STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
COREY LAMAR FLOWERS, APPELLEE
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The State appeals a trial court's order suppressing a firearm, arguing the defendant was not seized under the Fourth Amendment when he discarded the weapon. The appellate court reverses, holding that because the defendant was not physically subdued or submitting to police authority at the time of abandonment, no Fourth Amendment seizure had occurred and the firearm was properly admissible.
The court held that Flowers was not seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment prior to discarding the firearm because he was neither physically subdued by officers nor submitted to any show of authority. Therefore, the firearm was not fruit of an illegal seizure and the suppression order was erroneous.
[1] A person is not "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when they discard evidence while fleeing from law enforcement prior to physical restraint or submissio…
[2] Evidence discarded by a suspect fleeing from police is not the fruit of an unlawful seizure if the suspect was not physically subdued or did not submit to the officer's s…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“for a seizure to have occurred, either the person must be physically subdued by the officer or the person must submit to the officer's show of authority”
Establishes the legal standard for when a Fourth Amendment seizure occurs under California v. Hodari D.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCorey Lamar Flowers discarded a firearm while fleeing from police. The trial court granted Flowers' motion to suppress the firearm, apparently finding…
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The State of Florida appeals the trial court’s order granting Corey Lamar Flowers’ motion to suppress a firearm. Because the record in this case clearly establishes that Flowers was not “seized” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment prior to him discarding the firearm, we reverse and remand for entry of an order denying the motion to suppress.1 See California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 626, 629, 111 S.Ct. 1547,113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991) (finding that cocaine abandoned while Ho-dari was running from police was not the fruit of a seizure; and holding that for a seizure to have occurred, either the person must be physically subdued by the officer or the person must submit to the officer’s show of authority); Perez v. State, 620 So.2d 1256, 1258 (Fla.1993) (holding that the call for Perez to halt and the subsequent chase did not constitute a seizure until he was caught; and thus, recovery of the firearm abandoned in the meantime was not the result of an illegal seizure); State v. Leonard, 103 So.3d 998, 1000 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012) (holding that defendant was not seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment prior to abandoning the cocaine, where defendant did not acquiesce to the police officer’s show of authority and the officers had not physically restrained the defendant); State v. Green, 601 So.2d 617, 618 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992) (“[S]ince defendant was fleeing from the officer when he abandoned the gun, the gun is not considered a fruit of an unlawful seizure, and therefore, should not have been suppressed.”).
REVERSED and REMANDED.
COHEN, BERGER and WALLIS, JJ„ concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621 (U.S. 1991)
- Dykstra-Gulick v. Gulick, 620 So. 2d 1256 (Fla. 1993)
- State v. Green, 601 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)
- State v. Tarresse Leonard, 103 So. 3d 998 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012)