Filed 5/20/14 P. v. Trujillo CA5 

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS 

California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for 

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or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115. 

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

 v.

EDDIE GARCIA TRUJILLO,

Defendant and Appellant. 

F066245 

(Super. Ct. No. BF143485A) 

OPINION

THE COURT* 

 APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County. Colette M. 

Humphrey, J. Eric Bradshaw and Michael G. Bush, Judges.‡

 Elizabeth Campbell, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and 

Appellant. 

 Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney 

General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Stephen G. Herndon and Harry 

Joseph Colombo, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. 

-ooOoo- 

 

* Before Poochigian, Acting P.J., Peña, J. and Sarkisian, J.†

† Judge of the Fresno Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to 

article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution. 

‡ Judge Humphrey ruled on defendant’s motion to suppress; Judge Bradshaw 

accepted defendant’s plea; and Judge Bush imposed sentence. 
2. 

 After the trial court denied his motion to suppress evidence, defendant Eddie 

Garcia Trujillo pled no contest to transportation of methamphetamine (Health & Saf. 

Code, § 11379, subd. (a); count 1). He was granted three years’ probation. On appeal, he 

contends his car was improperly impounded and therefore the subsequent inventory 

search of the car was illegal. Thus, he argues, the trial court erred in denying his motion 

to suppress. We disagree and will affirm. 

FACTS 

 Bakersfield Police Officer Dinsmore testified that on August 10, 2012, at about 

3:20 p.m., he observed a car on the roadway in front of him with registration tags that 

were expired. He ran the tags and learned the registration had expired on October 24, 

2011. He pulled the car over and contacted both defendant, who was driving, and his 

front-seat passenger. Dinsmore asked them for identification and asked them whether 

they were on probation or parole with search terms. The passenger said he was. 

Defendant stated the car was his. Dinsmore requested backup for officer safety, and he 

impounded the car pursuant to Vehicle Code section 22651, which provides for 

impoundment of a vehicle on a public roadway whose registration had been expired for 

six months.1 Based on Dinsmore’s experience in the gang unit, he knew the 

neighborhood was a high crime area. 

 Dinsmore conducted an inventory search of the car. He found in plain view 

$1,780 in various denominations in the rear storage compartment of the front passenger 

seat. This large amount of currency raised his suspicion. Dinsmore also found inside the 

 

1 Vehicle Code section 22651 provides: “A peace officer ... may remove a vehicle 

located within the territorial limits in which the officer or employee may act, under the 

following circumstances: [¶] ... [¶] (o)(1) When a vehicle is found or operated upon a 

highway, public land, or an offstreet parking facility under the following circumstances: 

[¶] (A) With a registration expiration date in excess of six months before the date it is 

found or operated on the highway, public lands, or the offstreet parking facility.” 
3. 

center console a “sunglasses sock” containing a small digital scale bearing white 

crystalline residue, which he believed to be methamphetamine. Next, Dinsmore found a 

dirty white sock in plain view near the center of the driver’s floorboard. Inside the sock 

was a clear baggie containing 2.7 grams of methamphetamine. 

 Dinsmore took defendant into custody. Defendant admitted the money, scale, and 

methamphetamine were his, and he stated that his passenger did not know about and was 

not involved with the items. 

 On cross-examination, Dinsmore explained that he searched the car as both an 

inventory search and a probation search. Dinsmore did not contact anyone to pick up the 

car. 

 After hearing this testimony, the trial court ruled as follows: 

 “With regard to the probation search, I believe when the discussion 

concerns whether the probationer has joint control over the area, a lot of 

times you see a situation where the officers go to someone’s house and the 

probationer is living in one of the bedrooms and the officer might search 

the entire house, which might exceed [the] scope of the probation search. 

But I think when a probationer is in a vehicle, he pretty much has access to 

the entire view of the vehicle, so I think it would be a valid probation 

search. 

 “With regard to the impound, I think it’s within the discretion of the 

officer. Robinson Street is a high crime area and it was well within the 

officer’s discretion to impound the vehicle and inventory it. So for those 

reasons, I’m going to deny the motion.” 

DISCUSSION 

 Defendant contends that the prosecution failed to prove that Officer Dinsmore 

conducted a proper inventory search. Defendant also argues that the search of the car 

was not a proper probation search because Officer Dinsmore could not have believed that 

the passenger had complete or joint control over defendant’s car. We need not reach the 

probation search issue because we conclude the search was justified as an inventory 

search. 
4. 

I. Law

 When we review a trial court’s ruling on a suppression motion, we defer to the 

trial court’s factual findings that are supported by substantial evidence. (People v. 

