Mcdonald v. State

947 A.2d 1073

Kevin McDONALD, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

No. 660, 2006.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: January 30, 2008.

Decided: May 2, 2008.

Court Below — Superior Court of the State of Delaware, in and for Kent County, Cr.A. No. 0508011169.

Upon appeal from the Superior Court.

REVERSED.

Kevin M. Howard, Esquire, Young, Malmberg & Howard, P.A., Dover, DE, for appellant.

John Williams, Esquire, Department of Justice, Dover, DE, for appellee.

Before STEELE, Chief Justice, HOLLAND, BERGER, JACOBS, Justices and NOBLE, Vice Chancellor,¹ constituting the Court en Banc.

HOLLAND, Justice, for the majority:

Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant-appellant, Kevin McDonald, was convicted of Trafficking Cocaine and Possession with Intent to Deliver a Schedule II Controlled Substance. In this appeal, McDonald challenges the Superior Court's denial of his motion to suppress the evidence that was seized following a traffic stop of the motor vehicle in which McDonald was a passenger. McDonald contends that the traffic stop violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 6 of the Delaware Constitution because the police did not have probable cause to stop the vehicle for a traffic violation.

We have concluded that McDonald's Fourth Amendment argument is meritorious.² Accordingly, his motion to suppress should have been granted, and the judgments of the Superior Court must be reversed. This matter will be remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

Facts

On August 12, 2005 at approximately 12:15 a.m., Corporal David S. Hake³ of the Delaware State Police entered the parking lot of the Canterbury Shore Stop in an unmarked patrol car. While there, he observed a lawfully parked Honda Accord with a driver and passenger seated inside. Corporal Hake also observed a third person standing by the vehicle. He did not notice any illegal activity involving the three individuals.⁴ As he drove by the Honda Accord, Corporal Hake ran the vehicle's registration number, but inadvertently transposed some of the digits. Because of that error, the system indicated that the vehicle was unregistered. In fact, the vehicle was at all relevant times properly registered with the State of Delaware.

Corporal Hake continued to observe the automobile and its passengers. As he was exiting the Canterbury Shore Stop private parking lot, the driver failed to use his turn signal to indicate he was turning right onto the public roadway. Believing that failure to use a turn signal constituted a traffic violation, Corporal Hake immediately activated his emergency equipment and stopped the vehicle. As a result of events that transpired after the stop, the driver and the passenger (McDonald) were transported back to the police station. The motor vehicle was towed.

Later that same day, Corporal Hake obtained a warrant for McDonald's arrest from the Justice of the Peace Court. The arrest warrant charged McDonald with nine criminal offenses. The arrest warrant was issued based upon Corporal Hake's sworn affidavit recounting the events that had occurred several hours earlier that day, as follows:

Your affiant CPL HAKE can truly state that: On Friday 08/12/05 at approximately 0015 hours, I was patrolling U.S. 13 north of Felton when I entered the Shore Stop parking lot at the intersection of U.S. 13 and Irish Hill Road (CR 31), I observed a Honda Accord parked at the front of the store and there was a subject on foot near the car. I passed the Accord and continued northbound thru the parking lot. After I passed the Accord, the Accord began to back up and it headed towards the exit at the intersection of Irish Hill Road. I parked in the Shore Stop parking lot and the Accord passed me and headed towards the exit. The operator failed to activate his turn signal and then the operator made a right turn onto Irish Hill Road. I activated my emergency equipment and stopped the Accord (DE REG. 438917) on Irish Hill Road between U.S. 13 and the intersection of Canterbury Road.

