People v. Shepherd

[827]

Opinion

SIMS, Acting P. J.

We hold that a woman has no reasonable expectation of privacy in a purse left in a stolen car. Hence, she has no “standing” to contest a search of the purse by police officers.

Following the denial of her motion to suppress evidence

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(Pen. Code, § 1538.5), defendant entered a negotiated plea of no contest to a charge of receiving stolen property. (Pen. Code, § 496, former subd. 1.) Granted probation, defendant appeals, contending the trial court erred in denying her suppression motion. We disagree and shall affirm.

Facts

The following facts are adduced from the transcript of the preliminary examination. In the late evening hours of November 27, 1992, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputy Murphy observed defendant and codefendant Harris standing in front of a Cameron Park liquor store. Harris was arrested on two outstanding traffic warrants. Murphy let defendant go when a warrant check on a false name she provided revealed no warrants.

In the early morning hours of November 28, 1992, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth Danielson observed a truck parked around the comer from the Cameron Park liquor store. He noticed the license plate on the front of the truck differed from the back plate. Danielson learned the truck apparently had been stolen in Sacramento the day before.

Sheriff’s deputies searched the truck. The truck’s doors were unlocked, and the ignition had been punched out. A purse containing documents bearing defendant’s name lay on the driver’s side floorboard. The deputies also found duffel bags in the bed of the truck, which contained papers bearing defendant’s and Harris’s names.

From a photograph found in the purse, Deputy Murphy identified defendant as the individual he had released earlier. He later arrested defendant. Defendant told Murphy someone had given the truck to Harris. She also stated she did not know the truck was stolen, but should have presumed it had been stolen because the ignition was punched.

Relying on