Brewer v. Superior Court
Annotate this CaseDefendant was charged with possession of a firearm with a prior violent conviction, having a large-capacity magazine, and carrying a loaded firearm. Detective Calderan testified that he was on patrol near Richmond's Crescent Park apartment complex, a high-crime area claimed by a street gang. Defendant was sitting in the back of a van. Others were in the front passenger and driver’s seats. Calderan and others officers approached. Defendant “ducked down." Calderan testified: “We told him to get up and put his hands up. ... After several orders" he did so. The officers had their guns drawn. Calderan approached and located marijuana in the possession of the front-seat passenger. Officers searched the vehicle. Calderan found a gun loaded with a 15-round magazine underneath the rear of the driver’s seat, in front of where Defendant had been seated. Defendant unsuccessfully moved to suppress. The trial court stated it was “clear” that the officers detained Defendant without reasonable suspicion but that Defendant failed to establish a reasonable expectation of privacy in the vehicle. The court of appeal directed the court to vacate its order. The trial court did not do so. The court of appeal issued a writ of mandate. Defendant can challenge the gun evidence as the fruit of an unlawful detention, even if he lacked an expectation of privacy in the searched car.
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