Opinion
No. 2D22-3227
06-21-2023
STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. Jose Antonio RODRIGUEZ, Jr., Appellee.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Alicia M. Winterkorn, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant. Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Cynthia J. Dodge, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellee.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Alicia M. Winterkorn, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellant.
Howard L. Dimmig, II, Public Defender, and Cynthia J. Dodge, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellee.
PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Arizona v. Gant , 556 U.S. 332, 351, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009) ("Police may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. When these justifications are absent, a search of an arrestee's vehicle will be unreasonable unless police obtain a warrant or show that another exception to the warrant requirement applies."); Ancrum v. State , 146 So. 3d 1217, 1220-21 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (citing Gant and determining that the search of a jacket found on a bedroom floor was not justified when Ancrum had been secured and removed from the bedroom); Harris v. State , 238 So. 3d 396, 398, 401-02 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018) (applying Gant in a case concerning the search of a backpack Harris had been wearing when he was stopped on a dirt bike and arrested for traffic violations, with an officer removing the backpack, handcuffing Harris, and taking him away from the area where the backpack was subsequently searched; determining that the warrantless search was not valid as one incident to arrest when the officers had gained "exclusive control" of Harris's backpack and that "once an arrestee has been secured, both justifications for the search incident to arrest exception—officer safety and preservation of evidence—are absent").
CASANUEVA, SILBERMAN, and LaROSE, JJ., Concur.