The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. John Jacob McCarty, Defendant, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed suppression of drugs found in the defendant's vehicle after concluding that the officers lacked probable cause under the automobile exception and lacked a sufficient basis for a search incident to arrest under the governing vehicle-search standard. The court also rejected a good-faith exception because the officers relied on lower-court precedent that was inconsistent with the later controlling rule, and retroactive application of that rule required suppression in this nonfinal case. Justice Eid, dissenting, would have applied the good-faith exception and would have found the search reasonable because the arrest involved a drug-related offense.