People v Mena
2011 NY Slip Op 06653 [87 AD3d 946]
September 29, 2011
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, November 9, 2011


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
JavierMena, Appellant.

[*1]Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Michael C. Taglieri of counsel), forappellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Marc Weber of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Herbert J. Adlerberg, J.H.O., at suppressionhearing; Renee A. White, J., at plea and sentencing), rendered July 8, 2008, convicting defendantof attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and attemptedcriminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and sentencing him to an aggregate term of2½ years, unanimously affirmed.

Initially, we note that defendant's present claim is unpreserved. The court properly denieddefendant's suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibilitydeterminations.

At the suppression hearing, the police officers testified that during a lawful car stop, theydetected the odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle; moreover, the codefendant admittedto police officers that he and defendant had been smoking marijuana earlier in the day in the caron the way to New York from Atlantic City. Accordingly, the police clearly had probable causeto search the vehicle under the automobile exception, and this included a search of the trunk(see United States v Ross, 456 US 798, 825 [1982]; People v Langen, 60 NY2d170, 180-182 [1983], cert denied 465 US 1028 [1984]; People v Hughes, 68 AD3d 894[2009], lv denied 14 NY3d 841 [2010]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Catterson, Renwick,Freedman and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.


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