State v. Zaitseva

13 P.3d 338, 135 Idaho 11, 2000 Ida. LEXIS 115
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 31, 2000
Docket24986
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 13 P.3d 338 (State v. Zaitseva) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Zaitseva, 13 P.3d 338, 135 Idaho 11, 2000 Ida. LEXIS 115 (Idaho 2000).

Opinions

WALTERS, J.

Elena Zaitseva has appealed from a judgment of conviction entered upon a jury verdict finding her guilty of fourteen counts of possession of a forged, blank, or unfinished check. We affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Zaitseva was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by Officer Matthew Parsons for travelling in excess of one hundred miles per hour in a seventy-five miles per hour zone. Officer Parsons determined that neither the-driver, who was Zaitseva’s sister, nor Zaitseva had a valid driver’s license. Since neither of the women could drive legally, Officer Parsons asked them if they would like to call someone to come and get the car. They called another sister whom Officer Parsons believed was the owner of the car.

Officer Parsons spoke with the person on the telephone and obtained permission to search the car. While they were waiting for the owner of the car to arrive, Officer Parsons also asked Zaitseva and the driver for consent to search the car. Because of the driver’s limited English, Zaitseva translated Officer Parsons’ request. The driver nodded, and Zaitseva said that he could search the car.

The driver exited the car for the search, but reached back in to remove a bag from the ear. Officer Parsons told the driver to put the bag back into the car and she complied. Both Zaitseva and the driver denied ownership of the bag. Inside the bag, Officer Parsons found identification belonging to Zaitseva and the documents that led to Zaitseva’s conviction for possession of a forged, blank or unfinished check.

Zaitseva unsuccessfully attempted to suppress the evidence found inside the bag and was found guilty on fourteen counts. She [13]*13was sentenced on each count to a unified sentence of five years with two years fixed. The Court further ordered that the sentences be served concurrently.

ISSUES

1. Was the search and seizure of the bag constitutional?
2. Was there sufficient evidence presented at trial which would allow a jury to properly conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Zaitseva was guilty of forgery?
3. Did the prosecutor engage in multiplicitous charging?
4. Did Zaitseva’s trial attorney provide ineffective assistance of counsel when he failed to object to improper evidence presented by the State?
5. Did the district court abuse its discretion at sentencing?

ANALYSIS

I. Search and seizure of the bag and its contents.

Zaitseva initially argues that the contents of the bag should have been suppressed. She argues that even if the officer had consent to search the car, the scope of that consent was limited; it did not include consent to search the bag and its contents. Zaitseva also argues that the seizure of the bag and its contents was improper because the officer did not have probable cause. Neither of these arguments was presented to the trial court during Zaitseva’s motion to suppress.

As Zaitseva points out, she did raise the issue of consent to search the bag and its contents in her written suppression motion and during the suppression hearing. She did not, however, distinguish between the search of the bag and the search of the car itself or raise any distinct issues with regard to the bag. She did not argue that the officer did not have consent to search the ear or the bag. The challenge brought before the trial court was limited to whether any consent was the product of coercion. The following excerpt is from closing arguments during the suppression hearing:

THE COURT: Okay. So let’s focus in on this. Would you agree with me [that] the issue here is coercion? The issue here is was this freely and voluntarily a consent of that type, or was it coercion.
[Counsel for Zaitseva]: Yes.
THE COURT: Is that the Issue?
[Counsel for Zaitseva]: Yes.

Consequently, the trial court determined only that the search was conducted pursuant to a valid, uneoerced consent.

Zaitseva now attempts to distinguish between the search of the ear and the search of the bag, arguing that the scope of the consent was limited to a search of the car but not of its containers.

We find Zaitseva’s arguments unavailing. There is no evidence that the consent for the search given by Zaitseva to the officer was conditional or was otherwise impressed with a limitation of any scope or extent. It is well settled that a general, unlimited consent to search a car includes consent to search containers in the vehicle. Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 114 L.Ed.2d 297 (1991); United States v. Snow, 44 F.3d 133 (2nd Cir.1995); United States v. Crain, 33 F.3d 480 (5th Cir.1994); United States v. Zapata, 18 F.3d 971 (1st Cir.1994). See also, State v. Frizzel, 132 Idaho 522, 975 P.2d 1187 (Ct.App.1999). Furthermore, by denying ownership of the bag in response to the officer’s inquiry prior to the search, Zaitseva essentially relinquished or abandoned any privacy interest in the contents of the bag. State v. Harwood, 133 Idaho 50, 981 P.2d 1160 (Ct.App.1999). See also, State v. Cowen, 104 Idaho 649, 662 P.2d 230 (1983); State v. Agundis, 127 Idaho 587, 903 P.2d 752 (Ct.App.1995). Accordingly, it was not improper for the officer to search the bag in the course of searching the ear with the consents he had obtained from the driver, from the apparent owner and from Zaitseva.

We affirm the order denying the motion to suppress.

II. Sufficiency of the evidence.

Where there is substantial evidence from which a rational trier of fact could have [14]*14found beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was committed, this Court will not reweigh that evidence. State v. Filson, 101 Idaho 381, 613 P.2d 938 (1980).

Zaitseva was convicted of fourteen counts of possession of “a forged, blank and/or unfinished check ... with the intention to fill up and complete said unfinished cheek in order to utter or pass the same, in violation of Idaho Code Section 18-3605.”-Zaitseva contends that there was insufficient evidence of intent because no rational trier of fact could believe that the documents found in the bag could be filled up and passed as checks. The documents that Officer Parsons discovered in Zaitseva’s bag consisted of computer printouts, photocopies, and fastened-together representations of what appear to be checks in various stages of completion. Some of the “checks” are printed on scraps of paper. Others have markings like “!” and a “@” in the area where the date would be.

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State v. Zaitseva
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 P.3d 338, 135 Idaho 11, 2000 Ida. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-zaitseva-idaho-2000.