Commonwealth v. Joseph Navarro

Where, in a criminal case involving charges of possession of burglar's tools, unlawful carrying of a firearm in a vehicle, and breaking and entering in the night time with intent to commit a felony, it appeared that a police officer, after being notified to be on the lookout for a described car from a certain area, noticed a parked, unlocked car like the one described near a cafe in which, a few hours before, there had been a breaking and entering and tampering with a safe, he was held to have been justified in entering the car in order to look at its inspection sticker and ascertain the area it had come from [217-221]; and the fact that in so doing he discovered a loaded handgun on the front seat, in conjunction with certain facts previously known to the police concerning the crime at the cafe, constituted probable cause for a warrantless search of the car thereupon made at a station house, and burglar's tools, another handgun, and a driver's license of the defendant found in the search, together with the handgun discovered on the front seat, on which were finger prints identified, as were others found in the cafe, as those of the defendant, were admissible at trial [222]. On the record of a criminal trial, there was no error in admitting in evidence generally clothing of an accomplice of the defendant. [222-223]