Court Invalidates Evidence Discovered After Group Detention Expires

• Searches of a vehicle on less than probable cause are illegal. 
• Once the reasonable suspicion of a group engaging in criminal activity dissipates via the arrest of one member of the group, all the other members must be released. 
• Probable Cause Searches of a Vehicle
• Vehicle Searches Conducted during an Unlawfully Prolonged Detention
• Prolonged Detentions and De Facto Arrests

The warrantless search of a person’s vehicle under the Automobile Exception requires that there be probable cause.  The recovery of a firearm from another person at the scene, with all those present being gang members, does not provide the necessary probable cause.  A continued detention of everyone at the scene of one subject’s arrest for possession of a firearm, where only one firearm is observed by witnesses prior to the contact, is illegal; any reasonable suspicion having dissipated upon the recovery of the one firearm. 

On July 5, 2023, a citizen reported to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office that a group of men were in the apparent process of creating a music video in the parking lot of an apartment in Rancho Cordova.  One of the men was observed to be holding a handgun.  The caller described the man holding the gun as thin, approximately 16 to 17 years old, and wearing “all black clothing.” 

Deputies and detectives from the Sheriff’s gang suppression unit responded to the call, arriving at 8:12 p.m. That particular location was known by the gang detectives to be within territory claimed by the East Side Pirus criminal street gang.  One of the six men found to be at that location was defendant, who was a heavyset 300-pound man of approximately 30 years of age. Another subject, referred to as “D.M,” and who was a juvenile, was also there.  Defendant was wearing all black. D.M. was wearing a black jacket and blue jeans. Upon the officers’ arrival, the group of six individuals was instructed to put their hands in the air.  Everyone complied except for D.M. who immediately took off running. He was caught within two minutes and, upon being taken into custody, was found to be in possession of a pistol.  Another gun was later found in D.M.’s ....