State v. Blythe

Summary

The Idaho Supreme Court reviewed the denial of Nicholas Keith Blythe’s motion to suppress heroin discovered in his shoe during a traffic stop. The court held that the search was not justified as a search incident to arrest because it preceded the arrest and neither officer safety nor evidence preservation sufficiently supported the search. The court vacated Blythe’s conviction, reversed the suppression ruling, and remanded the case.

Holdings

1. A warrantless search that precedes a custodial arrest is not justified under the search-incident-to-arrest exception unless the officer-safety or evidence-preservation rationales underlying that exception were sufficiently present when the search occurred. Neither rationale was sufficiently present here, so the search of Blythe's shoes violated the Fourth Amendment.
2. Probable cause to arrest is a necessary prerequisite to a custodial arrest but does not, by itself, justify a search incident to arrest conducted before the arrest.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the warrantless search of Blythe's shoes was a valid search incident to arrest under the Fourth Amendment when the search preceded the custodial arrest.
2. Whether probable cause to arrest, standing alone, justified the search of Blythe's shoes before his arrest.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded