People v. Stewart CA4/2

I. FACTS

In December 2020 police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle parked on

private property.1 Police found Stewart in the driver’s seat and Benjamin Martin in the

passenger seat. When police arrived, Stewart attempted to leave the vehicle, but the

police made him stay nearby. The car wouldn’t start because it was out of gas. The police

asked Martin whom the vehicle belonged to, and Martin nodded at Stewart. But when the

police asked Martin what Stewart would say if asked the same question, Martin said “he

would not know what to do.”

Suspecting the vehicle was stolen, the police detained Martin. Martin told the

detaining officer he had “ ‘steel’ ” on him, which the detaining officer understood to

mean Martin was armed. The officer searched Martin and found two 12-gauge shotgun

shells in his pocket along with a cylinder containing what looked like a firing pin.

Another officer detained Stewart at the same time. After searching the vehicle, the

officers found “a seven and-a-half inch steel barrel that had a live shotgun round on one

end under the driver’s seat of the vehicle.”

1 The facts are taken from the police report, which Stewart stipulated formed…