United States v. Garcia, No. 13-2155 (10th Cir. 2014)
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A Roswell police officer discovered a gun magazine containing ammunition during a protective pat down of defendant Cruz Garcia. A grand jury charged defendant with being a felon in possession of ammunition. Defendant was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by Gilbert Romero. Romero was driving under a suspended license for which he was arrested. The vehicle he was driving had a crack in the windshield that obscured the driver's view. Because it was deemed unsafe to drive, the car was towed. Before towing the vehicle, the contents of the car were inventoried. Before the inventory, police asked defendant to exit the vehicle. The officer recognized defendant from a recent encounter and had learned months earlier from a fellow officer that defendant had a criminal history, which included at least one violent felony. Based on that foreknowledge, the officer decided to pat defendant down for weapons, at which time, police discovered the gun magazine. Defendant moved to suppress evidence of the ammunition on Fourth Amendment grounds, contending the pat down search was unjustified. The district court denied the motion after concluding the arresting officer had reasonable suspicion that defendant was armed and dangerous. Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. But finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction.
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