warrantless search.
State v. Creel, 142 Ga. App. 158, 235 S.E.2d 628	Search incident to arrest requires proximity of the arrestee to the vehicle; impoundment must be justified for inventory searches.	The court applied this precedent to conclude the search was not incident to arrest and that impoundment was not justified.
Dunkum v. State, 138 Ga. App. 321, 226 S.E.2d 133	Criteria for lawful impoundment and inventory searches.	Referenced to support the conclusion that the search was not a lawful inventory search.

Court's Reasoning and Analysis

The court analyzed the circumstances surrounding the warrantless search of the defendant's automobile. It acknowledged the officer had probable cause to believe contraband was inside the vehicle but emphasized that no search warrant was obtained. The court found no exigent circumstances that would justify bypassing the warrant requirement, citing Love v. State and Hardwick v. State. It rejected the state's argument that the search was incident to arrest, noting the defendant was arrested miles from the vehicle and thus the search was not contemporaneous or related to the arrest, as supported by State v. Creel and Love v. State. Furthermore, the vehicle was lawfully parked and not properly impounded; therefore, the search could not be justified as a lawful inventory search, as explained in State v. Creel and Dunkum v. State. The court reiterated that probable cause without exigent circumstances cannot justify a warrantless search. Consequently, the trial court properly granted the motion to suppress the evidence seized from the vehicle.

Holding and Implications

The court affirmed the trial court's grant of the defendant's motion to suppress the evidence seized from the automobile.

The direct effect of this decision is the exclusion of the contraband evidence obtained from the warrantless search. The opinion does not establish new precedent but reaffirms existing principles that exigent circumstances are required to justify warrantless automobile searches and that probable cause alone is insufficient. It also clarifies the limits of searches incident to arrest and inventory searches in the context of properly parked vehicles not lawfully impounded.

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THE STATE v. PADGETT.

SHULMAN, Presiding Judge.

The state appeals the grant of defendant's motion to suppress. We affirm.

The contraband which was the subject of defendant's motion to suppress was seized from defendant's automobile. Although the officer who made the seizure clearly had probable cause to believe that contraband was in the automobile, no search warrant was obtained. We agree with the trial court's holding that exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless search of the automobile did not exist. See Love v. State, 144 Ga. App. 728 ( 242 S.E.2d 278). See also Hardwick v. State, 149 Ga. App. 291 ( 254 S.E.2d 384). The officer could have and should have obtained a warrant to search the vehicle.

The pertinent facts are as follows: The arresting officer, an undercover agent, observed contraband in defendant's automobile. Despite the fact that defendant was inside the vehicle at the time of such observation, the officer chose not to arrest the defendant or to seize the evidence at that time in order to effect a sale of additional contraband. The officer subsequently arrested the defendant several hours later at a location miles from where the defendant's vehicle was lawfully and properly parked. Upon defendant's arrest, the officer obtained the keys to the defendant's vehicle. He returned to the automobile and seized the contraband which was the subject of defendant's motion to suppress.

The search of defendant's automobile was obviously not incident to defendant's arrest, since defendant was not in the vicinity of his automobile when his arrest was executed. See State v. Creel, 142 Ga. App. 158 (1) ( 235 S.E.2d 628); Love v. State, supra.

Moreover, since the vehicle was properly parked, the trial court was authorized to find that the vehicle was not properly impounded and searched pursuant to a lawful inventory search. "[T]here is evidence from which the trial judge could have found that the police were acting not out of a desire to protect the car, but in the hopes of finding the fruits of the defendant's suspected crime. `In these circumstances the trial court was authorized, though not required, to find from the totality of the circumstances that the impounding of (the defendant's) car . . . pursuant to an arrest unrelated to the car was not required for traffic safety or to protect (the defendant's) property.' [Cit.] Thus, the judge did not err in refusing to find the search to be legal as part of an impoundment of the vehicle." State v. Creel, supra, p. 158. See also Dunkum v. State, 138 Ga. App. 321 (9) ( 226 S.E.2d 133).

The state's attempt to justify the search on the basis of probable cause is similarly without merit. "`(N)o amount of probable cause can justify a warrantless search or seizure absent "exigent circumstances'". [Cit.)" Love v. State, supra, p. 736.

Inasmuch as the state failed to show exigent circumstances to justify the warrantless search of defendant's automobile, the trial court properly granted defendant's motion to suppress the evidence seized.

Judgment affirmed. Birdsong and Sognier, JJ., concur.