State v. Pirtle

296 P.3d 625, 255 Or. App. 195, 2013 WL 530466, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 152
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 13, 2013
Docket10CR0857; A147418
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 296 P.3d 625 (State v. Pirtle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pirtle, 296 P.3d 625, 255 Or. App. 195, 2013 WL 530466, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 152 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

HASELTON, C. J.

Defendant, who was convicted of felon in possession of a firearm, ORS 166.270, appeals, assigning error to the denial of his motion to suppress the fruits of a warrantless search of a pickup truck, which yielded the weapon on which his conviction is predicated. Specifically, defendant contends that the search did not fall within the “automobile exception” to the warrant requirement, because the pickup was stopped and, hence, not mobile, at the time that the police initially encountered it “in connection with a suspected crime.” State v. Kurokawa-Lasciak, 351 Or 179, 192-93, 263 P3d 336 (2011). We agree and, consequently, reverse and remand.1

The facts material to our review of the denial of the motion to suppress are uncontroverted. On May 16, 2010, Coos Bay Police Officer Myers went to an apartment complex to investigate a domestic dispute between defendant, who was a convicted felon, and a woman. The dispute “possibly involved] a handgun.”

Whenhe arrived, Myers saw another officer, Labrousse, interacting with defendant and defendant’s mother, Deborah Pirtle. At that time, a white Toyota pickup owned by Pirtle was parked in front of the alleged victim’s apartment, which was located at 151 Norman Street. Myers entered the apartment unit and spoke with the alleged victim, who told him that defendant had a handgun, which he kept in a backpack, and that defendant had had the gun in his possession at the apartment earlier in the day. The alleged victim gave Myers permission to search her apartment for the gun, but the ensuing search was unavailing.

Myers then returned to the parking lot to ask Pirtle (who was seated in the back of a patrol car) for consent to search the pickup for the handgun, because, by that time, he “suspected that the gun was probably in the pickup.” However, at the point that Myers sought consent to search, the pickup was no longer parked in its original location, at 151 Norman; instead, the vehicle had been moved, by some [197]*197unknown person, and parked in front of 121 Norman, which was roughly 100 yards away, albeit still within the same apartment complex.

When Myers entered the apartment, Labrousse remained outside. Labrousse took defendant into custody and walked him from 151 Norman to 121 Norman, where Labrousse placed defendant in the back of his patrol car. As Labrousse did so, he saw the Toyota pickup drive from 151 Norman to 121 Norman and park within a few feet of Labrousse’s patrol car. At that time—at the time that he saw the pickup truck in motion—Labrousse (in his own words) “did not realize * * * that that was the involved vehicle” (i.e., the vehicle in which defendant’s handgun might have been placed).2

Ultimately, Pirtle gave her consent to search the pickup, but, after the search had begun and before it yielded any inculpatory items, she rescinded that consent. Notwithstanding that rescission, officers continued the search and found defendant’s firearm, a black Masterpiece 9mm pistol.

Defendant was charged with felon in possession of a firearm, ORS 166.270. He moved to suppress the firearm, arguing that the warrantless search of the pickup was unlawful under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution.3 Defendant contended, specifically, that the [198]*198circumstances of the search did not satisfy the prerequisites of the automobile exception to the warrant requirement. Following a hearing, the court denied the motion, reasoning:

“I’m satisfied that sufficient mobility is established by the fact of the move in the course—the movement of the truck in the course of the stop. That, I think, is critical here, because if the automobile exception has any merit at all, it’s based upon the mobility of the vehicle. * * *
“*** [I]n this circumstance, essentially—although it might be by magic—this vehicle is driving away and may contain the evidence that they’re looking for. And so[,] in terms of the rationale for the automobile exception, at least from my perspective, it applies in this situation because it clearly is not a case where, for instance, the vehicle parked, remained parked.”

Following a jury trial, defendant was found guilty as charged.

On appeal, defendant renews his challenge to the lawfulness of the search of the pickup truck and invokes, particularly, the Supreme Court’s explication of the automobile exception in Kurokawa-Lasciak, which issued nearly a year after his conviction. In particular, defendant emphasizes the temporal requisites of the automobile exception, which the Supreme Court unambiguously ratified in Kurokawa-Lasciak:

“[T]o qualify for the automobile exception, the vehicle that the police search must be mobile at the time that the police encounter it in connection with a crime.”

351 Or at 192 (emphasis added). Defendant contends that the record demonstrates that that temporal requirement was not satisfied here—or, at the very least, that the state, as the proponent of the warrantless search, failed to present evidence establishing that it was satisfied. In that regard, defendant posits that, by the time either Labrousse or Myers knew that the pickup could be connected to the possible [199]*199assault or felon in possession of a firearm that they were investigating, the pickup was parked at 121 Norman—and, hence, was immobile.

The state responds that defendant’s temporal mobility argument was not adequately raised before the trial court. Based on our review of the record of the suppression hearing, and particularly defense counsel’s arguments to the court in which he invoked, inter alia, State v. Kock, 302 Or 29, 725 P2d 1285 (1986), and State v. Meharry, 342 Or 173, 149 P3d 1155 (2006), as well as the trial court’s explicit consideration of mobility, we reject that contention without further discussion. With respect to the merits, the state posits:

“Neither [.Kurokawa-Lasciak\ nor any prior Oregon Supreme Court [decision] ever has held that a vehicle that becomes mobile only during the course of an ongoing criminal investigation is outside the automobile exception. * * * It defies logic that a vehicle (which is immobile when the police begin their criminal investigation) does not come within the scope of the automobile exception when it becomes mobile—and the officers observe this mobility— in the midst of their investigation. Exactly the same exigency—the ease and likelihood of loss of evidence—is present when the immobile auto becomes mobile.”

The state also, parenthetically, suggests that the search was alternatively lawful as predicated on Pirtle’s consent.

In this case, as in any other involving a warrantless search, the state bears the burden of proof—that is, both of production and persuasion—as to the applicability of an exception to the warrant requirement. See ORS 133.693(4) (“Where the motion to suppress challenges evidence seized as the result of a warrantless search, the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence the validity of the search is on the prosecution.”).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. McCarthy
501 P.3d 478 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2021)
State v. Belander
360 P.3d 580 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2015)
State v. Andersen
346 P.3d 1224 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2015)
State v. Finlay
307 P.3d 518 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
296 P.3d 625, 255 Or. App. 195, 2013 WL 530466, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pirtle-orctapp-2013.