NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE
APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
DOCKET NO. A-5002-06T45002-06T4
A-6213-06T4
STATE OF NEW JERSEY,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
ALNESHA MINITEE,
Defendant-Appellant.
___________________________
STATE OF NEW JERSEY,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
DARNELL BLAND,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________________
Submitted January 12, 2010 - Decided
Before Judges Fuentes, Gilroy and Simonelli.
On appeal from Superior Court of New Jersey,
Law Division, Middlesex County, Indictment
Nos. 03-03-0159, 03-03-0160, 03-06-0834,
03-06-1241, and 03-07-2440.
Yvonne Smith Segars, Public Defender, attorney
for appellant Alnesha Minitee in A-5002-06
(Michael Confusione, Designated Counsel, on
the brief).
Yvonne Smith Segars, Public Defender, attorney
for appellant Darnell Bland in A-6213-06
(Stephen W. Kirsch, Assistant Deputy Public
Defender, of counsel and on the brief).
Bruce J. Kaplan, Middlesex County Prosecutor,
attorney for respondent in A-5002-06 (Joie Piderit,
Assistant Prosecutor, of counsel and on the brief).
Anne Milgram, Attorney General, attorney for
respondent in A-6213-06 (Steven A. Yomtov, Deputy
Attorney General, of counsel and on the brief).
The opinion of the court was delivered by
FUENTES, J.A.D.
In these back-to-back appeals, defendants Alnesha Minitee and Darnell Bland challenge the warrantless search of a motor vehicle that served as the alleged getaway car in a series of armed robberies of massage parlors. Defendants, Almustafa Baldwin and Liakesha Jones were charged with committing these robberies during a one-month crime spree that stretched across four counties. Bland pled guilty and makes no other challenges to his conviction. Minitee was tried before a jury and convicted of five counts of first degree armed robbery in Middlesex County. N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1. In addition to the warrantless search of the car, Minitee also raises other grounds for reversing her conviction and sentence.
Because the warrantless search of the motor vehicle was constitutionally impermissible, we now consolidate these appeals and reverse both defendants' convictions. As a threshold issue, we hold that under N.J. Const. Art. I,