HomeMy WebLinkAboutCP-21-CR-0486-2008
COMMONWEALTH : IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF
: CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
:
V. :
:
:
ANDRE ANTONIO MILLER : CP-21-CR-0486-2008
IN RE: MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE
OPINION AND ORDER OF COURT
Bayley, J., June 19, 2008:--
Defendant, Andre Antonio Miller, is charged with unlawful possession with intent
1
to deliver a controlled substance, marijuana. He filed a motion to suppress evidence
obtained by the State Police following the stop of a vehicle he was driving. A hearing
was conducted on June 17, 2008. We make the following findings:
(1) On February 5, 2008, at approximately 9:09 a.m., Trooper Adam Reed of the
Pennsylvania State Police lawfully stopped a vehicle operated by defendant, Andre
Miller, for speeding at 67 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone on Interstate 81 in
South Middleton Township, Cumberland County.
(2) While defendant, who was overly nervous, was in the vehicle and Trooper
Reed was standing at the driver’s door, and as defendant produced a driver’s license
and a Hertz rental agreement for the vehicle, the trooper smelled an odor of raw
__________
1
35 P.S. § 780-113(a)(30).
CP-21-CR-0486-2008
2
marijuana from inside the vehicle.
(3) That provided Trooper Reed with probable cause to believe there was
3
contraband in the vehicle and thus to conduct a search of the vehicle.
(4) Inside the trunk of the vehicle were two boxes, each containing a Home
Depot label, and each containing a significant quantity of marijuana in brick form.
(5) Defendant was arrested and the vehicle was taken to a State Police
impoundment lot where, during a legal inventory search, a Home Depot receipt for the
boxes, dated February 4, 2008, was found in the passenger compartment.
CONCLUSION
The evidence seized from the Hertz rental vehicle is admissible against
defendant. Therefore, the following order is entered.
ORDER OF COURT
AND NOW, this day of June, 2008, the motion of defendant to
IS DENIED.
suppress evidence,
__________
2
Defendant was alone in the vehicle. The rental agreement, from Hertz, was entered
into on February 2, 2008, by Marylia Harris. It required that the vehicle be returned to
a Hertz agency in Atlanta, by 12:55 p.m. on February 5, 2008. Defendant told Trooper
Reed that Marylia Harris was his mother, that he used the vehicle to go to a family
reunion in the Bronx, New York City, and his mother was unable to go because she
was working. Initially, defendant said that the reunion was for his father’s family but he
changed that to say that it was for his mother’s family.
3 Commonwealth v. Stainbrook, Commonwealth v.
See 324 Pa. Super. 410 (1984);
Stuart,
740 A.2d 712 (Pa. Super. 1999).
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CP-21-CR-0486-2008
By the Court,
Edgar B. Bayley, J.
Daniel Sodus, Esquire
Assistant District Attorney
Arla Waller, Esquire
For Defendant
:sal
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COMMONWEALTH : IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF
: CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
:
V. :
:
:
ANDRE ANTONIO MILLER : CP-21-CR-0486-2008
IN RE: MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE
ORDER OF COURT
AND NOW, this day of June, 2008, the motion of defendant to
IS DENIED.
suppress evidence,
By the Court,
Edgar B. Bayley, J.
Daniel Sodus, Esquire
Assistant District Attorney
Arla Waller, Esquire
For Defendant
:sal