McCowan

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Traffic Stop and Vehicle Search In August 2021, Pittsburg Police Department Officer William Barbanica saw McCowan stopped at a gas station, and he decided to make a traffic stop. McCowan was the vehicle’s sole occupant. A search of the vehicle revealed a backpack containing “a short barreled AR-style pistol” that was loaded with 13 live rounds in a large-capacity magazine. Barbanica suspected the gun was an assault rifle “because of the short barrel, the two tones, things like that, the length of the buttstock, the overall length of the rifle being well underneath 30 inches.” McCowan was charged by information with possessing an assault weapon (Pen. Code,1 § 30605, subd. (a)), carrying a loaded firearm not registered to owner (§ 25850, subds. (a), (c)(6)), and manufacturing, importing, keeping for sale, or giving or receiving a large-capacity magazine (§ 32310, subd. (a)). B. The Motion to Suppress McCowan moved to suppress the gun and magazine as the products of an illegal detention and search and seizure of his vehicle. At the hearing on the suppression motion, the parties stipulated to the fact that McCowan’s vehicle was searched without a warrant.…