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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 1-414 / 10-1035 Filed August 10, 2011 STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. PRESTON GEORGE BELL, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes (suppression hearing) and Mark D. Cleve (bench trial), Judges.

Preston Bell appeals the district court`s decision declining to suppress evidence police obtained when they searched a motel room he rented. AFFIRMED.

Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and David Arthur Adams, Assistant State Appellate Defender, and Cory McAnelly, Student Intern, for appellant. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Darrel Mullins, Assistant Attorney General, Michael J. Walton, County Attorney, and Kelly Cunningham, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

Considered by Eisenhauer, P.J., and Potterfield and Tabor, JJ.

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TABOR, J. In this appeal from a suppression ruling we must determine whether two occupants of a motel room--rented for them by the defendant--had common authority with the defendant to consent to a search of the room, or alternatively, whether police reasonably concluded the occupants had authority to consent when their belongings were in the room and they explained that the defendant signed for the room because they did not have cash or identification. Defendant Preston Bell was convicted and sentenced for possessing crack cocaine with the intent to deliver in violation of Iowa Code sections 124.401(1)(c)(3), 124.206(2)(d), and 703.1 (2009). Bell appeals the district

court`s decision declining to suppress evidence police found when they searched a motel room Bell had rented for Perry Westbrook and Westbrook`s fianc

Download STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. PRESTON GEORGE BELL, Defendant-Appellant.

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