Opinion ID: 1743617
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Heading: Motion to suppressstanding.

Text: At trial, Dixon moved to suppress the evidence seized from the truck, claiming it was the result of an illegal search and seizure. On appeal, the State argues that Dixon lacks standing to challenge the search of the truck. We agree. An appellant must have standing to challenge a search on Fourth Amendment grounds because the rights secured by the Fourth Amendment are personal in nature. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978); Littlepage v. State, 314 Ark. 361, 863 S.W.2d 276 (1993). Whether an appellant has standing depends on whether he manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in the area searched and whether society is prepared to recognize that expectation as reasonable. Littlepage v. State, supra (citing United States v. Erwin, 875 F.2d 268 (10th Cir.1989)). In the present case, Dixon bore the burden of proving that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the truck. Littlepage v. State, supra (citing Fernandez v. State, 303 Ark. 230, 795 S.W.2d 52 (1990)). In Littlepage v. State, supra , the appellant attempted to challenge the search of a vehicle that he was driving. This court held that he had no such standing, because the evidence revealed that the car he was driving had been rented to a third person. This third person was the only person authorized to drive the car in the rental agreement. While the appellant asserted that the car had been rented for his own use because his had broken down, there was no showing that this assertion had any validity. Because the appellant failed to prove his expectation of privacy in the vehicle, the Littlepage court did not reach the merits of his Fourth Amendment claims. Likewise, in Koonce v. State, 269 Ark. 96, 598 S.W.2d 741 (1980), this court found that the appellant had no standing to challenge the legality of the search of a vehicle. In Koonce a police officer approached a vehicle in which the appellant was sleeping. The officer observed an open beer and the smell of marijuana emanating from the vehicle, and he placed the appellant under arrest for possession of open beer. A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed a loaded revolver under the front seat on the passenger side. At the suppression hearing, the appellant testified that he did not own the car or the gun, and the trial court denied the appellant's motion to suppress the revolver. This court affirmed on appeal, finding that the appellant lacked standing to challenge the search. The court explained that [s]ince Koonce had neither a property interest nor a possessory one, either in the vehicle or in the weapon seized, he had no legitimate expectation of privacy under the front seat of the vehicle, which would entitle him to invoke the exclusionary rule. Id. (citing Rakas v. Illinois, supra ). This is not to say that a passenger can never have an expectation of privacy in the search of a vehicle. For example, in State v. Villines, 304 Ark. 128, 801 S.W.2d 29 (1990), the defendants were passengers in a vehicle involved in a wreck in Arkansas during a planned trip from Dallas to Milwaukee. The investigating officer smelled marijuana in the car and observed suspicious behavior on the part of the defendants. He then pried open the trunk of the car and found a cardboard box containing marijuana among some other personal items. The trial court held that the defendants had standing to contest the search of the car, and granted their motion to suppress. This court rejected the State's appeal, noting that the defendants were more than passengers qua passengers. Id. They had placed their personal belongings in the trunk of the car and established a joint agreement with the owner of the car to share driving responsibilities over the course of the trip. This amounted to joint possession of the car over the course of the interstate trip. Thus, both defendants had a sufficient possessory interest to exclude anyone who tried to interfere with the car or their luggage. Id. Likewise, a passenger in a vehicle may not have standing to object to the search of the vehicle, but may be able to contest the search of their own personal belongings inside the vehicle. See, e.g., United States v. Infante-Ruiz, 13 F.3d 498 (1st Cir.1994) (passenger had standing to challenge search of his own briefcase stored in the locked trunk of car); People v. Armendarez, 188 Mich.App. 61, 468 N.W.2d 893 (1991) (passenger who had no standing to challenge search of automobile did have standing to challenge search of his own personal effects in automobile). Similarly, the occupants of a vehicle have standing to assert their own Fourth Amendment rights, independent of the owner's, such as in a challenge to the initial stop, or the seizure of their person. John Wesly Hall, Jr., Search and Seizure § 6:10 (2d ed. 1991). In the present case, Dixon has failed to assert a possessory interest in the truck or the canvas bag. In fact, the purchase order for the truck revealed that Wright was the owner. Furthermore, Dixon has made no showing of any legitimate expectation of privacy in the interior of the truck or the canvas bag. Neither does Dixon challenge the validity of the initial stop. The evidence does suggest that Dixon owned the gun that was found underneath the passenger seat. Thus, Dixon would have personal Fourth Amendment Rights as to the gun itself. However, these rights do not grant him standing to challenge the intrusion into the truck itself, or the search of the canvas bag. Therefore, we must conclude that Dixon has no standing to challenge the search of Wright's truck and that this court is barred from addressing the merits of Dixon's Fourth Amendment claims.