State v. Lamotte

Carley, Chief Judge.

Appellee was indicted for possession of cocaine, driving under the influence and improper lane usage. He filed a pre-trial motion to suppress the cocaine which had been seized during a search of the automobile that he had been driving before being arrested. The State appeals from the grant of appellee’s motion, enumerating as error the trial court’s failure to conclude that the search of the vehicle was authorized pursuant to a valid arrest of appellee.

“[E]ven when an arrestee is only a recent occupant of a vehicle, the officer ‘ “may, as a contemporaneous incident of that…