People v. Mathews
Annotate this CaseThe victim was walking in San Leandro with his grandson and their dog. A man, whose face was covered, approached to rob him. The victim surrendered his belongings. The man struck the victim on the head with a gun and fled. The victim then heard a “boom.”” Other witnesses heard a gunshot from the area of the robbery and saw two men, one of whom appeared to have an injury and was holding a gun, running. Some remembered seeing those men get out of a light-colored sedan minutes earlier. The same sedan picked them up. No witness was able to identify Mathews. Within minutes, a silver sedan was recorded dropping Mathews off at Highland Hospital. Mathews’s cell phone and bloody clothes were seized. The phone had been used near the robbery at the time of the robbery and “traveled east" to "near Highland Hospital.” Mathews was charged with second-degree robbery, with firearms allegations. Mathews unsuccessfully moved to suppress his clothing, an officer's observations of his wounds, and the cell phone evidence, and sought discovery of the officers' personnel files. The court of appeal affirmed, citing the estoppel principle; when a defendant gives an officer a false name and a check of that name fails to reveal that the defendant subject to a probation search condition, the defendant is estopped from challenging an ensuing search or seizure that would have been authorized had the officer been aware of the condition.
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