The trial court erred in denying motion to suppress firearm found during pat down where defendant was unlawfully detained and officers had no probable cause to believe he was armed.
The officers who heard man and woman telling defendant and his companion to leave the property as they were slowly driving by lacked reasonable suspicion justifying stop of defendant and his companion to investigate trespassing where the two had begun leaving the property at the time of the stop. Even if there had been reasonable suspicion to detain the defendant, that would not have justified pat-down search because of the fact that defendant's companion was a known violent offender was not sufficient, standing alone, to justify a pat-down search of defendant.
Defendant's conviction and sentence for carrying concealed firearm was reversed and the case sent back to the trial court.
Comments
There are no comments for this post. Be the first and Add your Comment below.
Leave a Comment