83 Mass. App. Ct. 55 (2013)
The defendant appealed a denial of his motion to suppress. A jury found the defendant guilty after he was caught with a gun and ammunition while a passenger in a car. The defendant was a passenger in the car when a trooper pulled it over for speeding. The parties could not produce any forms of identification and gave the trooper conflicting information regarding their names. The trooper proceeded to remove a passenger, not the defendant, from the car. While speaking with the passenger, the defendant disobeyed the trooper’s direction to keep his hands on the dashboard. The trooper removed the defendant from the car and frisked him. The trooper then conducted a quick search of the front passenger seat area where the defendant had been. The search revealed seventy-eight rounds of ammunition under the seat and a small handgun in the center console.
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts found no error in the denial of the motions to suppress and affirmed the convictions of carrying a firearm and possessing ammunition without the proper license to do so. In doing this, the Appeals Court provided guidance on a recent Supreme Judicial Court case Commonwealth v. Cruz, 459 Mass. 459, that provided three instances where an exit order could be issued to a passenger in a validly stopped vehicle. The Appeals Court held that the trooper’s exit order and subsequent search of the area the defendant most recently occupied was justified, because it was necessary for the officer to ensure her safety, and to assess her suspicions of ongoing unlawful activity. Thus, the trooper was justified in issuing the exit order to the defendant.
Written 6/27/2013
