People v. Watts CA3

BACKGROUND

A jury found Watts guilty of two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm (Pen. Code, § 29800, subd. (a)(1))1 based on evidence that officers discovered a semiautomatic firearm and a revolver during a traffic stop. Before trial, Watts moved to suppress this evidence under section 1538.5. In his motion, Watts argued that the search of his car was illegal because it was conducted without a warrant. Watts explained that “[u]nder the pretext of an inventory search, the officers illegally searched [him] for the purpose of gathering evidence to use against [him] in a criminal case.” He also noted that “[t]he decision to impound [his] vehicle must be justified by a community caretaking function ‘other than suspicion of evidence of criminal activity’ because inventory searches are conducted in the absence of probable cause.” At the suppression hearing, Officer Reynaldo Garcia-Barron testified that on June 26, 2022, he observed a silver sedan driving 90 to 95 miles per hour in an area where the speed limit was 65 miles per hour. Officer Garcia-Barron activated his lights and siren and the sedan pulled over. The sedan remained partially in the driving lane when it…