Opinion ID: 1224708
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Search of Rice's Backpack [2]

Text: The authority to search incident to arrest derives from the need to disarm and prevent any evidence from being concealed or destroyed. State v. Greenwald, 109 Nev. 808, 810, 858 P.2d 36, 37 (1993). In Greenwald, this court held that the search of Greenwald's motorcycle after Greenwald was safely locked away in a police car was not a valid search incident to arrest because there was no conceivable need to disarm him or prevent him from concealing or destroying evidence. Id. The same is true in this case. Smith testified that Rice was placed in the patrol car before Cripps searched the backpack. Thus, under Greenwald, the backpack was not validly searched incident to arrest. Next, in Greenwald, the State unsuccessfully argued that the motorcycle search was justified as a valid inventory search. [A]n inventory search must not be a ruse for general rummaging in order to discover incriminating evidence. The policy or practice governing inventory searches should be designed to produce an inventory. The individual police officer must not be allowed so much latitude that inventory searches are turned into a purposeful and general means of discovering evidence of crime. Florida v. Wells, 495 U.S. 1, 4, 110 S.Ct. 1632, 1635, 109 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990) (quoting Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 376, 107 S.Ct. 738, 743, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987) (Blackmun, J., concurring)). This court applied Wells in Greenwald and held that the officer did not even pretend to prepare a complete inventory of all of the items that were the product of his extensive search of the motorcycle . . . . It is rather obvious that the officer was not doing what he was doing just for the sake of taking inventory of Greenwald's valuables. If he had not been searching for contraband, the officer would in all probability simply have inventoried one zippered toiletry bag and let it go at that. . . . [Thus], the officer was making an unwarranted search under the guise and ruse of an inventory search. . . . Without an inventory, we can have no inventory search. Greenwald, 109 Nev. at 810-11, 858 P.2d at 38. The situation here is even more egregious than that resolved in Greenwald because Smith admitted he and Cripps were looking for contraband when they searched Rice's backpack. There is also no indication in this record that a formal inventory was prepared at the time of arrest. Therefore, we hold that Rice's backpack was not searched subject to a valid inventory search and that its contents should have been suppressed at trial. Accordingly, we affirm Rice's conviction for carrying a concealed weapon, and reverse his conviction for trafficking in a controlled substance and for possession of a controlled substance. Therefore, we remand this case to the district court to modify Rice's sentence in accordance with the opinion expressed herein.