State v. Dean, 206 Ariz. 158

Summary

The Supreme Court of Arizona held that police could not justify a warrantless search of the defendant's Jeep as a search incident to arrest under the Fourth Amendment. Because the defendant was arrested approximately two and one-half hours after leaving the vehicle and inside a house far from it, he was not a sufficiently recent occupant under New York v. Belton. The court vacated the court of appeals' decision and reinstated the superior court's order suppressing the evidence.

Holdings

1. A defendant is a recent occupant of a vehicle under New York v. Belton when arrested in close proximity to the vehicle immediately after exiting it. When the arrest occurs long after the defendant has left the vehicle and far from the vehicle, the Belton search-incident-to-arrest exception does not apply and the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement governs.
2. The superior court did not clearly and manifestly err in finding that Dean's Jeep, parked in the driveway of his residence, was not abandoned.
3. The search of the Jeep was not a valid administrative inventory search because it was conducted to search for evidence rather than as a routine community-caretaking procedure.
4. The automobile exception did not justify the search because the record did not establish probable cause, and the State conceded that it could not rely on that exception.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the warrantless search of Dean's Jeep was valid under the search-incident-to-arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement when Dean had left the vehicle approximately two and one-half hours before his arrest and was arrested inside a house.
2. Whether the warrantless search could alternatively be justified under the abandonment or administrative-inventory exceptions.
3. Whether the vehicle search could be justified under the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded