State v. Crudo

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedSeptember 2, 2022
Docket123559
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Crudo (State v. Crudo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Crudo, (kanctapp 2022).

Opinion

No. 123,559

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

FRANK RAYMOND CRUDO, Appellant.

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT

1. The exigent circumstances which allow warrantless searches of motor vehicles also allow warrantless searches of a fifth-wheel camper attached to a vehicle that is traveling on a public roadway and is so situated that an objective observer would conclude it was not being used as a residence at the time of the search.

2. If officers have probable cause to search a vehicle, they have probable cause to search containers inside and attached to the outside of the vehicle which they have probable cause to believe may contain contraband or evidence of a crime. This includes searching a fifth-wheel camper attached to a vehicle when both are traveling on a public roadway in the possession and control of the defendant.

Appeal from Geary District Court; BENJAMIN J. SEXTON, judge. Opinion filed September 2, 2022. Affirmed.

Peter Maharry, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.

Tony Cruz, assistant county attorney, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.

1 Before CLINE, P.J., ISHERWOOD and HURST, JJ.

CLINE, J.: Frank Raymond Crudo appeals the district court's (1) denial of his motion to suppress, (2) admission of alleged expert testimony by one officer which he contends should have been disclosed under K.S.A. 60-456(b), (3) jury instruction stating the jury could infer an intent to distribute based on the amount of drugs found in the camper, and (4) denial of his motion to vacate based on double jeopardy violations. He also seeks reversal of his possession of marijuana conviction on double jeopardy grounds.

After carefully reviewing the record, we find no error and affirm.

FACTS

In January 2014, Frank Raymond Crudo's pickup truck and attached fifth-wheel camper were stopped for a traffic infraction. Officers searched the pickup after the officer who approached it smelled a strong odor of raw marijuana when the window was rolled down. They found a small piece of marijuana inside the pickup and then searched the camper, where they found 19 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana underneath the bathtub and a small amount of marijuana (along with rolling paper and a grinder) under the stairs.

The State charged Crudo with: (1) possession of marijuana with intent to distribute in violation of K.S.A. 2013 Supp. 21-5705(a)(4) and (a)(7), a drug severity level 2, nonperson felony; (2) no drug tax stamp in violation of K.S.A. 79-5204(a) and 79-5208, a severity level 10, nonperson felony; (3) possession of marijuana in violation of K.S.A. 2013 Supp. 21-5706(b)(3) and/or (b)(7), a class A nonperson misdemeanor; and (4) conspiracy to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute in violation of K.S.A. 2013 Supp. 21-5302(a), a severity level 2, nonperson felony.

2 Motion to Suppress

Crudo was initially successful in suppressing the marijuana discovered in the camper. But after the State filed an interlocutory appeal, a panel of this court reversed and remanded the case for a new hearing on Crudo's motion to suppress before a different judge. State v. Crudo, No. 112,805, 2015 WL 7162274, at *13 (Kan. App. 2015) (unpublished opinion).

The new judge scheduled a hearing on the motion in September 2016. Crudo never appeared and was not before the court again until his arrest in 2019 for his failure to appear in 2016.

The district court held a new evidentiary hearing in November 2019 but ultimately denied Crudo's motion. The court clarified that its decision depended solely on the evidence presented at the November 2019 hearing. The case then proceeded to jury trial.

First Trial

At trial, Lieutenant Christopher Ricard testified that he stopped the pickup after noticing the tag lamp on the camper was not illuminated and, when he ran the camper's registration through dispatch, the dispatcher told him there was no record of that registration. It was later determined a mistake occurred in the officer's relaying of the tag numbers and the dispatcher entering those numbers into the system, despite the officer's clarifying questioning of the dispatcher. But this mistake does not impact the appeal.

Upon stopping the pickup, Lt. Ricard approached the passenger side. Although Crudo was the registered owner of both the pickup and attached camper, he was in the back seat and another individual was driving. Lt. Ricard smelled a strong odor of raw marijuana coming from the pickup when the window was rolled down.

3 After Lieutenant Justin Stopper arrived as backup, Lt. Ricard told Crudo they planned to search the pickup. Crudo became combative to the point where the officers had to handcuff and place him inside a patrol car.

During their search of the pickup, the officers discovered a small piece of marijuana on the transmission hump between the passenger and driver's seats. They then obtained keys to the camper and searched it. They discovered 19 vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana beneath the bathtub in the camper. Some of these bags had writing which appeared to reflect the strain of marijuana contained within. Lt. Ricard testified that based on his training and experience, this quantity of marijuana would be consistent with possession with the intent to distribute. He confirmed none of the bags had any sort of drug tax stamp on them.

Lt. Ricard also testified a small amount of marijuana was found under the stairs along with rolling paper and a grinder—items he explained were consistent with personal use. But he clarified that finding rolling paper and a grinder in a different portion of the camper did not change his opinion that possession of 19 bags of marijuana was consistent with an intent to distribute.

The jury found Crudo guilty of possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana with no drug tax stamp but hung on the possession of marijuana with intent to distribute charge. At that point, the State told the district court it intended to retry Crudo on the possession of marijuana with intent to distribute charge. The State asked the court to declare a mistrial on that charge, which it did.

Motion to Vacate

After his first trial, Crudo moved to vacate, raising two double jeopardy arguments. He argued his convictions for possession of marijuana and possession of

4 marijuana with no drug tax stamp were multiplicitous. He also argued his conviction for possession of marijuana was a lesser included crime of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and, as a result, the State could not retry him. The district court denied Crudo's motion.

Second Trial

When the State retried Crudo for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Sentencing

The district court designated count one, possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, as the base sentence, with sentences for the other counts to run concurrently. The court then granted Crudo's motion for a dispositional departure and sentenced him to 36 months' probation with an underlying 108-month prison term.

Crudo timely appealed.

ANALYSIS

The district court correctly denied Crudo's motion to suppress.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Crudo, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-crudo-kanctapp-2022.