Carlisle v. State

936 So. 2d 415, 2006 WL 1679570
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 20, 2006
Docket2004-KA-01764-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 936 So. 2d 415 (Carlisle v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carlisle v. State, 936 So. 2d 415, 2006 WL 1679570 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

936 So.2d 415 (2006)

Trevor Vashon CARLISLE, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2004-KA-01764-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 20, 2006.

*417 Leslie D. Roussell, Laurel, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by W. Daniel Hinchcliff, attorney for appellee.

Before MYERS, P.J., SOUTHWICK, IRVING and BARNES, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. A Wayne County jury convicted Trevor Carlisle of possession of over one ounce of marihuana with intent to sell, and the Wayne County Circuit Court sentenced him to ten years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine. The court also ordered that this sentence be served consecutively with a prior sentence. Aggrieved, Carlisle appeals and alleges the following errors, which list verbatim:

1. THE COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY FAILING TO SUPPRESS THE EVIDENCE INTRODUCED IN THIS CASE AS THERE WAS NO PROBABLE CAUSE TO STOP MR. CARLISLE'S VEHICLE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND HIS DETENTION AND THE SEARCH OF HIS VEHICLE AMOUNTED TO A VIOLATION OF HIS RIGHTS TO BE FREE OF UNREASONABLE SEARCH AND SEIZURE, THEREBY MAKING ALL OF THE EVIDENCE OBTAINED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THIS CASE INADMISSIBLE.
2. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY ALLOWING MICHAEL TOLBERT TO TESTIFY TO THE JURY CONCERNING EVIDENCE DISCOVERED BY OTHER OFFICERS. THIS ALLOWED THE INTRODUCTION OF EVIDENCE EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO PROPER CHAIN OF CUSTODY ESTABLISHED BY THE STATE AT TRIAL.
3. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY LETTING WITNESSES TESTIFY REGARDING PRIOR BAD ACTS OF THE DEFENDANT THEREBY PREJUDICING THE JURY AND VIOLATING HIS RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL.
4. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY FAILING TO SWEAR IN THE PETIT JURY THAT SAT AS FACT FINDERS IN THIS CASE.
5. THE TRIAL JUDGE'S MOVING VENIRE MEMBERS TO THE END OF THE JURY LIST VIOLATED THE UNITED STATES AND MISSISSIPPI CONSTITUTIONS AND MISSISSIPPI LAW.
*418 6. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ORDERING CARLISLE TO SERVE HIS TWO SENTENCES CONSECUTIVELY DUE TO A MISTAKEN BELIEF THAT EXISTING LAW REQUIRED SUCH A SENTENCE.
7. WHETHER THE ABOVE DESCRIBED ERRORS WHEN VIEWED CUMULATIVELY RISE TO THE LEVEL OF REVERSIBLE ERROR.

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. Officer Michael Tolbert, commander of the South Mississippi Narcotics Task Force, received a phone call from Deputy Kevin Stevens of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department indicating that Stevens had arrested Stephanie Brown for burglary and that she had some information concerning the sale of illegal drugs. In response, Tolbert interviewed Brown at the sheriff's department, and she informed him that she had been purchasing marihuana from a man she knew only as "Trouble." After receiving this information, Tolbert began conferring with other confidential informants and "people on the street" to determine the credibility of the information and to ascertain the identity of "Trouble." Based on his investigation, Tolbert uncovered that "Trouble" could possibly be Trevor Carlisle.

¶ 4. Shortly thereafter, Tolbert contacted Brown and requested that she call "Trouble" to arrange a sale for two ounces of marihuana. Brown placed a phone call to the man she knew as "Trouble" and requested that he meet her at an abandoned bridge in Wayne County. Brown then informed the officers that "Trouble" had agreed to meet her at the arranged location within ten to fifteen minutes and gave them a physical description of the vehicle that "Trouble" would be driving.

¶ 5. Tolbert had officers placed at various locations surrounding the area near the bridge to await "Trouble's" arrival.[1] Mike Mazingo, a Wayne County Sheriff's Department deputy, was hiding in the woods near the abandoned bridge when he notified Tolbert that he had spotted a vehicle matching the description of "Trouble's" car in the area. Tolbert contacted Stevens, who was stationed approximately one-eighth of a mile from the abandoned bridge, and requested that Stevens pull the car over. When Stevens stopped the vehicle, he recognized the driver as Trevor Carlisle. After the stop, other officers converged on the scene.

¶ 6. According to Tolbert's testimony, he arrived at the scene one minute after the car had been stopped by Stevens. Tolbert testified that when he arrived, Marvin Overstreet, an agent with the South Mississippi Narcotics Task Force, was already on the scene and had requested permission to search Carlisle's vehicle. Carlisle declined to allow the officers to search his vehicle. After learning that consent to search had been denied, Tolbert testified that he went to his house, retrieved his canine drug dog, and had the dog begin a search of the outside of Carlisle's vehicle. Tolbert further testified that the dog gave him "an alert at the driver side front and passenger door seam." Based on this alert, the officers began searching the vehicle. The search revealed 193.1 grams of marihuana concealed in various containers throughout the vehicle. As a result, Carlisle was arrested and charged with possession *419 of 193.1 grams of marihuana with intent to sell.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

1. Suppression of the Evidence

¶ 7. Alleging a lack of probable cause, Carlisle moved to suppress the marihuana taken from his vehicle. Carlisle argues that the lack of probable cause makes the stop and subsequent search of his vehicle a "violation of both the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution."

¶ 8. A suppression hearing was held in which the State put on evidence concerning the basis for the stop and search of Carlisle's vehicle. The State produced the testimony of various officers pertaining to the events and circumstances that led to the stop and search. After hearing the facts of the case, the trial court overruled Carlisle's motion to suppress, stating that:

The law is that these officers had probable cause and reasonable grounds to believe that a felony had been committed and that the defendant was probably guilty of that felony. They certainly had a right to stop the defendant and take him into custody. And if that's the case, they have a right to conduct a search of his person and his vehicle, as I understand the law.

¶ 9. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 3, Section 23 of the Mississippi Constitution expressly protect a person's right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. Floyd v. City of Crystal Springs, 749 So.2d 110, 114(¶ 14) (Miss.1999). "The prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures `applies to seizures of the person, including brief investigatory stops such as the stop of a vehicle.'" Id. (citing U.S. v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981)). "The [Mississippi Supreme Court] has recognized that `given reasonable circumstances an officer may stop and detain a person to resolve an ambiguous situation without having sufficient knowledge to justify an arrest,' that is, on less information than is constitutionally required for probable cause to arrest." Id. at (¶ 16) (citing Singletary v. State, 318 So.2d 873, 876 (Miss.1975)).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
936 So. 2d 415, 2006 WL 1679570, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlisle-v-state-missctapp-2006.