Opinion ID: 4148521
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Adrienne

Text: The government argues that the evidence is admissible against Adrienne because the discovery of the methamphetamine was not the fruit of her unlawful detention. It relies on our opinion in United States v. DeLuca, 269 F.3d 1128 (10th Cir. 2001). In that case the police seized drugs from the trunk of a car that had been unlawfully detained after an initial lawful stop. See id. at 1130–31. Mr. DeLuca was in the car but was neither the driver nor the owner. See id. at 1130. We said that Mr. DeLuca ordinarily would not have standing to challenge the search of the car because he did not have a possessory or ownership interest in it, but that he could have the evidence suppressed if it had been found as the fruit of his own unlawful detention. See id. at 1133. To prevail, he needed to show that the drugs “would never have been found but for his, and only his, unlawful detention.” Id. We concluded, however, that there was not a sufficient factual nexus between Mr. DeLuca’s detention and the discovery of the drugs. See id. at 1135. In the circumstances of that case, the only possible way for him to show such a nexus was by providing evidence that he would have been permitted to leave the scene in the 3 Although the district court did not reach these arguments, the government preserved them by raising them below. 12 detained car if he had asked to do so. See id. at 1133. He made no such showing, so the evidence was admissible against him. Not so with Adrienne. DeLuca’s requirements were satisfied here. When the drug dog arrived and sniffed around the car’s exterior, it jumped through the open front passenger window and alerted on Adrienne’s purse under the front seat. Adrienne then admitted having some marijuana in her purse. Krause seized the marijuana and proceeded to search the rest of the car, discovering the methamphetamine in the cooler on the backseat. Thus, it was the detention of Adrienne’s personal property, her purse, that led to the search of the car and the discovery of the methamphetamine. We hold that this was a sufficient nexus to give her standing to challenge the admission into evidence of the drugs.