State v. Wynn

CLARK, Judge.

The determination of the suppression question is dependent upon whether the seizure of the pistol comes within the “plain view” warrantless search exception to the exclusionary evidence rule.

In Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 446, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed. 2d 564 (1971), the Supreme Court enunciated four elements of the “plain view” doctrine as follows:

1. the prior intrusion must be valid;

2. the discovery must be inadvertent;

3. the evidence must be immediately apparent as such; and

4. the evidence must be in plain view.

After voir dire the trial court, in concluding that the…