OPINION
{1} We hold in this case that officers, informed that the owner of a car observed under suspicious circumstances had a suspended driver’s license, have reasonable suspicion to initiate a traffic stop. Subsequent events during the stop permitted an expansion of the scope of the stop without creating a constitutional problem. We therefore affirm the denial of Defendant’s motion to suppress.
BACKGROUND
{2} Both arresting officers testified at the suppression hearing and, despite minor conflicts in their testimony, the facts on which the district court relied are undisputed. On the evening of November 2, 2005, Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez of the Albuquerque Police Department were patrolling in Albuquerque’s Westgate neighborhood. As the two passed the Westgate baseball fields, they noticed two vehicles in the parking lot: a Monte Carlo driven by Defendant Vincent Candelaria and a white pickup truck. Officer Gutierrez recognized the Monte Carlo from a previous investigation. Police pulled into the parking lot and, upon doing so, both vehicles sped away. Police chose to follow the Monte Carlo. They ran a search on the license plate that indicated the car was owned by Michael Martinez, and a subsequent search of Martinez’s driving record revealed that his driving privileges had been suspended. Concluding Martinez was the driver of the Monte Carlo, Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez pulled it over.
{3} Officer Sullivan approached on the driver’s side, and Officer Gutierrez approached on the passenger side. Upon seeing Defendant, Officer Sullivan became aware that he was not, in fact, the owner of the car. As Officer Sullivan testified, based on a “prior law enforcement-related setting ... I knew he was not ... Martinez.” Nevertheless, Officer Sullivan continued the detention and asked Defendant to produce his driver’s license, along with vehicle registration and proof of insurance. Defendant cooperated and, while doing so, stated he had been stopped earlier in the day by police while in possession of a firearm. Concerned for his safety, Officer Sullivan asked Defendant to step out of the car so he could conduct a pat-down for weapons, and Defendant complied. The search revealed that Defendant was unarmed.
{4} As these events took place, .Officer Gutierrez approached the vehicle on the passenger side and inspected the passenger compartment from the outside. On the back seat, Officer Gutierrez saw an empty handgun holster, a wallet full of cash, and a box of ammunition. Both windows of the vehicle were down, and Officer Gutierrez smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from inside. When Officer Sullivan completed his pat-down search of Defendant’s person, Officer Gutierrez asked Defendant “if he was smoking marijuana in the car.” Defendant replied that he had smoked marijuana six hours earlier in the day. The officers then asked Defendant’s permission to search the vehicle, and Defendant consented both verbally and in writing. After discovering illegal drugs hidden under the car’s center console, police arrested Defendant. They found no gun in the vehicle.
{5} A grand jury indicted Defendant on August 17, 2006, for drug trafficking and possession of drug paraphernalia, and Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence gathered during the stop. He argued the stop was improper because police could not have predicated their detention of him on their conclusion that Martinez was the driver of the car based solely on the fact that he was its owner. In the alternative, presuming the validity of the stop, Defendant contended police failed in their duty to terminate the stop the moment they ascertained that Martinez was not the driver.
{6} The district court convened a hearing on February 22, 2007, and after considering the testimony of Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez and the arguments of counsel, the court denied Defendant’s motion. Entering extensive written findings of fact and conclusions of law, the court concluded: (1) the initial stop was supported by the reasonable suspicion that Martinez, an unlicensed driver, was operating the vehicle; and (2) the officers’ subsequent interactions with Defendant met constitutional standards as they led up to Defendant’s voluntary consent to the police search.
{7} Defendant pleaded guilty to trafficking a controlled substance in violation of NMSA 1978, Section 30-31-20 (1990) (amended 2006), on the condition that he could reserve his right to appeal the motion to suppress. On appeal, he reasserts his arguments made before the district court. He argues, first, that the initial stop was unsupported by reasonable suspicion and, second, that his continued detention exceeded the scope of the officers’ suspicion once they became aware that no traffic violation had occurred. We discuss each.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
{8} Motions to suppress present mixed questions of law and fact. State v. Vandenberg,
DISCUSSION
{9} The constitutions of both the United States and New Mexico prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const, amend. IV; N.M. Const, art. II, § 10. This Court has held that “[a] traffic stop constitutes a seizure of the vehicle and its occupants.” State v. Rubio,
{10} In order to validly stop an automobile, police officers must possess, at a minimum, reasonable suspicion that a law has been violated. Such suspicion arises only when officers can detect “specific articulable facts ... that, when judged objectively, would lead a reasonable person to believe criminal activity occurred or was occurring.” Vandenberg,
A. The Initial Stop
{11} Defendant argues police possessed no reasonable suspicion to stop him. We disagree. At the time he was pulled over, police knew only that the Monte Carlo was registered to Martinez, whose license had been suspended. Thus, Defendant argues, to conclude based on such information that Martinez was the driver represents an unreasonable leap of logic and could not have given officers individualized, particularized suspicion to believe Defendant had broken the law. See State v. Jason L.,
{12} At least two jurisdictions have issued opinions supporting Defendant’s argument. See State v. Cerino,
{13} In contrast, an overwhelming majority of jurisdictions hold that police have reasonable suspicion to effect a stop when the registered owner’s license is suspended. See, e.g., Vill. of Lake in the Hills v. Lloyd,
{14} The North Carolina Court of Appeals most recently considered this question in Hess. There, the court surveyed a host of authorities and held, “because [the police] knew [the defendant was the owner ... and that [the defendant's license had been suspended, it was reasonable for [the police], in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to infer that [the defendant was driving the automobile.”
