United States v. Douglas Merrill Nielsen

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Douglas Merrill Nielsen entered a conditional guilty plea to possessing in excess of 500 grams of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), after the court denied his motion to suppress cocaine obtained during a nonconsensual warrantless search of the trunk of his automobile. The only issue on appeal is whether a police officer’s alleged smell of burnt marijuana gave probable cause to search the trunk of the car, when there was no corroborating evidence that defendant had recently smoked marijuana and no marijuana was found in the vehicle.

I

The district…