United States v. Isiain Johnsonmarin

MEMORANDUM

Isiain Johnsonmarin appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence and the district court’s non-mandatory condition of supervised release. We have jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

Johnsonmarin argues on appeal that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence from a searched vehicle because Johnsonmarin was not a recent occupant of the vehicle. We disagree. The circumstantial evidence reasonably supports the conclusion that Johnsonmarin was a recent occupant of the vehicle, and therefore the search-incident-to-arrest exception to the warrant requirement applies. See Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 351 , 129 S.Ct. 1710 , 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009) (holding that the vehicle of a recent occupant may be searched incident to arrest as an exception to the warrant requirement where it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest). Johnsonmarin argued that the police officers could not have deemed him to be a recent occupant of the vehicle, yet Johnsonmarin was found next to his running vehicle, the officers had observed…