Opinion ID: 1882055
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the trial court committed reversible error by failing to suppress the evidence seized from Moore's car without a warrant.

Text: ¶ 19. Moore claims the trial court erred in not suppressing evidence seized from his car without a warrant. This Court finds no error by the trial court as the evidence here was properly seized under an exception to the warrant clauses of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 3, Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution. ¶ 20. While the government generally is required to obtain a warrant prior to executing a search and seizing items therein, this Court has carved out an automobile exception that allows officers to search a vehicle without a warrant when there is probable cause to believe that the vehicle itself may be evidence of crime or contain something that offends against the law. Graves v. State, 708 So.2d 858, 862 (Miss.1997). This Court has further held that the automobile exception applies even where the vehicle has been immobilized or is unmovable. Franklin v. State, 587 So.2d 905, 907 (Miss.1991). The existence of probable cause should be determined based upon the totality of the circumstances. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 548 (1983); see also Lee v. State, 435 So.2d 674, 675 (Miss.1983) (adopting totality of circumstances approach of Gates ). The admissibility of such evidence rests within the discretion of the trial court, and reversal will be appropriate only when an abuse of discretion resulting in prejudice to the accused has occurred. Sturdivant v. State, 745 So.2d 240, 243 (Miss.1999). ¶ 21. In the instant case, Moore arrived at UMC with Marcus Walker, who had been shot. Moore removed Walker from his car and attempted to leave. Moore's car, however, had stalled. UMC officer Chris Peterman subsequently detained Moore, who stated that he needed to leave. Peterman prevented Moore from departing and transported Moore to the ER. Peterman then returned to Moore's vehicle where he noticed that the trunk was partially open. In the trunk, Peterman saw bloody money. Peterman then looked into the passenger compartment and observed the handle of a firearm protruding from under the driver's seat. Peterman and fellow UMC officer John Gray, then removed, without first obtaining a warrant, the gun from the car. ¶ 22. Several JPD officers, including Sergeant Ron Sampson, Detective John Williams, and Detective Ronald Youngblood, arrived at UMC shortly thereafter and confirmed that the trunk was open. The officers testified to seeing bloody money in the trunk, as well as blood and guns inside the passenger compartment. Detective Williams also noted that a witness at the scene had advised him that the trunk of the car was open and bouncing up and down as it left the Club. ¶ 23. Despite conflicting testimony from JPD officer Henry Jackson, who testified that Peterman stated Moore's trunk was initially closed, but not locked, and that Peterman opened the trunk and then observed the bloody money, the trial court found that the trunk was open and that the items contained therein were in plain view. The trial court added that based on the blood visible inside the passenger compartment and the bloody money in the trunk, the incriminating characteristic of the weapon was immediately apparent and therefore was lawfully seized by officer Gray. ¶ 24. This Court agrees with the trial court. UMC officers Peterman and Gray knew that the car had been used to bring a gunshot wound victim to the hospital and that, rather than taking Walker to the ER, Moore had put him out in the street and had attempted to leave hospital grounds. Additionally, Peterman and Gray observed blood-covered money in plain view in the trunk of the car and blood throughout the passenger compartment. The fact that Moore's car had become temporarily inoperable, does not, under this Court's previous holdings, provide Moore any relief. Based on the totality of the circumstances, the presence of the gun under the seat, coupled with the aforementioned circumstances, created probable cause for the officers to believe that evidence of a crime might be contained in the car, thus placing the search and seizure of said gun within the automobile exception to the warrant requirement. This Court finds no abuse of discretion by the trial court in allowing the State to admit the evidence seized from Moore's car, and this assignment of error fails.