By Roselyn Poommai
SACRAMENTO – It might not be the usual place you’d find hidden drugs, or even search for them, but Sacramento Sheriff Dept. Deputies Silver Paley and Ryan Thrall—after searching a suspect’s car inside and out—eventually located a plastic bag filled with methamphetamine in the “front flat fold” of the passenger’s stomach.
Albert Alejandrez was later—after other drugs and an illegal firearm and ammo were also found—arrested on drug and weapons charges and found himself in Sacramento County Superior Court last week for his preliminary hearing.
On January 2, Paley initiated a vehicle stop on a vehicle parked in the middle of a public roadway. Upon detecting a pervading marijuana smell from the car, he proceeded to search the car.
According to his statement, Deputy Paley “noticed substantial amounts of marijuana crumbs and debris located throughout the vehicle.” He then searched a backpack located on the left rear passenger seat and found processed marijuana and edibles, over 60 Xanax pills, and a loaded and concealed .22 caliber revolving firearm.
Deputy Thrall asked the front-seat passenger to step out of the vehicle after arriving at the scene. The passenger identified himself as Gilbert Miranda Gomez. However, Thrall discovered that the name did not exist in the records system.
“I asked him if he was lying about his name, and he said that he was lying about his name because he was on parole out of Fresno and was not supposed to be out of that area,” said Thrall. The defendant eventually identified himself as Albert Alejandrez and submitted to two body searches.
No weapons were located during the first pat-down search on Alejandrez.
However, during the second parole search, Thrall asked the defendant to “lift his stomach,” which was hanging over his waistline.
“I observed a plastic Ziploc baggie that I removed from his waistline and observed what I believed was methamphetamine based on my training and experience,” Thrall testified.
A small digital scale was also found, and the discovered crystalline substance later tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine, weighing 27.86 grams.
Unable to locate paraphernalia, the two deputies believed that Defendant Alejandrez was involved in the transportation and sale of methamphetamine.
Assistant Public Defender Joshua Kurtz objected to the presumptive substance test due to the absence of lab results.
“I’ve been in Sacramento since ’06. I don’t know if this is like a new trend, but I don’t know that I have done a prelim before where I haven’t had the labs given to me in advance,” Kurtz firmly stated.
Deputy District Attorney Alisson Wieder responded, “I believe this can be handled later after the direct examination. I don’t believe that the evidentiary issue warrants a response at this point.”
Judge Kara Ueda established that there was reason to add a felony count of possession of methamphetamine for sale in addition to Alejendrez’s three existing counts.
His trial date is set for June 7.
Roselyn is a second-year undergraduate double-majoring in Psychological Science and Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. A native of Los Angeles, California, she is passionate about the role of human behavior in the criminal justice system.
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