People v. King

Opinion

BENKE, J.

Following denial of a motion to suppress evidence (Pen. Code, § 1538.5), Vernon Darnell King entered a negotiated no contest plea to possessing a controlled substance for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11351.5). The court suspended imposition of sentence and placed him on three years’ probation including a condition he serve one hundred and eighty days in custody. King appeals.

At approximately 10 p.m. on February 15, 1988, San Diego Police Officers Michael Ott and Kenneth Winklepleck were on patrol in the 600 block of 30th Street. Officer Ott stopped a Datsun 280Z after noticing it had expired registration tags. As the two officers approached the Datsun, Ott on one side and Winklepleck on the other, Ott saw the driver, King, reach under the driver’s seat and heard the contact of metal on metal. Ott feared for the safety of his partner and himself because there was increased gang activity in the area and the driver reached under the seat.

Ott ordered the occupants out of the Datsun and checked for weapons under the seat. He found a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. While searching the passenger area for additional weapons he found a baggie containing 46 rocks of cocaine.

King contends the weapon search was unlawful and the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress.

A warrantless search of a vehicle’s passenger compartment is permissible if “the police officer possesses a reasonable belief based on ‘specific and articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant’ the officer in believing that the suspect is dangerous and the suspect may gain immediate control of weapons.”

(Michigan

v.

Long

(1983) 463 U.S. 1032, 1049 [77 L.Ed.2d 1201, 1220, 103 S.Ct. 3469] quoting

Terry

v.

Ohio

(1967) 392 U.S. 1, 21 [20 L.Ed.2d 889, 906, 88 S.Ct. 868].)

King argues the officers here lacked specific and articulable facts giving them reason to believe he was armed and dangerous. Citing

People