CO: Waiting for defendant to put his backpack in car to execute search warrant for car wasn’t unreasonable

Police obtained a search warrant for defendant’s car in the murder of his ex-wife. They surveilled the car for two hours until defendant appeared and put his backpack in the car. Then they approached and seized the car. Waiting until defendant put his backpack in the car to search it too was not unreasonable. That did not make the warrant overbroad, either. People v. Brown, 2014 COA 155, 2014 Colo. App. LEXIS 1913 (November 20, 2014):

[*P39] Here, there is no dispute that the backpack was “within” the vehicle at the time it was seized; therefore, seizing it was not outside the scope of the warrant. The items found in the backpack and used at trial were within the description of the items to be searched and seized. Defendant cites no authority, nor are we aware of any, for the proposition that the police acted illegally by waiting to execute the warrant until he placed his personal property in the vehicle. See United States v. Williams, 10 F.3d 590, 594 (8th Cir. 1993) (eight-day delay in execution of search warrant not unreasonable). Moreover, even if we assume the police intended to exceed the scope of the warrant by delaying its execution, “otherwise lawful conduct by law enforcement officers is not made illegal or unconstitutional merely because the officers’ subjective intent is illegitimate.” People v. Altman, 938 P.2d 142, 146 (Colo. 1997) (citing Whren, 517 U.S. at 813).