## Facts

- A Medford police officer lawfully stopped a pickup truck in which Fred Jonathon Smalley was a passenger.
- The officer obtained the driver’s consent to search the truck.
- When the officer opened the driver’s door, he smelled marijuana; the odor strengthened when he lifted the seat forward.
- Behind the seat the officer found a backpack; the odor became strongest near the backpack.
- Based on the strength and localization of the odor and the officer’s experience, he believed it was obvious the backpack contained a large amount of marijuana.
- The officer opened the backpack and found about 62 ounces of marijuana.
- The driver denied owning the backpack; Smalley admitted it was his.
- Smalley was charged with unlawful manufacture and unlawful possession of marijuana.
- The trial court suppressed the marijuana under Article I, section 9, concluding the search was unlawful; the state appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the warrantless search of Smalley’s backpack in a lawfully stopped vehicle was justified under the automobile exception to Article I, section 9.
2. Whether a strong marijuana odor localized to a particular container, together with officer experience, established probable cause to search despite statutory distinctions between noncriminal and criminal amounts of marijuana.

## Decision

- The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the suppression order and remanded.
- The court held the officer had probable cause to believe the backpack contained seizable marijuana and that the automobile exception permitted searching the backpack without a warrant.

## Legal Principles

- Under Article I, section 9, an officer may conduct a warrantless search of an automobile when the officer has probable cause to believe the vehicle contains contraband or evidence of a crime.
- Probable cause exists when the circumstances would lead a reasonable person to believe it is more likely than not that seizable things will be found in the place searched; certainty and precise quantification are not required.
- An officer’s sensory observations, including odor, and reasonable inferences drawn from training and experience may support probable cause.
- When probable cause justifies an automobile search for contraband, officers may search containers within the vehicle that could hold the contraband, including a backpack associated with the odor.

## Conclusion

Because the officer smelled a strong marijuana odor that intensified and was localized to the backpack, and reasonably inferred from experience that it indicated a substantial amount of marijuana, the officer had probable cause to search the backpack under Oregon’s automobile exception; suppression of the marijuana was therefore improper.


State v. Smalley, 233 Or. App. 263, 225 P.3d 844 (2010)