TX1: Search incident and inventory invalid for failing to signal; as to inventory, the inventorying officer is a necessary witness

A drug officer called a patrol officer to stop defendant. After he failed to promptly signal a turn, he was stopped, handcuffed, and his car was searched. “The search of Appellant’s vehicle incident to his arrest for failing to signal a lane change and a turn exceeded the proper scope of a warrantless search incident to that arrest” under Gant. “We hold the State failed to carry its burden of establishing the search qualified as an inventory pursuant to an impoundment of a vehicle.” The inventorying officer wasn’t called at the suppression hearing. Marcopoulos v. State, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 2351 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) Apr. 3, 2018).

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