I approached the Accord and I contacted the operator. The operator identified himself as Juan Lucas (04/07/83). The front passenger identified himself as Mikell Young and he stated that his date of birth was 10/11/74. I recognized the front passenger as being Kevin McDonald because I had contacted him during the month of July 2005. I asked Def. McDonald how they knew each other and he advised that they were cousins. Def. Lucas informed me that they were cousins and that his passenger was in fact Mikell Young. Def. Lucas was unable to provide valid proof of insurance for the Accord. P.O. Willard responded to the traffic stop to assist. I conducted a Deljis inquiry which revealed that Kevin McDonald had an active capias. I had Def. McDonald exit the vehicle and I detained him without incident. I asked Def. McDonald if there was anything illegal in the car and he advised that there was not. Def. McDonald advised that it was his uncle Eric McDonald's vehicle and that I could search the car. Then, I had Def. Lucas exit the vehicle and I detained him without incident. I conducted a patdown on Def. Lucas and I located six fireworks in his pockets. Def. Lucas also had a hollowed blunt in his pocket, which is the type that is commonly used to smoke marijuana. I asked Def. Lucas if there was anything illegal in the car and he advised that there was not. Def. Lucas advised that I could search the car.

I conducted a search of the vehicle and I located the following evidence: approximately 0.1 grams of marijuana between the front seats, approximately 0.1 grams of loose cocaine on the driver's seat and on the front passenger seat, and a cigar that is typically used to smoke marijuana. I conducted field tests on the suspected marijuana and the suspected cocaine and the substances field tested positive.

After the vehicle was removed by Chambers towing, I transported Def. Lucas to Troop 3. P.O. Willard transported Def. McDonald to Troop 3.

At Troop 3, I conducted a strip search on Def. McDonald. During the search, I located a plastic baggie pinned to def. McDonald's boxer shorts with a safety pin. The baggie contained a plastic baggie of crack cocaine which weighed approximately 14.8 grams and it contained a baggie of marijuana which weighed approximately 2.5 grams. A search of Def. McDonald's socks revealed approximately 2.9 grams of marijuana and $350.00 is U.S. Currency.

Based upon my training and experience, the amount of crack cocaine which was located on Def. McDonald's person is consistent with the sale of crack cocaine. Based upon my training and experience, the amount of marijuana and the way in which it was packaged is consistent with the sale of marijuana. The $350.00 in U.S. Currency in Def. McDonald's sock along with the marijuana is also an indicator of the sale of illegal drugs.

Def. Lucas continued to claim that his passenger's name was Mikell Young.

Motion to Suppress

Before his trial, McDonald moved to suppress the evidence seized during the traffic stop and subsequent search incident to his arrest. McDonald argued that the stop violated his Fourth Amendment guarantee to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures."⁵ McDonald contended that the police did not have probable cause to stop the Honda Accord in which McDonald was a passenger. Specifically, McDonald urged, the alleged turn signal violation for which the Honda was pulled over could not have formed the requisite probable cause to stop the vehicle because Delaware's Motor Vehicle Code does not require a driver to signal when entering a public highway from private property. Thus, McDonald argued, if no traffic violation was committed, there was no legal justification for the stop and all evidence resulting there from should be suppressed.

In denying McDonald's motion, the Superior Court stated: "I think that leaving [the parking lot] without a turn signal in and of itself would seem to present, at best, only a very questionable suspicion, but it's not in and of itself." After concluding that the alleged turn signal violation alone was "a very questionable suspicion" to stop the motor vehicle, the Superior Court used a "totality of the circumstances" analysis. The Superior Court concluded that the combination of the two people in the vehicle with a third standing nearby at a store in an area known for criminal activity, together with the registration issue and the vehicle's "unprovoked flight" from the Shore Stop parking lot, provided a reasonable articulable basis to stop the vehicle. The Superior Court's decision did not identify what criminal activity was reasonably suspected from those facts. The decision also did not indicate what facts formed the basis for the conclusion that Juan Lucas executed an "unprovoked flight" from the lot. Nor did the Superior Court's ruling explain why those facts were relevant, since Corporal Hake did not stop the motor vehicle for any of those reasons.

Fourth Amendment and Traffic Violations

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." The United States Supreme Court has held that temporary detentions of persons during a motor vehicle stop by police constitutes a "seizure" of "persons" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.⁶ Accordingly, the Supreme Court has also held that a traffic stop must satisfy the Fourth Amendment requirement that it not be "unreasonable" under the circumstances.⁷ "As a general matter, the decision to stop an automobile is reasonable when the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation has occurred."⁸

The United States Supreme Court has summarized its Fourth Amendment cases as "foreclose[ing] any argument that the constitutional reasonableness of the...