Commonwealth v. S.R.

Police conducted a car stop of a vehicle being driven by S.R. for excessive window tint and expired registration tags. When police ran S.R.’s information it came back that he had an active arrest warrant out of Minersville PA. Police frisked the vehicle and didn’t find anything illegal. However, a police sergeant claimed that while she was in contact with the Minersville PD verifying the existence of a warrant, S.R. stated to her “just take the gat and let me go.” She further claimed that S.R. told her the location of a hidden compartment in the car that contained the gun. Based on those statements, police secured a search warrant for the car and did in fact recover a loaded firearm in a hidden compartment that S.R. was not ;legally allowed to possess due to a prior conviction. The defense filed a motion to suppress evidence in the Court of Common Pleas and argued that the warrant was invalid because the statements made by S.R. were the product of an illegal interrogation by the police that was conducted without Miranda warnings. The DA argued that no interrogation took place, and that S.R. was not in “custody” when the statement was made and therefore no Miranda warnings were needed. After the defense produced video of the incident and cross-examined the police sergeant, a Judge sided with the defense and granted the motion to suppress. All charges were dismissed.