People v. Conley CA3

FACTS

The Stop Early in the morning of April 8, 2011, Davis police officer Derek Russell stopped a blue Infiniti for expired registration. Aaron German was the driver and defendant was the passenger. Defendant said the car was his. Russell smelled a strong odor of unburnt marijuana and asked if there was anything illegal in the car. Defendant said he had a cannabis card and two ounces of marijuana in his backpack. Russell asked defendant and German to step out of the car and searched both. Defendant had $522 in wadded up bills in his pocket. The denominations were $100 (1), $20 (19), $10 (2), $5 (2), $2 (4), and $1 (4). A search of the car revealed four baggies of marijuana, two digital scales, a box of sandwich bags, and no drug paraphernalia for smoking. One of the scales had marijuana residue on it. The four baggies weighed 3.3, 3.18, 1.5, and .86 ounces, for a total of 8.8 ounces. Each tested positive for marijuana. Officer Russell believed defendant possessed marijuana for sale. He read defendant his Miranda2 rights and defendant said he understood and then gave a statement as follows: He had come to Davis to pick up German. German said he had not been drinking so defendant…