Corrine E. Gunning won in State v. Baker, No. 111,915 (Kan. June 9, 2017), reversing a Douglas County drug conviction. An officer seized and searched Mr. Baker's backpack when he arrested Mr. Baker for outstanding warrants, finding drug evidence. The state asserted that the warrantless search was proper as an inventory search. The KSC agreed that seizure of the backpack was reasonable, but held that the state failed to show--by a preponderance of evidence--an established inventory routine that would have inevitably led to opening containers in the backpack where the drug evidence was found:
The Wells [Florida v. Wells, 495 U.S. 1 (1990)] rule applies here—standardized criteria or an established routine must regulate the opening of containers found during inventory searches. Opening all containers, no containers, or opening only those containers "whose contents officers determine they are unable to ascertain from examining the containers' exteriors" are all constitutionally permissible practices so long as they are standardized and well established. . A written policy undoubtedly has the advantage of providing certainty as to the established practices, but it is not required.
However, producing no evidence of a policy with respect to the opening of containers—as occurred here—does not pass constitutional muster.
We find nothing in the record before us to establish that the search which occurred here was anything other than general rummaging. Consequently, we hold the State did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the contraband would have been inevitably discovered through a valid inventory search of Baker's backpack. Therefore, the district court erred in denying Baker's motion to suppress.
As a result, the conviction was reversed and the matter remanded.
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