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State v. Celusniak4/15/2004
The female Defendant was a passenger in a car that contained two male passengers and a female driver. A state police officer pulled the car over when he observed that the driver was not wearing a seat belt. While speaking to the driver, the officer noticed the strong odor of burnt marijuana. He asked the driver to exit the vehicle and inquired about the odor that he had noticed. The driver did not admit to marijuana use, and she told the officer something to the effect of, "If there is marijuana in the vehicle, please do find it."
The officer began his search of the vehicle in the driver's area. He asked the two male passengers to exit the vehicle while he proceeded clockwise to search the front passenger area and the rear passenger area behind it, where the males were sitting. Finding nothing, he asked Defendant to exit the vehicle while he searched the driver's side rear seat area where Defendant had been seated. In front of where Defendant was sitting, he found a woman's purse "crammed" underneath the driver's seat. He opened the purse and immediately noticed a bag of marijuana. The officer exited the vehicle and asked Defendant if this was her purse. Defendant stated that it was hers. The officer arrested Defendant and released the others with a citation to the driver for the seat belt violation.
Defendant was charged with one petty misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana (one ounce or less), contrary to NMSA 1978, § 30-31-23(B)(1) (1990). With the case proceeding in magistrate court, Defendant filed a motion to suppress the marijuana, which was denied. Defendant entered a plea of no contest. Defendant and the State agree that the plea was conditioned on an appeal of the motion to suppress, although the judgment and sentence issued by the magistrate court does not indicate the condition in writing. Defendant filed a notice of appeal with the district court. The district court heard the motion de novo and denied it.
Defendant appealed the district court's denial of the motion to suppress to this Court. In our first calendar notice, we proposed to hold that "the district court should have disposed of the appeal by entry of an order dismissing the appeal and remanding the cause to the magistrate court for enforcement of its judgment and sentence." Defendant prepared such an order and submitted it to the district court. However, the district court refused to sign the order, apparently interpreting our calendar notice as requiring Defendant to dismiss her appeal in this Court before proceeding to straighten out the procedural issues below. Defendant submitted a motion to dismiss to this Court, and we clarified that Defendant was not required to move for dismissal of her appeal to this Court. Instead, we ordered Defendant to "obtain an order from the district court dismissing and remanding to the magistrate court to enforce its judgment and file it with this Court within twenty (20) days." The district court again refused to issue an order dismissing the appeal, stating that its decision on the motion to suppress was not dispositive of the case. On the district court's suggestion, Defendant entered a new conditional plea of no contest in the district court, reserving the right to appeal the denial of the motion to suppress to this Court. The district court also entered a judgment and sentence on the plea which was the same as that entered by the magistrate court. We accepted these documents as the basis of this appeal and assigned the case to the general calendar, asking the parties to brief the procedural issue in the case.
ISSUE ONE: Proper procedure for obtaining a final, appealable order from a magistrate court appeal
In the present case, the magistrate cou
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