United States v. Starks, No. 13-1251 (1st Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was driving a rental car he had retrieved from his son’s girlfriend when he was stopped by a police officer. The officer subsequently discovered a bag on the passenger seat containing a gun and two boxes of ammunition. Defendant was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Defendant moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the stop was illegal. The district court denied the motion to suppress, concluding that because Defendant was an unlicensed, unauthorized driver of the rental car, he did not have standing to challenge the stop. A jury returned a guilty verdict, and Defendant was sentenced to 210 months in prison. The First Circuit vacated the conviction and remanded for an evidentiary hearing, holding that the district court erred as a matter of law in concluding that Defendant lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of the stop.
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