Opinion ID: 706016
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Probable Cause to Search Louise Perez's Vehicle

Text: 9 The trial court's determination that probable cause supported a warrantless search of a vehicle is a mixed question of law and fact reviewed de novo. United States v. Dunn, 946 F.2d 615, 619 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 950, 112 S.Ct. 401, 116 L.Ed.2d 350 (1991). We review for clear error the trial court's factual findings supporting the determination of probable cause. United States v. Linn, 880 F.2d 209, 214 (9th Cir.1989). 10 In California v. Carney, 471 U.S. 386, 392, 105 S.Ct. 2066, 2070, 85 L.Ed.2d 406 (1985), the Supreme Court held that the police may search a vehicle without a search warrant where the police have probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains contraband or evidence of a crime. In United States v. George, 883 F.2d 1407 (9th Cir.1989), this court defined probable cause as  'requiring a reasonable belief, evaluated in light of the officer's experience and the practical considerations of everyday life,'  that contraband or evidence would be found in the place to be searched. Id. at 1412 (quoting United States v. Robertson, 606 F.2d 853, 858 (9th Cir.1979)). 11 Louise Perez argues that the evidence seized from a search of her vehicle should have been suppressed because the officers had neither a warrant nor probable cause to search her vehicle. The trial court concluded that the officers had probable cause to search Louise Perez's vehicle because the officers could have reasonably believed that the rest of the unrecovered coins or receipts from sales of the unrecovered coins might have been in her vehicle. The court reasoned that: 12 Given the uniqueness of the coins in issue, the need for the seller to transport such coins to a buyer, and the fact that on Guam, motor vehicles are frequently the only readily available mode of transportation, the Court finds that the arresting officers reasonably believed that other [stolen] coins ... would be found in the vehicle operated by Ms. Perez. 13 Louise Perez maintains that the link between the criminal activity for which she was arrested and the search of her vehicle was too attenuated to establish probable cause. 14 In United States v. Vasquez, 858 F.2d 1387, 1391 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1034, 109 S.Ct. 847, 102 L.Ed.2d 978 (1989), we held that a search was justified under the vehicle exception to the warrant requirement because the police had probable cause to believe that the defendant's car contained contraband. In that case, the defendant exited his vehicle with a gym bag containing five packages of cocaine which he sold to an undercover police officer. The officer arrested the defendant and proceeded to search his vehicle without a warrant. We explained that the officer  'had fresh, direct, uncontradicted evidence that [the defendant] was distributing a controlled substance from the vehicle, apart from evidence of other possible offenses. The [officer] thus had abundant probable cause to enter and search the vehicle for evidence of a crime.'  Id. (quoting Carney, 471 U.S. at 395, 105 S.Ct. at 2071). 15 In the instant case, Louise Perez drove her vehicle to the mall, where the coin shop was located, to obtain $500 in cash for the allegedly stolen coins that she had sold to Mike Cummings four days earlier. 2 As Louise Perez was returning to her vehicle, the officers arrested her, placed her in the back of the squad car, and proceeded to search her vehicle. The government argues that, like the police in Vasquez, the officers in the instant case had probable cause to conduct the vehicle search because they had uncontradicted evidence that she had used her vehicle to transport her to the mall where she allegedly received cash for stolen property. We disagree. 16 Finding probable cause in this instance would create an unwarranted extension of the law by allowing a search of a vehicle four days after alleged criminal activity occurred with only a speculative connection between the vehicle and the alleged criminal activity. The only connection between the alleged criminal activity and Louise Perez's vehicle was that she might have driven it four days earlier to the mall where the coin shop was located, because on Guam, vehicles are frequently the only readily available mode of transportation. This logic is insufficient to provide an officer with a reasonable belief that contraband or evidence would be found in the place to be searched. 17 Furthermore, unlike the defendant in Vasquez, whom the police observed exiting his vehicle carrying cocaine, Louise Perez exited her vehicle without contraband. The allegedly stolen coins had been sold four days prior to the warrantless search of Louise Perez's vehicle. The coin dealer reported the coin sale to the police without having observed her mode of transportation. A friend may have driven her to the coin shop. Thus, the police had stale and second hand information, whereas in Vasquez, the police had fresh, direct, and uncontradicted evidence that the defendant was selling cocaine from his vehicle. Vasquez, 858 F.2d at 1391. It was unreasonable for the officers to believe that evidence of a four day old crime would be found in a vehicle which never had been connected with the alleged criminal activity. 18 We hold that the trial court erred in denying Louise Perez's motion to suppress the evidence found in her vehicle. Thus, her conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is reversed. Furthermore, the four level enhancement of her sentence for possessing a firearm in connection with another felony is vacated because the firearm and the cocaine should have been suppressed as the fruits of an illegal search.