United States v. Dent

984 F.2d 1453 (1993)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Dent and Tucker (D) were arrested after they were stopped by police for running a stop sign. The police officer saw a gun sticking out from under the front passenger seat while he was checking the vehicle identification number on D's car. A later inventory search of the car turned up two trench coats, a mask, and a nylon half-stoking. On appeal, D challenged the legality of the search, as well as the admission of certain grand jury testimony at trial. The testimony at issue was given by Elayyan, a used car salesman who sold D the car in which they were arrested. Elayyan identified D from a photo array but was out of the country at the time of trial. Additionally, Elayyan had given the government a false address.