People v. Leal

178 Cal. App. 4th 1051, 100 Cal. Rptr. 3d 856, 2009 Cal. App. LEXIS 1741
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 29, 2009
DocketH031174
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 178 Cal. App. 4th 1051 (People v. Leal) 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. Leal, 178 Cal. App. 4th 1051, 100 Cal. Rptr. 3d 856, 2009 Cal. App. LEXIS 1741 (Cal. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

Opinion

DUFFY, J.

Following denial of his motion to suppress evidence (Pen. Code, § 1538.5),1 defendant Raul Anthony Leal pleaded no contest to obliterating the identification of a firearm (§ 12090). The trial court placed defendant on probation for three years subject to various conditions. On appeal, defendant contended that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress. He argued that the search conducted incident to his arrest was beyond the scope of the arm’s reach rule of Chimel v. California (1969) 395 U.S. 752 [23 L.Ed.2d 685, 89 S.Ct. 2034]. He also challenged the imposition of a probation condition that he may not be present at any court proceeding or in any courthouse building unless he is scheduled for a court hearing or has the [1056]*1056permission of his probation officer. He contended that the condition was unreasonable and violated his constitutional rights to travel and to attend court proceedings.

This court reversed the judgment on the basis of defendant’s first claim. The California Supreme Court granted the People’s petition for review and deferred action pending the United States Supreme Court’s disposition of Arizona v. Gant (2009) 556 U.S._[173 L.Ed.2d 485, 129 S.Ct. 1710]. On June 10, 2009, after the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Gant, the California Supreme Court transferred this case to us with directions to vacate our decision and to reconsider the cause in light of Gant. We have received supplemental letter briefs from the parties addressing Gant’s applicability to this case. We will rely on our prior reasoning and, for the reasons stated in our prior opinion, reverse the judgment. Essentially, we will reiterate much of our prior opinion but will discuss Gant and the parties’ supplemental letter briefs in a new section.

In sum, because we find that the search conducted following defendant’s arrest violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a violation of sufficient gravity to entitle him to the remedy of suppression of the evidence, we will reverse the judgment.

BACKGROUND

By a complaint filed August 11, 2005, defendant was charged with obliterating the identification of a firearm (§ 12090) and actively participating in a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (a)), both felonies. The complaint further alleged that the section 12090 offense was committed for the benefit of or in association with a criminal street gang. (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1).) On December 21, 2005, defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence—a handgun—seized from his house on the day of his arrest. On February 9, 2006, the trial court heard the motion in conjunction with the preliminary examination. The testimony at that hearing was as follows.

Salinas Police Sergeant David Shaw went to defendant’s house around 4:48 p.m. on August 1, 2005, with four other officers in order to serve two outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrants on defendant. Two officers went to the back of the house while Shaw and two other officers went to the front. When Officer Schwaner knocked on the front door, they heard a male utter from inside the house, words similar to “who’s there?” Officer Schwaner identified himself as a Salinas police officer. No further response came from inside the house for quite some time, but one of the officers covering the back of the house heard a male voice coming from inside the back of the house shortly after the officers knocked on the front door.

[1057]*1057The officers continued to knock on the front door and windows and called for defendant to emerge. They were aware that defendant’s grandmother had reported that defendant might be armed with a gun and using drugs. Also, the police had heard that defendant “was upset with his daughter, who had told the grandmother that he was a gang member.”

After almost 45 minutes, defendant opened the door and stood in the threshold. Officer Schwaner told him to turn around, handcuffed him, and led him away, explaining that there were warrants for his arrest. As Officer Schwaner was securing defendant in a patrol car about 30 to 38 feet away, the other officers entered the house to make sure nobody else was inside it.

After finding nobody else inside the house, Sergeant Shaw searched the area immediately adjacent to where defendant was standing when he was taken into custody. A small rocking recliner sat about a foot from where defendant had been standing at the front door. A sweatshirt was on the chair. Sergeant Shaw lifted the sweatshirt and found a semiautomatic pistol tucked between the arm and the cushion of the recliner. The pistol, which was loaded and had had its serial numbers removed, was found about two or three minutes after defendant was arrested. No weapons were found on defendant.

After the trial court denied defendant’s motion to suppress, he waived further hearing on the substantive charges and the court held him to answer. An information was filed February 14, 2006, alleging the same charges as had the complaint. On April 11, 2006, defendant renewed his motion to suppress and the court considered it at a hearing on April 21, 2006.

The trial court recognized that the search was problematic under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, but ultimately found it valid. In so doing, it relied in part on federal circuit court decisions. The court stated, as relevant here: “I agree . . . that there was no actual danger for the officers at the time that this search of the chair actually took place. [1] . . . [1] [But the prosecutor] is exactly correct that what the federal courts are trying to do is set out a rule that the officers comprehend .... It has to be within the grabbing area of the arrestee and take place reasonably contemporaneous with the arrest. . . . [f] . . . [W]as it reasonable at that point for the detective to lift up the shirt and discover the gun[?] I think, under the circumstances here, where it is a very brief period of time where it’s in conjunction with a protective sweep where they had information that the defendant may well have been in possession of a weapon and/or drugs that it was unreasonable [sic] to infer [sic] the detective to pick up the shirt. [1] Seems to me what’s really happening here . . . was a second basis besides officer safety, [and] that is preservation of the evidence. Seems to me the federal courts are now moving to extend the preservation aspect of this. For instance, the gun is not [1058]*1058only a safety issue, it is also contraband and also the drugs, if they were there, would have been contraband. I think they’re giving the officers more latitude to seize contraband where it’s right there where they arrest the person. [][]... [f] It sounds from the description that they did a protective sweep to make sure no one else was around, then, [lo] and behold, there is a gun which they had reason to believe might be there.”

An amended information was filed October 11, 2006, adding a felony charge of possession of a firearm with identification numbers removed (§ 12094, subd. (a)), with an allegation that the offense was committed for the benefit of or in association with a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (d)). On November 30, 2006, defendant pleaded no contest to the section 12090 charge on condition that the remaining counts and gang allegations be dismissed, and that he be placed on probation.

DISCUSSION

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People v. Leal
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 Cal. App. 4th 1051, 100 Cal. Rptr. 3d 856, 2009 Cal. App. LEXIS 1741, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-leal-calctapp-2009.