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Vassar v. State10/29/2004
The appellant, Peter B. Vassar, appeals from the denial of his suppression motion. The district court found that a law enforcement officer properly seized a wooden "marijuana stash box" from the appellant's automobile pursuant to the "plain view" doctrine. The district court also upheld the officer's search of the wooden stash box (wherein the officer observed marijuana residue and smelled the odor of marijuana) and the subsequent search of the automobile's contents. We affirm.
ISSUES
The issues presented in this appeal are as follows:
1. Whether a law enforcement officer properly seized a wooden "stash box" from the appellant's automobile pursuant to the "plain view" doctrine?
2. Whether the officer had probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of the wooden stash box?
3. Whether the officer had probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of the automobile's contents?
FACTS
On April 21, 2002, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Kleif Guenther (Trooper Guenther) responded to a single-vehicle rollover on southbound Interstate 25 in Laramie County. The driver of a Jeep Wrangler (the appellant's vehicle) had apparently lost control of the vehicle, causing it to exit the roadway, travel through a right-of-way fence, across a frontage road and through another fence, where it overturned. According to Trooper Guenther, the weather that day was "very sunny, nice, a few clouds, fairly warm," the road was " ry and clear," and the appellant's vehicle left the roadway for "no apparent reason...."
When Trooper Guenther arrived at the scene, the appellant (the vehicle's driver and only occupant) remained trapped in the vehicle. Trooper Guenther described the appellant at the scene as follows:
henever law enforcement appeared to exit his vision he would calm down some, and the minute an officer in uniform would re[appear] in his vision... he would become agitated and aggressive towards EMS personnel and firefighters.
While standing beside the appellant's vehicle ("maybe two or three feet away from it"), Trooper Guenther observed a wooden box just behind the driver's seat "propped up in the rear area of the vehicle" and in "plain view." A gold-colored image of a leaf, possibly made out of brass, appeared on the wooden box. Based on his knowledge, training and experience, Trooper Guenther testified that the leaf was a "marijuana leaf" and the wooden box was "what is commonly known as a marijuana stash box...." A "stash box" is, according to Trooper Guenther, "a container to hold... illegal substance " and a "marijuana leaf on a wooden box is commonly associated with a stash box." Trooper Guenther testified that in his five-year career as a highway patrolman, he had "seen many kinds of stash boxes," and had seized " aybe 50 to 75" stash boxes, approximately a dozen of which boxes were made of wood. According to Trooper Guenther, stash boxes come "in all sizes... and shapes. Some have associated paraphernalia pictures such as a marijuana leaf on them. I've found some with that before. I've found some with marijuana paraphernalia such as a glass pipe or a bong."
Trooper Guenther reached into the appellant's vehicle, pulled out the wooden box, and opened the box. He observed marijuana residue in the box and smelled the odor of marijuana in the box. Based on this discovery, and considering that "it was a nice, sunny day, and this vehicle for no apparent reason drove off the road and wrecked" and the appellant's "behavior" at the scene, Trooper Guenther concluded that "something else was going on here other than a standard, unexplained rollover."
The vehi
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