Legality of search is upheld

Judge: Deputy had grounds to arrest robbery suspect

A 48-year-old North Little Rock man, facing a mandatory life sentence if convicted of robbing a Pulaski County convenience store, failed to convince a Pulaski County circuit judge to throw out the evidence against him on Monday.

Derrick Lamont Dunbar, who has seven prior aggravated robbery convictions and a 1998 federal carjacking conviction, disputed that a February traffic stop on West Dixon Road by a sheriff’s deputy provided grounds to search him and his pickup and then charge him with aggravated robbery. Because Dunbar is a repeat violent offender, the charge requires a life sentence upon conviction.

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Lt. Joe Garza testified he responded to a holdup call at the Shell gas station on Dixon within a couple of minutes of the clerk calling for help. He told Circuit Judge Herb Wright on Monday that the maroon Chevrolet pickup matched the description of the getaway vehicle, and that he followed the truck onto Arch Street, where the driver stopped at a convenience store.

Garza said he pulled up behind the truck and saw that the driver, Dunbar, had on a blue jacket, like the one the robber was purported to be wearing, and he arrested the defendant after seeing a black mask on the truck’s passenger seat. Dunbar had a wad of cash in his jacket pocket and a bag with a gun was found on the truck’s floorboard next to where Dunbar had been sitting, Garza said.

Investigator Jeff Allison testified that the clerk reported that $194 had been stolen by the gunman. Allison said the cash in Dunbar’s jacket pocket was $193.

Defense attorney David Sudduth challenged the legality of the search, arguing that Garza had not shown proof that he had sufficient grounds to search Dunbar and his pickup, telling the judge Garza’s report of the arrest lacked sufficient detail to justify his client’s apprehension.

But Wright sided with deputy prosecutor Barbara Mariani, who told the judge Garza had plenty of reasons to suspect Dunbar because the deputy had come upon the suspicious truck so quickly. Seeing the mask gave him sufficient grounds for an arrest, the prosecutor said, describing Dunbar’s apprehension as “good police work.”

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/30/2013

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