State v. Bell

429 S.W.3d 524

STATE of Tennessee

v.David Dwayne BELL.

No. E2011–01241–SC–R11–CD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

Sept. 4, 2013 Session.

Feb. 20, 2014.

James Bruce Dunn, District Attorney General; and Greg Eshbaugh, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

Bryan E. Delius (at trial), and Bryce W. McKenzie, Sevierville, Tennessee (on appeal), for the appellee, David Dwayne Bell.

OPINION

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which GARY R. WADE, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, CORNELIA A. CLARK, and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined.

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J.

This appeal involves the weight that should be given to a motorist's performance on field sobriety tests in determining whether probable cause existed to arrest the motorist for driving under the influence of an intoxicant (“DUI”). A law enforcement officer stopped a motorist who was driving in the wrong direction on a divided highway in Sevier County. Another officer administered several field sobriety tests, and arrested the motorist for DUI because the motorist had been driving in the wrong direction on a divided highway, smelled of alcohol, and admitted that he had been drinking. When the grand jury returned a presentment charging the motorist with DUI and DUI per se, he filed a motion in the Circuit Court for Sevier County to suppress the evidence and to dismiss the charges. The trial court dismissed the charges on the ground that the officer lacked probable cause to arrest the motorist in light of his performance on the field sobriety tests. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. State v. Bell, No. E2011–01241–CCA–R3–CD, 2012 WL 3776695 (Tenn.Crim.App. Aug. 31, 2012). We granted the State's Tenn. R.App. P. 11 application for permission to appeal and now hold that the officer had probable cause to arrest the motorist for DUI without a warrant. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the trial court, reinstate the charges, and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.

I.

David Dwayne Bell ¹ stopped by The Gnome ² prior to a planned trip to the beach. When he left the pub in the early morning hours of May 13, 2009, Mr. Bell took a wrong turn onto U.S. Highway 441, a divided highway, and began driving south in the northbound lanes. Sevier County Deputy Sheriff Jayson Parton stopped Mr. Bell and radioed for assistance from the Sevierville Police Department because the stop occurred within the city limits of Sevierville.

When Officer Timothy Russell of the Sevierville Police Department arrived at the scene, Mr. Bell was already standing outside his automobile. Officer Russell noticed that Mr. Bell smelled of alcohol. When Officer Russell asked Mr. Bell how much alcohol he had consumed, Mr. Bell replied, “More than I should have, I know. I'm not fighting that.” ³ When asked to explain why he was driving on the wrong side of the road, Mr. Bell simply apologized and explained that he had realized his mistake as soon as he made it. Deputy Parton commented that he hoped Mr. Bell would have realized his mistake because cars had been passing him going in the opposite direction.

Officer Russell requested that Mr. Bell perform several field sobriety tests. Initially, Officer Russell administered three “pre-exit” or “non-standardized” tests. Mr. Bell first performed a four-finger count.⁴ Mr. Bell next performed an alphabet recitation in which he audibly recited the alphabet using mid-range starting and ending points, in this case beginning with the letter “G” and ending with the letter “S.” Lastly, Officer Russell asked Mr. Bell his birth year and what year he turned a certain age, in this case his sixth birthday. According to Officer Russell, Mr. Bell performed each of these tests satisfactorily and his mental functioning appeared to be “excellent” at that time.

In addition to these three “non-standardized tests,” Officer Russell required Mr. Bell to perform three “standardized” field sobriety tests. Officer Russell had been trained in administering and interpreting these tests. They included: (1) the horizontal gaze nystagmus (“HGN”) test; ⁵ (2) the one-leg stand test; and (3) the walk-and-turn test.⁶ The State did not offer the results of the HGN test at the suppression hearing, and it is not at issue on this appeal.

The one-leg stand test required Mr. Bell to raise one foot off the ground and to maintain his balance for a set time period. According to Officer Russell, putting the raised foot back on the ground before a count of ten is an indication of intoxication. Mr. Bell was able to maintain his balance on one foot until a count of twenty-three when Officer Russell advised him that he could stop.⁷

The walk-and-turn test required Mr. Bell to take nine steps, heel to toe, along a straight line and then turn and return to the starting point in the same fashion. Mr. Bell took the proper number of steps each way in a straight line without staggering or losing his balance. However, Officer Russell faulted Mr. Bell's performance of the test because: (1) he stepped away from the starting position prematurely despite being instructed not to do so; (2) he did not execute the turn in the demonstrated manner; and (3) on several of his steps, Mr. Bell did not place his heel to his toe.

