L.B. THOMAS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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A defendant lacks standing to challenge a search of a codefendant's person and has no reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband handed to the codefendant, so the trial court properly denied the defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained from the codefendant.
A defendant has no standing to suppress evidence obtained in violation of a codefendant's Fourth Amendment rights when the defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the seized contraband.
[1] A defendant lacks standing to suppress evidence obtained in violation of a codefendant's Fourth Amendment rights and cannot challenge a search of a codefendant's person b…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePolice stopped a vehicle and searched the passenger/codefendant after noticing a bulge in the passenger's pants, discovering cocaine that the passenge…
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COWART, Judge.
The police stopped a vehicle driven by the defendant. When the defendant and passenger (codefendant) exited the vehicle the officer, noticing a bulge in the passenger/codefendant’s pants, searched the passenger/codefendant, discovering a package containing cocaine. The passenger/codefendant stated that the defendant handed her the package of cocaine. When charged with possession the codefendant successfully moved to have the evidence suppressed on the ground the search was illegal but the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence illegally seized from the passenger/code-fendant on the ground the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy for the package of contraband and therefore had no standing to challenge the search of the passenger/codefendant. The defendant was convicted and appeals. We affirm.
A defendant does not have standing to suppress evidence merely because the evidence was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of a codefendant. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963); Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978); see also 4 LaFave, Search and Seizure, § 11.3(i) pgs. 359, 360 (1987).
AFFIRMED.
GOSHORN, C.J., and DIAMANTIS, J., concur.
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Citator
Cited By
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Ingram v. State, 928 So. 2d 423 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006)…companion’s purse when it was searched and, thus, petition could not challenge validity of search that disclosed controlled substances). A defendant in strikingly similar circumstances to Appellant’s situation asserted standing in Thomas v. State, 596 So. 2d 518 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992). The police stopped a vehicle driven' by Thomas. When Thomas and a passenger/co-defendant exited the vehicle,.the officer noticed a bulge in the passenger/co-defendant’s pants, whereupon a search of the passenger/co-defendant rev…
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Hodge v. State, 629 So. 2d 973 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993)…ng, however, to raise a violation of the passenger’s rights in order to suppress the evidence against him. Therefore, the court denied Hodge’s motion to suppress. Hodge appeals; we affirm. This court faced an identical challenge in Thomas v. State, 596 So. 2d 518 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992). Judge Cowart, in writing for a unanimous court, held: The passenger/codefendant stated that the defendant handed her the package of cocaine. When charged with possession the codefendant successfully moved to have the evidence s…
Authorities Cited
- Wong SUN v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (U.S. 1963)
- Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (U.S. 1978)
- Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165 (U.S. 1969)