People v. Jardine

116 Cal. App. 3d 907, 172 Cal. Rptr. 408, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1554
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 16, 1981
DocketCrim. 36901
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 116 Cal. App. 3d 907 (People v. Jardine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Jardine, 116 Cal. App. 3d 907, 172 Cal. Rptr. 408, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1554 (Cal. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

Opinion

FILES, P. J.

— Appellants Eddy Gayland Rucker, Allan Deal Pridgen and Frankie Lee Jardine were jointly charged with the crime of robbery. (Pen. Code, § 211.) In addition Jardine was charged with personally using a firearm, to wit, a shotgun (Pen. Code, § 12022.5), and Rucker and Pridgen were charged with being armed with a shotgun. (Pen. Code, § 12022, subd. (a).) Following denial of a motion to *912 suppress Jardine entered a plea of guilty to the charge. After a jury trial Pridgen was found guilty as charged and a mistrial was declared as to Rucker. Following a second jury trial Rucker was found guilty as charged. Each appeals from the judgment imposed.

Facts

On August 11, 1979, at about 11 p.m., Joseph Wasley was in his store, Mac’s Market, in the City of Burbank when Pridgen and Jardine walked in. Jardine pointed a sawed-off shotgun at Wasley, and Pridgen ordered him to fill up a paper bag. Wasley emptied his cash register and put about $39 in the bag. After the two were convinced that Wasley had no floor safe, they left.

Wasley then picked up his gun and ran out the door “to see where they went to.” When he found he could not see anyone, he returned to the store and told his wife to call the police.

The Denial of the Motions to Suppress

A. The initial traffic stop, the search of the van and the search of Pridgen.

A few minutes after the robbery the police radio broadcast a report that Mac’s Market had been robbed by two male Caucasians in their twenties, one short with a reddish goatee and a watch cap or a ski cap, dark color, and the second taller, thin, with black stringy hair and a green T-shirt. The weapon was described as a sawed-off shotgun.

Officer Armstrong, who was on patrol about a mile away heard the broadcast and proceeded towards the scene. About 1 block from the market he saw a van, driven by a male Caucasian in his 20’s with stringy hair. He followed the van for a few blocks and observed it driving to the left of center after making a turn. He also saw an object, “approximately six by six,” being thrown from the van. He stopped the van for the traffic violations and ordered the occupants out. They were Rucker, the driver, and Jardine and Pridgen. Armstrong noted that Jardine and Pridgen met the broadcast description of the two robbers.

A few minutes later a second police car arrived with Sergeant Valento and Officer Wilson. Valento looked into the van and found live *913 shotgun shells scattered on the floor, a dark colored ski cap and a grocery bag.

After arresting the passengers for robbery Sergeant Valento entered the van but was unable to see any shotgun. He then lifted up one of the plywood seats which had been built over the rear wheel wells of the van, and there found the sawed-off shotgun. In Pridgen’s pocket Valento found $39.

Pridgen and Jardine contend there was no probable cause either to stop the van or to search the van once it was stopped. Pridgen additionally objects to the search of his pockets after his arrest.

After Officer Armstrong had observed two traffic violations, it was not improper to stop the van to issue the appropriate citations. (People v. McGaughran (1979) 25 Cal.3d 577, 582 [159 Cal.Rptr. 191, 601 P.2d 207].) Once he became aware there was more than one person in the van and they fit the broadcast description of the armed robbers, he was justified in asking everyone to alight from the van. (People v. Mickelson (1963) 59 Cal.2d 448, 450 [30 Cal.Rptr. 18, 380 P.2d 658]; People v. Remiro (1979) 89 Cal.App.3d 809, 829 [153 Cal.Rptr. 89].) The law did not require Officer Armstrong to make the choice of giving the driver immunity in violating the traffic laws or stopping the car and possibly walking into the firing path of a sawed-off shotgun. (People v. Beal (1974) 44 Cal.App.3d 216, 221 [118 Cal.Rptr. 272].)

Once the passengers were out of the van, the officers were able to see the live shotgun shells and ski mask which were in plain view from outside of the van. These observations added to the reasonableness of the belief that the sawed-off shotgun was still in the van. At this point the officers were no longer concerned with a traffic violation. This was a robbery investigation. Since the sawed-off shotgun was both contraband (Pen. Code, § 12029) and evidence of a crime, the officers had the right to search for it. (See Carrol v. United States (1925) 267 U.S. 132 [69 L.Ed. 543, 45 S.Ct. 280, 39 A.L.R. 790]; Wimberly v. Superior Court (1976) 16 Cal.3d 557 [128 Cal.Rptr. 641, 547 P.2d 417].)

Since the shotgun was not found in the open portion of the van, the officers had reasonable cause to look for it in one of the closed compartments. (See Wimberly v. Superior Court, supra, 16 Cal.3d 557, 573; People v. Minjares (1979) 24 Cal.3d 410, 423 [153 Cal.Rptr. 224, 591 P.2d 514]; People v. Odom (1980) 108 Cal.App.3d 100, 106 [166 *914 Cal.Rptr. 283].) The investigation was being conducted on a public street in the middle of the night — circumstances which made it impractical to await the issuance of a search warrant. Under the circumstances it was not unreasonable to lift the unlatched wheel-well seat to locate and seize the shotgun.

Once the officers had arrested all three appellants the officers had the right to search Pridgen as an incident to his arrest. (People v. Superior Court (Simon) (1972) 7 Cal.3d 186, 201 [101 Cal.Rptr. 837, 496 P.2d 1205].)

B. The taped conversations in the police car and in the jail.

At the scene of the arrests Valento placed the 3 suspects in a police car which was equipped with a tape recorder, then left them alone for about 15 to 25 minutes. The recorded conversations were received in evidence at the trial.

These conversations were admissible. Appellants were not in a private place, and they could not have had any reasonable expectations of privacy as they sat, under arrest, in the police vehicle. (People v. Newton (1974) 42 Cal.App.3d 292, 296 [116 Cal.Rptr. 690].)

When Rucker’s wife came to the jail to visit him, they were separated by a glass partition and conversed by telephone. The police tape recorded this conversation, as well as one that Jardine had under similar circumstances with a woman who came to visit him.

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Bluebook (online)
116 Cal. App. 3d 907, 172 Cal. Rptr. 408, 1981 Cal. App. LEXIS 1554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-jardine-calctapp-1981.