Commonwealth v. Campbell (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-156-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-11980 COMMONWEALTH vs. JAMIL J. CAMPBELL. Suffolk. February 10, 2016. – September 30, 2016. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ.[1] Motor Vehicle, Operation, Permission to operate, Unauthorized use. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Probable cause. Search and Seizure, Probable cause, Inevitable discovery, Motor vehicle. Probable Cause. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress. Complaint received and sworn to in the Roxbury Division of the Boston Municipal Court Department on August 19, 2013. After transfer to the Central Division, a pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Charles R. Johnson, J. An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was allowed by Lenk, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the case was reported by her to the Appeals Court. The Supreme Judicial Court granted an application for direct appellate review. Helle Sachse, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Rebecca A. Jacobstein, Committee for Public Counsel Services (Aditi Goel, Committee for Public Counsel Services, with her) for the defendant. LENK, J. On August 17, 2013, at approximately 4:30 P.M., Trooper Thomas Hannon of the State police stopped a vehicle driven by the defendant for failing to stop at a stop sign. The vehicle had been rented by the defendant’s mother, who has a last name that is different from the defendant’s. Upon request, the defendant provided Hannon with a valid driver’s license and the rental agreement. The agreement listed only the mother as the renter and stated, “[N]o other drivers permitted.” Hannon concluded that the defendant was using the vehicle without authority, in violation of G. L. c. 90, § 24 (2) (a), which makes it illegal to “use[] a motor vehicle without authority knowing that such use is unauthorized.” Accordingly, he decided to impound the vehicle. During an inventory search in preparation for impoundment, a loaded handgun and a box of ammunition were seized from the vehicle. The Commonwealth maintains that, upon learning of the seizures, the defendant made incriminating statements to police. This case is before us on the Commonwealth’s interlocutory appeal from a Boston Municipal Court judge’s order allowing the defendant’s motion to suppress the handgun, the ammunition, and statements he made to police. We conclude that the inventory search was unlawful under the circumstances, and therefore affirm the allowance […]