Jackson v. State

335 Ga.App. 630

782 S.E.2d 691

JACKSON

v.The STATE.

No. A15A1966.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Feb. 9, 2016.

Lawrence W. Daniel, for Appellant.

MS Emily Kathleen Richardson, for Appellee.

RAY, Judge.

Kerry Montel Jackson was charged with one count of trafficking in marijuana in violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. Following a bench trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years, with the first 12 to be served in confinement. Prior to trial, Jackson filed a motion to suppress, which was denied. Jackson now appeals the denial of his motion for new trial, arguing that the traffic stop which uncovered the marijuana was unduly prolonged and, as such, that the search was unlawful. Finding no error, we affirm.

"On appeal from a denial of a motion to suppress, this Court must construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the ruling of the trial court. The trial court's application of law to facts which are undisputed is subject to de novo review." (Footnote and punctuation omitted.) Matthews v. State, 330 Ga.App. 53, 53, 766 S.E.2d 515 (2014). "[W]hen a motion to suppress is heard by the trial judge, that judge sits as the trier of facts ... [T]he trial court's decision with regard to questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous." (Citation omitted.) Perez v. State, 249 Ga.App. 399, 399–400, 547 S.E.2d 699 (2001).

So viewed, the record shows that Jackson was stopped by Deputy Whitehead for a routine traffic stop the morning of October 4, 2012. Jackson's vehicle drifted across the fog line on an exit ramp from I–20, in violation of OCGA § 40–6–48. Due to the congested nature of the area, Deputy Whitehead followed Jackson without activating his lights while he waited for dispatch to run the vehicle's license plate. Deputy Whitehead activated his lights at 7:59 a. m. upon arriving in a location where the stop would be less disruptive to the local community.

After informing Jackson of the reason for the stop, Deputy Whitehead returned to his patrol car to run Jackson's license and criminal history. Deputy Whitehead made the decision to issue a warning after Jackson's license came back valid, and at 8:06 a. m., he returned to Jackson's vehicle to begin the process of writing out the warning, even though the criminal history had not yet returned.

During the traffic stop, Deputy Whitehead and Jackson engaged in a conversation. Jackson stated that he exited the highway to get gas, that he had half a tank of gas, and that he was on his way back to Alabama. When asked why he wasn't waiting until Alabama to get the gas since it would be cheaper in Alabama, Jackson indicated it was because he had a debit card. Also, he had already passed the only gas station at the exit when he was stopped and was making no effort to turn around. To explain why he was so far away from home, Jackson initially told Deputy Whitehead that he was in Georgia to attend a car auction, but that he had to go back to Alabama to pick up drivers for the cars. Eventually, his story changed to being in Georgia overnight because he had spent the night with "a girl" and was heading back to Alabama to get home to his "old lady." When asked about where the girl lived and where he had spent the night, Jackson was unable to provide any details.

Jackson's criminal history came back at 8:12 a. m., at which time the deputy had yet to finish writing the warning. Jackson's criminal history indicated that he was previously charged with drug trafficking.¹ Deputy Whitehead then asked Jackson whether he had ever been arrested, to which Jackson initially responded negatively. When pressed, Jackson admitted to having been arrested when he was "younger" for "drinking," but he denied any other arrests.

Officer Williams, a member of the City of Douglasville Police Department Canine Unit, was on his way to work when he saw Deputy Whitehead engaged in the traffic stop. As a courtesy in the event Deputy Whitehead needed assistance, Officer Williams pulled over and parked across the street from Deputy Whitehead. Officer Williams had with him his trained drug detection dog.

After Jackson lied about his criminal history, Deputy Whitehead asked Jackson for consent to search the vehicle Jackson denied consent. Thus, at Deputy Whitehead's request, Officer Williams began walking his drug dog around Jackson's vehicle, and it alerted to the presence of narcotics. Jackson's vehicle was subsequently searched and approximately 20.9 pounds of marijuana was found in the trunk of the vehicle.

In his sole enumeration of error,² Jackson maintains that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the traffic stop allegedly was unduly prolonged; he contends that the stop was completed when Deputy Whitehead informed him that his license had come back valid and that the Deputy was just going to issue a warning. Jackson cites for this proposition to the Supreme Court's recent decision in Rodriguez v. United States, ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 1609, 191 L.Ed.2d 492 (2015) ("a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution's shield against unreasonable seizures ... it becomes unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of issuing a ticket for the violation").

The trial court found that the search was constitutionally permissible for two reasons. First, it found that "Deputy Whitehead's questioning of [Jackson] prolonged the stop[,] but did not do so unreasonably." (emphasis omitted.) Additionally, it concluded that "[Jackson]'s answers to [Deputy Whitehead's] questions provided immediate reasonable suspicion to detain [Jackson] further." In essence, the trial court concluded that Jackson's inconsistent answers as to why he was in Georgia and where he had been, that he was searching for gas when he did not need any gas and given that gas was cheaper in Alabama where he was headed, as well as his lies about his criminal background, provided reasonable suspicion so as to elevate Jackson's detection to a second tier encounter.

Contrary to Jackson's assertion, the traffic stop's mission did not conclude at the time Deputy Whitehead informed Jackson...