Opinion
No. 22340.
Decided February 14, 1967.
Defendant was convicted of various traffic charges arising out of an automobile accident. The conviction was affirmed by the district court and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Reversed.
1. SEARCHES and SEIZURES — Automobile — Arrest — Custody — Liquor — Warrant — Admissibility of Evidence. Where record discloses that search of defendant's automobile was not made incident to arrest, but was conducted after defendant had been in custody at police station for quite a period of time, held, admission into evidence of bottle of liquor taken from his car as a result of a search without a warrant was clearly improper.
Error to the District Court of Garfield County, Honorable Clifford R. Darrow, Judge
James R. Stitt, for plaintiff in error.
Duke W. Dunbar, Attorney General, Frank E. Hickey, Deputy, John P. Moore, Assistant, for defendant in error.
Plaintiff in error Eyrich was charged in the county court in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, with various traffic charges arising out of an automobile accident on U.S. Highway 6 and 24. Upon trial to the court, he was convicted. He appealed to the District Court for the County of Garfield where the conviction was affirmed. In accordance with 1965 Perm. Supp., C.R.S. 1963, 37-15-10, we granted certiorari.
Eyrich contends that admission into evidence of a bottle of liquor taken from his car as a result of a search without a warrant was improper. The record discloses that the search of the automobile was not made incident to the arrest, but was conducted after Eyrich had been in custody at the police station for quite a period of time.
The Attorney General confesses error and we agree. The search and seizure here were clearly interdicted by Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, and the evidence obtained as a result of the seizure was therefore inadmissible. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643.
The judgment is reversed and the matter remanded to the district court for such further proceedings as are deemed advisable.