Opinion ID: 854073
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence Seized from Vehicle Search

Text: Next, Elsten claims the court improperly admitted evidence seized illegally from a vehicle he drove on the day of the shooting. The vehicle belonged to his mother, who voluntarily consented to a search after the vehicle was impounded by police. Although the consent form stated that the search would occur on January 15, 1996, police did not conduct the search until January 18, 1996. Elsten says the three-day delay exceeded the scope of his mother's consent, and thus, was an illegal search and seizure. See, e.g., United States v. Dichiarinte, 445 F.2d 126, 129-30 (7th Cir.1971) (consent to search for narcotics does not include a search through personal papers). As a threshold matter, Elsten must have standing to raise the constitutionality of the search and seizurethat is, a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property being searched. Brown v. State, 691 N.E.2d 438, 443 (Ind.1998). He contends, citing United States v. Garcia, 897 F.2d 1413 (7th Cir. 1990), that such an expectation exists because he was a permissive user of the vehicle. Although it is unclear whether the facts of this case support that assertion, the State does not contest the issue. Therefore, we will assume that Elsten has standing to raise this claim. Nonetheless, this assumption reflects the difficult nature of Elsten's contention. Plainly, as he points out, there are some cases in which temporal limits on a defendant's consent must be honored because a late search can affect his rights. See, e.g., State v. Brochu, 237 A.2d 418, 421 (Me.1967) (defendant gave consent as a victim, but police conducted search after he became the accused). Likewise, our courts have found unreasonable searches where the search warrant was stale, see Ashley v. State, 251 Ind. 359, 367-68, 241 N.E.2d 264, 269 (1968) (search warrant for small amounts of marihuana becomes stale after eight days because of its transitory nature as a commodity), or where police exceeded space limitations of defendant's consent, see Covelli v. State, 579 N.E.2d 466, 472-73 (Ind.Ct.App.1991) (search of handbag continued after police found the object of their search; thus, search exceeded scope of the consent); Deckard v. State, 425 N.E.2d 256, 257 (Ind.Ct.App.1981) (consent to search for narcotics does not extend to search for a knife). Cf. Williams v. State, 426 N.E.2d 662, 667 (Ind.1981) (burned belongings of a victim are not likely to be moved; therefore, an affidavit supporting the warrant was not stale after sixty days). These cases do not seem to compel the conclusion that Elsten's rights were violated. Here, the vehicle seized and searched was not the defendant's property, nor has he shown a right to exercise control over it. Further, there is no evidence that the delay affected his mother's rights or her consent to search. Indeed, even if we assumed that his mother's rights were violated, there is no apparent prejudice that flowed to him as a result of this delay. We find no deprivation of Elsten's Fourth Amendment rights.