Opinion ID: 2387577
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preexisting motive

Text: When Officer Ganz detained him, defendant had a firearm in his car, which was not only a violation of the terms of his federal supervised release, but also a crime. (See, e.g., § 12021, subd. (a)(1).) Discovery of defendant's firearm, therefore, could have led to defendant's arrest and incarceration. Citing People v. Cummings (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1233, 1299-1300 [18 Cal.Rptr.2d 796, 850 P.2d 1], defendant contends there was no evidence to lead either him or an objective observer to believe his arrest for illegally possessing the firearm was highly likely or imminent, as this otherwise routine traffic stop was not the type of police contact likely to result in an arrest. Cummings is distinguishable, however, as it concerned the sufficiency of the evidence to support a special circumstance finding of murder committed for the purpose of preventing a lawful arrest. (See § 190.2, subd. (a)(5).) The issue in Cummings the imminence of the arrestsimply is not relevant to whether the possibility of arrest supported an inference that defendant had premeditated and deliberated the killing of Officer Ganz. The evidence at trial demonstrated that, at the time of his detention, defendant was committing an act that could have resulted in his returning to prison. A rational trier of fact could have found defendant shot Officer Ganz to prevent him from discovering the firearm that would have led to defendant's incarceration. (See, e.g., People v. Durham (1969) 70 Cal.2d 171, 189 [74 Cal.Rptr. 262, 449 P.2d 198] [`[K]nowing that they were all guilty ..., it is easy to understand why they might take life before they would suffer themselves to be arrested, their crime found out, and the severe punishment meted out to them ....'].) Defendant contends he could not have harbored a preexisting motive to kill Officer Ganz because it would have been impossible for the officer to discover his firearm, as the circumstances of the traffic stop did not justify a search of his car. Drivers, however, often keep the documentation necessary to operate a motor vehicle in the vehicle's glove compartment; it is not unheard of for a police officer to spot contraband when a driver opens the glove compartment to retrieve those documents. (E.g., Maryland v. Pringle (2003) 540 U.S. 366, 368 [157 L.Ed.2d 769, 124 S.Ct. 795]; see also In re Arturo D. (2002) 27 Cal.4th 60, 89 [115 Cal.Rptr.2d 581, 38 P.3d 433] (conc. & dis. opn. of Werdegar, J.).) Vehicles are also sometimes searched pursuant to a condition of supervised release, probation or parole, in an inventory search following an arrest, or for the safety of the police officer. (See, e.g., People v. Walker (1969) 273 Cal.App.2d 720, 724 [78 Cal.Rptr. 439] [For his own protection the officer was justified in opening the glove compartment himself, rather than to risk the possibility that defendant would pull a weapon out of it.].) Regardless of whether any of those circumstances actually existed with respect to defendant's stop, a rational trier of fact could have found that defendant feared his firearm would be discovered and decided to use it before Officer Ganz became aware of its existence. [8]