State v. Olson

654 P.2d 48, 134 Ariz. 114, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 564
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedNovember 2, 1982
Docket1 CA-CR 5545, 1 CA-CR 5546
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 654 P.2d 48 (State v. Olson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Olson, 654 P.2d 48, 134 Ariz. 114, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 564 (Ark. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

BROOKS, Judge.

Appellants Robert W. Olson and James 0. Walters were charged with transportation of marijuana, conspiracy to import, transport, or possess marijuana for sale, and possession of marijuana for sale. 1 After denial by the trial court of various motions to suppress, following a rather lengthy suppression hearing, appellants submitted the question of their guilt to the trial court voluntarily waiving their right to a jury trial. The case was submitted on the basis of stipulated evidence including the transcript of the suppression hearing. Appellants were then convicted of possession of marijuana for sale and acquitted of the other charges. Each was sentenced to three years probation and was ordered to pay a $500.00 fine. Appellants raise three issues on appeal:

1) Whether the trial court erred in failing to suppress the fruits of a warrantless search of co-defendant Whigham’s automobile trunk and a closed plastic bag contained therein.
*116 2) Whether the trial court erred in failing to suppress the fruits of a warrantless search of a cardboard box contained in appellant Walters’ truck.
3) Whether there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions of possession of marijuana for sale.

In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, we view the evidence adduced at the hearing in a light most favorable to sustaining the ruling and resolve all reasonable inferences in favor of the state. State v. Acree, 121 Ariz. 94, 588 P.2d 836 (1978). Thus viewed, the evidence is as follows.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety was given information by an informant in late 1978 that Walters and Whigham were conspiring together and that Whigham intended to purchase a Model 210 Cessna aircraft in order to smuggle marijuana into the United States.

Surveillance revealed that Whigham had indeed purchased a Cessna 210 which he hangared at the Scottsdale airport. Agent Michael Stevens of the Department of Public Safety testified that he was involved in the investigation of appellants and that surveillance of Walters’ home revealed Walters’ contact with Olson.

Agent Stevens testified that Whigham possessed an air to ground radio which was often seen in “air smuggling” cases and that activity was observed at the airport in which 55 gallon fuel barrels, often used by smugglers to refuel, were taken into the hangar and then later loaded on a truck.

Surveillance by air disclosed that Whig-ham was using the Murlow airstrip, which is a remote airstrip previously used by air smugglers. On March 7,1979, Olson’s truck was observed traveling toward the Murlow airstrip. Air surveillance later observed a meeting at a remote location between persons thought to be Whigham and Olson. At dusk, these persons then went to a remote airstrip other than the Murlow airstrip and soon thereafter an airplane landed and was met by these persons. The airplane and vehicles then departed and the agents lost contact with them.

Surveillance was then set up at Olson’s home. Walters and Olson were observed on the morning of March 8, 1979 with cardboard boxes which Agent Stevens testified were commonly used by bulk dealers to package marijuana.

Walters and Olson then left in separate trucks. Olson and Whigham later met at a shopping center. The agents observed the transfer of a large white garbage bag from Olson’s truck to the trunk of Whigham’s Volvo automobile. Agent Stevens testified that garbage bags are often used to transport marijuana because they do not leave debris.

Whigham left the shopping center in the Volvo and was later arrested by the agents when he stopped at a service station. When they were denied consent to search the trunk, the agents opened the trunk with a crowbar and effectuated a search. The white garbage bag was discovered and was opened. A quantity of marijuana, later determined to be 1.5 pounds, was found in the bag.

The facts of Whigham’s arrest and the discovery of the marijuana were reported to other agents who were observing a meeting between Olson and Walters in the parking lot of a supermarket. The agents approached the vehicles when they observed Olson get out of his truck and place a cardboard box which was sealed with duct tape in the rear of Walters’ truck. The agents seized the box from Walters’ truck and arrested Walters and Olson. The box was opened at the scene of the arrest without a warrant and was found to contain 13.7 pounds of marijuana.

Appellants’ first argument is that the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress evidence obtained from the trunk of Whigham’s Volvo. Appellants contend that the search was warrantless and did not fall within one of the legally recognized classes of permissible warrantless searches, citing New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), and Robbins v. California, 453 U.S. 420, 101 S.Ct. 2841, 69 L.Ed.2d 744 (1981).

*117 We find that we need not reach the merits of this argument because appellants had no legitimate expectation of privacy for items placed in the trunk of Whigham’s Volvo such as to entitle them to Fourth Amendment protection from searches of that vehicle. The Fourth Amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search and seizures.... ” In Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 134, 99 S.Ct. 421, 425, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), the United States Supreme Court held that “it is proper to permit only defendants whose Fourth Amendment rights have been violated to benefit from the [exclusionary] rule’s protections.” An illegal search only violates the rights of those who have “a legitimate expectation of privacy in the invaded place.” Id. at 143, 99 S.Ct. at 430; see also United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980) (overruling “automatic standing” rationale of Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960)). A legitimate expectation of privacy requires both an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy and an expectation of privacy recognized as reasonable by society. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967); Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 736, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 2578, 61 L.Ed.2d 220 (1979).

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Bluebook (online)
654 P.2d 48, 134 Ariz. 114, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-olson-arizctapp-1982.