People v. Dhaliwal CA6

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On November 8, 2018, about 6:30 a.m., Daniel McKannon parked his vehicle in a dirt parking lot on the Stanford University campus. He left his vehicle unlocked with the key in the cup holder between the two front seats. He also left an endorsed check made out to him in the vehicle. McKannon was shuttled from the parking lot to his work site. When McKannon returned to the parking lot about 4:15 p.m., his vehicle was gone. On November 10, 2018, about 3:40 a.m., San Jose Police Officer Dainius Bunevicius was “running the license plates” of parked cars in a “high-crime” commercial area in San Jose where stolen vehicles were sometimes abandoned “looking for stolen vehicles.” A homeless shelter was nearby, and homeless people sometimes congregated in the area. 2 Officer Bunevicius queried 20 or 30 license plates. Dispatch told him that one of the plates belonged to a car that had been reported stolen. It was McKannon’s vehicle. Bunevicius initially thought the vehicle was unoccupied because he could not see through its tinted windows. Bunevicius activated his spotlights and then got out of his patrol vehicle to look inside with his flashlight. He saw…