McLaughlin v. Commonwealth

Properly framed, the question presented by this case asks only whether the officers had probable cause to believe the CDs were subject to confiscation under Code § 59.1-41.5. Without contradiction, the evidence established that the observable characteristics of these CDs made them clearly recognizable as pirated “DJ mixes”—the kind most frequently *255traded in the black market. The trial court, therefore, properly denied McLaughlin’s suppression motion.

I

Under settled principles, we address the legal issues arising from a suppression motion “only after the relevant historical facts have been…