Washington v. Duncan (Majority)
Annotate this CaseA little after midnight in Yakima one summer night in 2009, someone in a car shot into a home, grazing Kyle Mullins' head. Petitioner Chad Duncan was charged with six counts of first degree assault and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. Duncan moved to suppress the evidence and confessions that flowed from a traffic stop shortly after the incident on several grounds, including that the police had insufficient grounds to stop him and that their initial warrantless search of his car was improper. At the pretrial suppression hearing, held a year and a half after the events of that summer night, the judge found that the stop was justified and that the search was reasonable, and denied the motion. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges. This case presented two questions for review: (1) whether Duncan could challenge the legal financial obligations (LFOs) imposed by the trial court for the first time on appeal; and (2) whether the police properly searched his car for a gun after a drive-by shooting. The Supreme Court answered "yes" to both questions, affirmed Duncan's conviction, and remanded for resentencing with proper consideration of his ability to pay LFOs.
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