After administering the field sobriety tests to Mr. Bell, Officer Russell asked him “how bad” Mr. Bell's female passenger was. Mr. Bell initially responded, “Oh, she's better than I,” but he broke off this response and said, “We're not that bad, okay.” Based on the circumstances he had observed at the scene, Officer Russell was unpersuaded. He decided that Mr. Bell was under the influence of alcohol and that it was unsafe for him to continue to drive that night. Accordingly, Officer Russell placed Mr. Bell under arrest for DUI.

On January 2, 2010, a Sevier County grand jury charged Mr. Bell with DUI ⁸and DUI per se.⁹ On June 23, 2010, Mr. Bell filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained following his arrest on May 13, 2009. ¹⁰ Mr. Bell contended that he had passed all the field sobriety tests, and as a result, his warrantless arrest was not supported by probable cause.

Officer Russell was the only witness at the suppression hearing conducted on April 19, 2011. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court decided that Officer Russell lacked probable cause to arrest Mr. Bell and dismissed both charges against him.¹¹ More specifically, the trial court stated, “Well, as I say, I'm just afraid that as to the probable cause—and granted, going down the wrong way, I ... agree, but I honestly think he did pretty doggone good on the field sobriety tests, better than most I've seen.” On May 18, 2011, the trial court entered a judgment dismissing both charges against Mr. Bell.

The State appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. On August 31, 2012, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision. The intermediate appellate court noted, based on the circumstances leading up to the field sobriety tests, that “any reasonably prudent officer would have been justified in suspecting the defendant of DUI and in investigating further.” State v. Bell, 2012 WL 3776695, at *4. However, the court also interpreted “the slightly more colorful comments made by the trial court in its ruling from the bench on the defendant's suppression motion as a finding, as a factual matter, that the defendant passed all of the field sobriety tests that he was given.” State v. Bell, 2012 WL 3776695, at *4. Based on this conclusion, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that “once Officer Russell had witnessed the defendant's uninterrupted success on a battery of field sobriety tests, there was not probable cause to arrest the defendant for DUI given the totality of the circumstances and all of the information available to the officer.” State v. Bell, 2012 WL 3776695, at *4. We granted the State's application for permission to appeal.

II.

This appeal comes to us by way of a suppression hearing. The appropriate standard for reviewing a trial court's decision at a suppression hearing is familiar. Reviewing courts must uphold a trial court's findings of fact in a suppression hearing unless the evidence preponderates otherwise. State v. Climer, 400 S.W.3d 537, 556 (Tenn.2013); State v. Day, 263 S.W.3d 891, 900 (Tenn.2008) (citing State v. Williams, 185 S.W.3d 311, 314 (Tenn.2006)). The credibility of the witnesses, the weight and value of the evidence, and the resolution of conflicts in the evidence are matters entrusted to the trial court as the trier of fact. State v. Echols, 382 S.W.3d 266, 277 (Tenn.2012) (citing State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18, 23 (Tenn.1996)); State v. Garcia, 123 S.W.3d 335, 342 (Tenn.2003); State v. Yeargan, 958 S.W.2d 626, 628 (Tenn.1997).

On appeal, the prevailing party in the trial court is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence adduced at the suppression hearing as well as all reasonable and legitimate inferences that may be drawn from that evidence. State v. Echols, 382 S.W.3d at 277;State v. Day, 263 S.W.3d at 900;State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d at 23. However, while deference is due the trial court with respect to findings of fact, the application of the law to the facts is a question of law that appellate courts review de novo with no presumption of correctness. State v. Moats, 403 S.W.3d 170, 177 (Tenn.2013); State v. Echols, 382 S.W.3d at 277 (citing State v. Walton, 41 S.W.3d 75, 81 (Tenn.2001)).

The particular question posed during the suppression hearing was whether Officer Russell had probable cause to arrest Mr. Bell for DUI without a warrant. The determination of probable cause is a mixed question of law and fact that we review de novo. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 696–98, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996); see also State v. Davis, 354 S.W.3d 718, 726 (Tenn.2011) (stating that whether reasonable suspicion existed to validate a...