Opinion ID: 2173131
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Search of the Tan Oldsmobile

Text: Defendant does not dispute the fact that at about 4:00 p. m. on December 18, 1973, the Maine State Police received information giving them probable cause to believe that a tan Oldsmobile, registered to one Marlene Roderick of Waterville, Maine, had been used in the commission of the Bettencourt murders. Waterville police placed the vehicle, then located in the Roderick driveway, under police surveillance. Simultaneously, the State Police commenced preparation of an affidavit for a search warrant. Before a warrant could be issued and executed, however, Waterville police noted that the car was being moved. The vehicle was stopped by Waterville police officers on a public highway around 10:00 p. m. The driver turned out to be the defendant, Thomas Morton. The vehicle was then towed by Arbo's Wrecker Service to Arbo's Garage on Grove Street in Waterville. Officers from the Maine State Police laboratory traveling from Augusta arrived in Waterville at Arbo's Garage sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 p. m. They conducted a search of the car and discovered traces of wax drippings, later determined to be similar to drippings found in the Bettencourt home. Morton contends that the police conducted an unconstitutional warrantless search and that consequently all evidence stemming from the search of the vehicle ought to have been suppressed. After a pretrial hearing, the presiding justice denied defendant's motion to suppress, noting, inter alia, that the exigent circumstances doctrine of Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970), validated the warrantless search. We find the presiding justice's ruling correct. When there is probable cause to search an automobile stopped on a public highway, immediate warrantless searches are constitutionally permissible because of the movable nature of the vehicle. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). If the attendant circumstances make an immediate search on the highway unsafe or impractical, the car may be moved to a more convenient location. If a search is promptly conducted after its arrival there, the probable cause factor extant on the public highway remains in force, and the warrantless search is constitutionally permissible. Chambers v. Maroney, supra, 399 U.S. at 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975; Texas v. White, 423 U.S. 67, 68, 96 S.Ct. 304, 46 L.Ed.2d 209 (1975); State v. Cress, Me., 344 A.2d 57, 63-64 (1975). Here, the need to employ trained officers who knew how to preserve delicate evidentiary material, such as wax drippings and blood stains, made an immediate search on the public highway impractical. The short delay between the car's arrival at Arbo's Garage and the commencement of the search was attributable to the fact that those trained officers had to travel from Augusta to Waterville. The vehicle search commenced as soon as they arrived and was expeditiously carried out without unnecessary delay. We conclude there was no error in the denial of defendant's pretrial motion to suppress the evidence obtained in the search of the car.