Opinion ID: 2465545
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: child's shoes were seized during a valid inventory search

Text: {31} Child asserts that his shoes were improperly admitted as evidence because the shoes were not seized pursuant to a valid inventory search. An inventory search is constitutional if the inventory is made pursuant to an established police regulation, the search is reasonable, and the police have control or custody of the object of the search. State v. Boswell, 111 N.M. 240, 241, 804 P.2d 1059, 1060 (1991). It is also well settled that both the person and the property in his immediate possession may be searched at the station house after the arrest has occurred at another place and if evidence of crime is discovered, it may be seized and admitted in evidence. Nor is there any doubt that clothing or other belongings may be seized upon arrival of the accused at the place of detention and later subjected to laboratory analysis or that the test results are admissible at trial. United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. 800, 803-04, 94 S.Ct. 1234, 39 L.Ed.2d 771 (1974) (footnote omitted). Indeed, it is difficult to perceive what is unreasonable about the police's examining and holding as evidence those personal effects of the accused that they already have in their lawful custody as the result of a lawful arrest. Id. at 806, 94 S.Ct. 1234; see also 3 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 5.3(a) (4th ed. 2004) (discussing the constitutionality of searches and seizures upon arrival at a place of detention). {32} In this case, Child was arrested in Nevada, handcuffed, taken into custody, and driven to a local juvenile detention facility. Prior to booking Child into the juvenile facility, Sergeant David Stansbury contacted Detective Tanner of the San Juan County Sheriffs Office to advise him of Child's arrest. Tanner told Sergeant Stansbury that Child was suspected of wearing a white pair of shoes with a circle on the bottom at the time of the alleged homicide. Sergeant Stansbury confirmed that this description matched the shoes that Child was wearing at that moment. Child's shoes were seized when he was booked into the juvenile detention facility. The shoes were later transferred to the custody of the San Juan County Sheriffs Office and subsequently admitted into evidence at trial. {33} On appeal, Child does not challenge the fact that both he and his shoes were lawfully in custody when he was booked into the juvenile detention facility. Instead, Child contends that the State failed to present evidence regarding the policy and procedure for seizing the personal property of the person being incarcerated. We disagree. Our review of the record reveals that, contrary to Child's assertion, Sergeant Stansbury did testify to the relevant policies and procedures for conducting inventory searches at the juvenile detention facility. See State v. Wilson, 116 N.M. 793, 798, 867 P.2d 1175, 1180 (1994) (Inventory search procedures must be standardized, but need not be written.). This testimony indicated that taking a detainee's clothes was a normal part of the detention facility's booking procedure when the clothes either were not sufficient to be worn in the facility or were determined to have evidentiary value. We therefore conclude that Child's claim lacks merit because there was testimony regarding standard inventory practices at the Nevada juvenile detention facility. We affirm the district court's decision admitting the shoes as evidence.