Hughes (2002) 27 Cal.4th 287, 327.) Whether a search is constitutionally reasonable, 

however, is a legal question upon which we exercise our independent judgment. (Ibid.) 

 The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right to be free of unreasonable searches 

and seizures by law enforcement personnel. A warrantless search or seizure is presumed 

to be unlawful. (U.S. Const., 4th Amend.; Mincey v. Arizona (1978) 437 U.S. 385, 390.) 

“The prosecution always has the burden of justifying the search [or seizure] by proving 

[it] fell within a recognized exception to the warrant requirement.” (People v. Williams

(2006) 145 Cal.App.4th 756, 761 (Williams).) 

 Inventory searches of police-impounded cars are a well-recognized exception to 

the warrant requirement because they serve “to protect an owner’s property while it is in 

the custody of the police, to insure against claims of lost, stolen, or vandalized property, 

and to guard the police from danger.” (Colorado v. Bertine (1987) 479 U.S. 367, 372 

(Bertine).) Nonetheless, it is well established that inventory searches must not be a “ruse 

for a general rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence.” (Florida v. Wells

(1990) 495 U.S. 1, 4; People v. Williams (1999) 20 Cal.4th 119, 126.) “‘[A]n inventory 

search conducted pursuant to an unreasonable impound is itself unreasonable.’ 

[Citation.]” (People v. Torres (2010) 188 Cal.App.4th 775, 786.) “The purpose behind 

the decision to impound is crucial because of the reason for condoning inventory searches 

of impounded cars,” which was to secure or protect the car and its contents. (Id. at 

pp. 786-787.) 

 “The decision to impound the vehicle must be justified by a community caretaking 

function ‘other than suspicion of evidence of criminal activity’ [citation] because 

inventory searches are ‘conducted in the absence of probable cause’ [citation].” (People 

v. Torres, supra, 188 Cal.App.4th. at p. 787.) “Just as inventory searches are exceptions 
5. 

to the probable cause requirement, they are also exceptions to the usual rule that the 

police officers’ ‘[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth 

Amendment analysis.’ [Citation.]” (Ibid.) “[C]ourts will explore police officers’ 

subjective motivations for impounding vehicles in inventory search cases, even when 

some objectively reasonable basis exists for the impounding.” (Id. at pp. 787-788.) 

 “As part of their ‘“community caretaking functions,”’ police officers may 

constitutionally impound vehicles that ‘jeopardize ... public safety and the efficient 

movement of vehicular traffic.’ [Citation.] Whether ‘impoundment is warranted under 

this community caretaking doctrine depends on the location of the vehicle and the police 

officers’ duty to prevent it from creating a hazard to other drivers or being a target for 

vandalism or theft.’ [Citation.]” (Williams, supra, 145 Cal.App.4th at p. 761.) “Nothing 

... prohibits the exercise of police discretion [in deciding to impound a vehicle] so long 

as that discretion is exercised according to standard criteria and on the basis of something 

other than suspicion of evidence of criminal activity.” (Bertine, supra, 479 U.S. at 

p. 375; see also South Dakota v. Opperman (1976) 428 U.S. 364, 375-376.) It is 

established that Vehicle Code section 22651 provides the required standardized criteria 

governing vehicular impoundment (People v. Green (1996) 46 Cal.App.4th 367, 375; 

People v. Benites (1992) 9 Cal.App.4th 309, 327; People v. Salcero (1992) 6 Cal.App.4th 

720, 723), although “statutory authorization does not, in and of itself, determine the 

constitutional reasonableness of the [impoundment]” (Williams, supra, at p. 762). 

II. Analysis 

 In this case, the reason behind Officer Dinsmore’s decision to impound 

defendant’s car was the expired status of the car’s registration. The car was on a public 

roadway and the registration tags had been expired for almost 10 months. Under Vehicle 

Code section 22651, Dinsmore had statutory authority to impound the car: 

 “A peace officer ... may remove a vehicle located within the 

territorial limits in which the officer ... may act, under the following 
6. 

circumstances: [¶] ... [¶] (o)(1) When a vehicle is found or operated upon 

a highway, public land, or an offstreet parking facility under the following 

circumstances: [¶] (A) With a registration expiration date in excess of 

six months before the date it is found or operated on the highway, public 

lands, or the offstreet parking facility.” (Veh. Code, § 22651.) 

 Dinsmore also testified to a community caretaking function in removing the car 

when he stated that the neighborhood was a high crime area. There was no evidence that 

the impoundment was merely a ruse for conducting an improper investigatory search or 

that Dinsmore otherwise abused his discretion in deciding to impound the car. Under the 

circumstances, the impoundment was reasonable and thus the inventory search was 

proper. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress. 

DISPOSITION 

 The judgment is affirmed.