Court Opinion

ID: 9856379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:46:23.941213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:42.552830
License: Public Domain

ERICKSON, Justice,
specially concurring:
In my view, the factual scenario which led to the defendant’s arrest is different from the facts that brought about a split decision in United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. 800, 94 S.Ct. 1234, 39 L.Ed.2d 771 (1974), and an opinion of a divided Court in United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977). In this case, we are not dealing with Edwards, where paint chips were recovered from the defendant’s clothing after he was jailed that matched paint chips at the crime scene. We are also not confronted with entry into the double locked footlocker that was dealt with in Chadwick.
The facts and circumstances of each search and seizure case determine the reasonableness of the search. Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 765, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2041, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). Search and seizure cases must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the defendant, wearing the blue backpack, was seen and identified at a marijuana field in “Secret Canyon,” and stopped at the request of the officer who saw him as he was leaving the canyon. When the officer who first observed him came in contact with the defendant, who had been stopped by the second officer, the defendant was no longer wearing the backpack, but it was near the defendant and the motorcycle he had been riding. Probable cause existed for a custodial arrest which provided grounds for a search incident to the arrest. United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973). As I view the record, the backpack was in the “immediate possession” of the defendant and was properly the subject of a search either at the site of the arrest or when the defendant arrived at the sheriff’s office or jail. United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. at 805, 94 S.Ct. at 1238. The warrantless search in this case was reasonable and should be upheld. See United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. at 235, 94 S.Ct. at 476; People v. Casias, 193 Colo. 66, 72, 563 P.2d 926, 930 (1977).
Accordingly, I specially concur.