{15} Our holding should come as no surprise. Indeed, New Mexico’s civil law has long recognized a presumption that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the registered owner of a vehicle is that vehicle’s driver. Trujillo v. Chavez,
Because the evidence is undisputed that [the decedent] was the owner of the ear in which he was riding at the time of the accident, you must find that [the decedent] was the driver unless [his] estate has proved that it is more probable that he was not driving than that he was driving.
Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). A similar logic applies to reasonable suspicion in the traffic stop context. When police observe a vehicle registered to an owner whose license has been suspended, it is reasonable to conclude that the driver is the registrant — that is, until officers become aware of facts to contradict their assumption. The concept of reasonable suspicion has always embraced a certain degree of uncertainty. In the case before us, because Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez were aware of no facts to contradict their inference that Martinez was driving the car for which he was the registered owner, we follow the approach of the majority of jurisdictions and hold that police possessed reasonable suspicion to affect a traffic stop.
{16} In a closely-related argument, Defendant contends pursuant to Jason L. that police did not possess “particularized suspicion, based on all the circumstances that a particular individual, the one detained, is breaking, or has broken, the law.”
B. Scope of the Subsequent Investigation
{17} Defendant next argues that Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez should have sent him on his way the instant they discovered he was not the registered owner. He contends that “nothing in the court’s findings of fact ... indicated] that criminal activity was afoot.” We disagree. Several facts relied upon by the district court contradict Defendant. Furthermore, at each step of the investigation, the actions of Officers Sullivan and Gutierrez met constitutional muster.
{18} After conducting a valid traffic stop, police approached Defendant’s vehicle and asked for his driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. Such inquiries do not implicate a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights. As stated in State v. Reynolds, “individuals have no legitimate subjective expectation of privacy in their license, registration, or insurance documents when they are operating a motor vehicle and an officer requests to see such documents.”
{19} Had police not acquired additional reasonable suspicion during the exchange of documents, the encounter might have ended without a consensual search and Defendant’s subsequent arrest. Instead, while handing over his documents to Officer Sullivan, Defendant stated he had been stopped by police earlier in the day with a firearm. Officer Sullivan then asked Defendant to exit the vehicle and, with Defendant’s permission, conducted a pat-down for weapons. Defendant does not dispute that he consented to the pat-down. Officer Sullivan’s mere request for Defendant to exit the vehicle was not impermissible on these facts because, as we held in State v. Lowe, “an officer can require the driver and passengers to exit a vehicle out of a concern about weapons.”
{20} We must defer to the undisputed factual findings of the district court, which indicate that based on Defendant’s statement and the circumstances known to Officer Sullivan at the time, Officer Sullivan believed Defendant to be both armed and a threat to officer safety. Because Officer Sullivan’s testimony is undisputed, it is impossible for us to say that a reasonable officer under the same circumstances would have inevitably reached a different conclusion. Under such circumstances, Officer Sullivan’s pat-down, conducted with Defendant’s consent, was not per se improper. We hold only that Officer Sullivan legally ordered Defendant out of the vehicle and obtained his consent to conduct a pat-down. Our holding should not be read to give the officers carte blanche to conduct pat-downs whenever they conclude a gun is present within an automobile. That has never been the law in New Mexico. Simply possessing a firearm within a vehicle has always been a right guaranteed by our state’s constitution. N.M. Const, art. II, § 6; cf. State v. Gutierrez,
{21} Yet, even if we presume the impropriety of Officer Sullivan’s pat-down, the officers still had reasonable suspicion to continue the detention in this case on the basis of the marijuana odor detected by Officer Gutierrez. After smelling the odor, Officer Gutierrez asked Defendant “if he was smoking marijuana in the car,” and Defendant replied that “he had smoked about six ... hours earlier.” At that point, the officers asked Defendant’s permission to search the vehicle, and Defendant consented both verbally and in writing. Thus, similar to this Court’s holding in State v. Pacheco, we conclude, based on the odor of marijuana and Defendant’s admission of having recently smoked it, that the officers were justified in requesting Defendant’s consent to search the vehicle.
CONCLUSION
{22} Based on the foregoing analysis, we hold that both the initial stop as well as subsequent detention in this case were supported by reasonable suspicion. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s order denying Defendant’s motion to suppress.
{23} IT IS SO ORDERED.