Blue Cadillac Case Study

On May 15, 1994, Officer Jim Thielen received a tip saying that there were several people sitting around in an apartment bagging a white powdery substance. The same tipster also informed the officer that those people in the apartment drove a blue Cadillac that had an Illinois license plate and that there was a possibility of a gun in the car. Officer Thielen began to investigate this tip. After approaching the apartment, Officer Thielen noticed a slight opening in the closed blinds that allowed him to peek inside the building. It was at this point in time that he saw three people in the apartment. There were two males, Wayne Carter and Melvin Johns, and one female, Kimberly Thompson. Officer Thielen noticed that the two males were placing the white powder into plastic bags while the lone female sealed that filled bags. …show more content…
Immediately after leaving the apartment complex’s parking lot, Carter and Johns were pulled over by the police. It was at that time that officers noticed a handgun in the floor of the blue Cadillac. Eventually, both Carter and Johns were arrested and after the searches of the vehicle and Thompson’s apartment, the police seized scales, pagers, and 47 grams of cocaine. This led to police obtaining a search warrant of the apartment which led to Thompson being arrested as well. Police later discover that Carter and Johns were from Chicago and the only reason they were at Thompson’s apartment was to bag their cocaine. The two men gave Thompson a portion of their cocaine in exchange to use her apartment and her help in bagging the