Com. v. Young, A.

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 5, 2023
Docket1479 MDA 2022
StatusUnpublished

This text of Com. v. Young, A. (Com. v. Young, A.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Com. v. Young, A., (Pa. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

J-S19013-23

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA Appellant : : : v. : : : AARON NADAE YOUNG : No. 1479 MDA 2022

Appeal from the Order Entered October 3, 2022 In the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County Criminal Division at No(s): CP-41-CR-0001488-2021

BEFORE: BENDER, P.J.E., McLAUGHLIN, J., and SULLIVAN, J.

MEMORANDUM BY BENDER, P.J.E.: FILED SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

The Commonwealth appeals from the trial court’s October 3, 2022 order

granting Aaron Nadae Young’s pretrial motion to suppress evidence seized,

and statements he made, during a traffic stop of his vehicle. After careful

review, we affirm.

The trial court summarized the procedural and factual history of this

case, as follows:

[Young] was charged with possession with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and a summary traffic offense. The charges [arose] from police conducting a traffic stop of [Young’s] car in the parking lot of an apartment complex. [Young] filed this omnibus pretrial motion on February 25, 2022. This court held a hearing on the motion on May 17, 2022.

In his omnibus motion, [Young] first argues that the warrantless search of his vehicle was based on coerced consent[,] and the evidence seized and statements made as a result must be suppressed. Secondly, [Young] argues that the traffic stop was extended into a drug investigation without reasonable suspicion and all evidence seized pursuant to the unlawful investigation J-S19013-23

should be suppressed. Thirdly, [Young] maintains the search warrant obtained to search his vehicle is fruit of the poisonous tree and all evidentiary items seized from the vehicle pursuant to the warrant must be suppressed. This court ordered counsel to file briefs and [Young] filed his brief on July 12, 2022[.] … [T]he Commonwealth responded on August 16, 2022.

Background and Testimony

Officer Gino Caschera (Caschera) of the Williamsport Bureau of Police testified on behalf of the Commonwealth. On October 31, 2021, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Caschera was on duty patrolling the area of Memorial Avenue and First Avenue in the city of Williamsport in a marked patrol unit with his partner, Officer [Nikita] Bonnell (Bonnell). Caschera observed a white Lincoln make a wide turn onto First Avenue from Park Place that caught his attention. Caschera positioned his patrol unit behind the Lincoln and watched as it turned onto Park Lane without utilizing a turn signal. The Lincoln immediately turned off … Park Lane into a parking lot, nearly striking a parked dump truck. Following this observation, Caschera activated his emergency lights and initiated a traffic stop on the Lincoln. At this point, Caschera had viewed three (3) separate traffic violations and was concerned the driver may have been intoxicated.

The Lincoln pulled into a parking spot and Caschera made contact with the driver, later identified as [Young], who had rolled his window down approximately a third of the way. [Young] immediately questioned Caschera why he was being stopped and Caschera “informed him that he had a turn signal violation, but not to worry[, Caschera] wasn’t looking to give him a citation. Again, [Caschera] just wanted to make sure he was not intoxicated.” Caschera further testified that he could immediately smell the odor of [raw] marijuana coming out of the vehicle. Caschera asked [Young] for his license and registration. [Young] provided his license but said that he did not have any paperwork in his vehicle. Caschera asked if [Young] had electronic paperwork on his cell phone and [Young] said yes and began searching on his phone for his insurance information. While [Young] was looking on his phone, Caschera inquired where [Young] was coming from and [Young] simply replied[, “]Sheetz.[”] When Caschera asked [Young] what he purchased from Sheetz[, Appellant] did not respond.

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Caschera noted that [Young] appeared to be shaking and breathing heavily as if he were nervous. Caschera repeated his question[,] asking [Young] what he bought from Sheetz[,] and [Young] said that he had changed his mind [and not purchased anything]. Eventually, [Young] found his insurance information on his phone and held it up to the window for Caschera to view it. As Caschera leaned in closer to the car to see better, he stated the odor of raw marijuana became stronger. Caschera asked [Young] to step out of his vehicle and speak with him in between [Young’s] car and the patrol unit. Caschera testified to three (3) reasons he wished to speak with [Young] out of the vehicle: (1) he believe[s] it makes people more comfortable during a traffic stop to speak face-to-face rather than have the officer speak down to them, (2) Caschera wanted to ensure [Young] was not impaired and watching him exit the vehicle would give Caschera a chance to observe his body language for impairment, and (3) Caschera wanted the entire interaction to be captured on the MVR footage and [Young’s] position in his parked car would not have made that possible. Caschera denied manipulating the MVR in any way [or] tampering with the settings. Caschera stated that the footage from the night in question is missing audio due to a lack of [an] out-of-car microphone in the unit.

Caschera brought [Young] to the front of his patrol car and explained that he could smell raw marijuana emitting from [Young’s] vehicle. [Young] admitted to smoking marijuana earlier that day. Caschera testified he was familiar with the Medical Marijuana Act and knew that the Act prohibited those carrying a medical marijuana card to smoke medical marijuana.[1] For this reason, Caschera said he was concerned that illegal marijuana was located in [Young’s] car. Caschera asked [Young] for consent to search the vehicle and [Young] “stated he was unsure, and … he didn’t feel there was a reason for [the officer] to search his vehicle.” Caschera … repeated his reasoning to [Young], namely the smell of marijuana, and [he] explained to [Young] that “[the officer] can’t just search his vehicle based on the odor of marijuana. New case law … states that [Caschera] would have to ____________________________________________

1 Under the Medical Marijuana Act, “dry leaf or plant medical marijuana is available to certified patients and can be consumed by way of vaporization.” Commonwealth v. Barr, 266 A.3d 25, 41 (Pa. 2021). “It, however, remains illegal to smoke this product.” Id. at 41 n.13 (citing 35 P.S. § 10231.304(b)(1)).

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get a search warrant, tow the vehicle, obtain a search warrant for the vehicle, and go that route.”

Caschera also told [Young] that he was not concerned about a small amount of marijuana, but he wanted to make sure nothing else illegal was in the car. While Caschera was explaining all of this to [Young], [Young] told Caschera to go ahead and unlocked his vehicle. Caschera told [Young] that he did not have to consent to his car being searched and if he denied consent to search he would not face additional consequences. [Young] repeated, “go ahead” and unlocked the vehicle again with the key fob.

Bonnell began searching the car while Caschera continued to speak with [Young]. [Young] was pacing back-and-forth but Caschera did not think anything was out of the ordinary. However, Caschera stated that [Young] had trouble answering normal questions, such as his place of employment, which made Caschera believe that he was very nervous. [Young] was “fixated” on Bonnell while searching the vehicle, was not making eye contact with Caschera, and appeared to walk towards the door of an apartment building to the extent that Caschera had to reprimand him to come back towards the car or have a seat.

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Bluebook (online)
Com. v. Young, A., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-v-young-a-pasuperct-2023.