Opinion ID: 2630333
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Warrantless Post-Arrest Search of Defendant's Wallet Was Lawful

Text: {16} In addition to Defendant's argument that the seizure and subsequent search of his wallet were tainted fruits of an initially unlawful warrantless arrest, he contends that the post-arrest search of the contents of his wallet without a search warrant was unlawful. {17} One of the most universally recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement is for searches and seizures incident to a custodial arrest, which permits the search of an arrestee's person and any other area within the arrestee's access. See State v. Weidner, 2007-NMCA-063, ¶ 18, 141 N.M. 582, 158 P.3d 1025. {18} Defendant was carrying his wallet in his pocket when he was taken into custody at his house. The search of his person and the seizure of the wallet were incident to his lawful arrest. {19} A second exception permits inventory searches of property taken into police custody, such as Defendant's wallet. State v. Boswell, 111 N.M. 240, 241-42, 804 P.2d 1059, 1060-61 (1991). In Boswell, this Court addressed a factually indistinguishable situation. The defendant had been arrested for shoplifting and was taken to a detention facility, where he was booked and incarcerated. Id. at 241, 804 P.2d at 1060. The officer then returned to the scene of the arrest to retrieve the defendant's wallet, which inadvertently had been left behind in the store manager's office after the officer had conducted a search incident to the arrest. Id. When the officer searched the wallet, he found a blotter of LSD. Id. This Court declined to suppress the LSD evidence, holding that the inventory search exception justified the search of the wallet that the officer had validly taken into police possession incident to the defendant's arrest. Id. An inventory search does not depend on any reason to believe that there is seizable property to be found because the purposes that justify an inventory search are to safeguard the property from loss or theft, to protect the police from liability and false claims, and to protect the police from hidden dangers. Id. at 244, 804 P.2d at 1063. {20} At the suppression hearing below, the State presented uncontroverted evidence that Albuquerque Police Department written policies required police to inventory every item taken from persons in custody. Under our law, the officer's subjective motives do not avoid application of the inventory search exception where it is lawfully justified. Therefore, we reject Defendant's argument that the detective's search of his wallet was unlawful because it was not motivated by a desire to conduct an inventory. Where an inventory search of Defendant's belongings was inevitable, the inevitable discovery rule would preclude suppression of the officer's search of the items taken from an arrestee. See State v. Johnson, 1996-NMCA-117, ¶ 22, 122 N.M. 713, 930 P.2d 1165. {21} Once the officer saw the receipt in the wallet reflecting Defendant's presence in Belen at an ATM with a potential photographic record of a recent transaction between the time of Rustvold's disappearance and Defendant's surfacing without her, swift action was necessary. State v. Moore, 2008-NMCA-056, ¶ 10, 144 N.M. 14, 183 P.3d 158 (quoted authority omitted). The officer had compelling reasons to investigate the transaction immediately, both in investigating the murder case and in attempting to determine Rustvold's fate and whereabouts. Time was of the essence. The fruits of that investigation, including the ATM photograph of one of the men who had helped Defendant get his car unstuck from the sand where he had driven to dump Rustvold's body, were therefore properly developed and properly admissible in evidence.