People v. Morales CA5

FACTS

At approximately 2:30 a.m. on October 22, 2010,3 Officer Gaona of the Madera Police Department was on patrol in a marked vehicle when he observed a red Toyota Corolla with no front license plate. The vehicle turned; Gaona noticed it also lacked a rear license plate. He activated his overhead light bar to initiate a traffic stop due to the Vehicle Code violations. The Toyota continued on for a little while, then yielded to the right side of the roadway. Gaona got out of his vehicle and approached defendant, who was the driver and only occupant of the Toyota.4 Defendant provided identification and the vehicle registration at Gaona’s request, then Gaona relayed some of that information to dispatch via radio. He particularly wanted to make sure the vehicle identification number on the registration matched what was on the car’s front dash. Gaona observed a red metal pipe about two feet long and an inch and a half in diameter on the passenger side floorboard, with one end sticking out toward defendant. Gaona told defendant not to grab it and asked why he had it. Defendant said he found it in the roadway and wanted to use it for his weight bench. When Gaona asked how he was going…