Flores v. State

967 S.W.2d 481, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2113, 1998 WL 161928
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 9, 1998
DocketNo. 14-96-00838-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 967 S.W.2d 481 (Flores v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Flores v. State, 967 S.W.2d 481, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2113, 1998 WL 161928 (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

MURPHY, Chief Justice.

Appellant, Joshua Flores (“Flores”), entered a plea of guilty before the trial court to the offense of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 31.07 (Vernon 1994). The trial court assessed punishment at two years in a state jail facility. Punishment was probated to three years community supervision and a five hundred dollar fine. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 42.12 (Vernon Supp.1998). Flores appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence. We affirm.

I. Background

While responding as backup assistance to a midnight dispatch for an assault at a bar, Officer Dee Coleman (“Coleman”) of the Bryan Police Department stopped a black Blazer driven by Flores. Coleman had first arrived at the bar’s street location, and, finding the first entrance to the bar’s parking lot was blocked by other emergency vehicles, proceeded to a second entrance to the lot. While entering the second entrance, she observed a black Blazer turning from the direction where the emergency vehicles were located and noticed the occupants of the Blazer were Hispanic juveniles. She recalled that department detectives believed suspects meeting this description were responsible for a recent rash of car burglaries in the town’s parking lots. Based on this information, and the fact the juveniles were present, at a late hour, in the parking lot of an establishment catering to adults, Coleman decided to stop the vehicle and investigate.

Noticing the Blazer approach the entrance where she was located, Coleman used the police vehicle to block the Blazer’s egress from the lot. After turning on her vehicle’s flashing lights to make the stop, she observed the Blazer’s reverse lights come on, but, believing this indicated the Blazer was preparing to stop, put her patrol car in park and exited the vehicle. Once she was outside the patrol car, Coleman realized the Blazer was actually beginning to back up, so she began walking toward the vehicle and telling the driver to stop. The Blazer stopped after Coleman had repeated her request several times.

After Coleman had exited her vehicle, she remembered an earlier conversation over the police radio concerning a disturbance involving a black Blazer and Flores. When she arrived alongside the Blazer, she recognized [483]*483the driver as Flores. Coleman identified the Blazer as the vehicle reported stolen in the earlier disturbance and arrested Flores.

In the trial court, where he was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, Flores filed a motion to suppress all of the evidence seized from him as a result of an alleged illegal detention, arrest, and subsequent illegal search and seizure. The trial court conducted a hearing comprised solely of Coleman’s testimony and denied Flores’s request.

II. Discussion

Flores argues in his sole point of error before this court that officer Coleman was without reasonable suspicion or probable cause to detain him. The State admits Coleman lacked probable cause, therefore we address only whether she had reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop of Flores.

We review determinations of probable cause and reasonable suspicion de novo. See Loesch v. State, 958 S.W.2d 830, 833 (Tex.Crim.App.1997); Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 87-88 (Tex.Crim.App.1997) (citing Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996)). We defer to trial court findings based on evaluations of credibility and demeanor of witnesses. See Guzman, 955 S.W.2d at 89. Because officer Coleman was the only witness testifying at the hearing on the motion, and the trial court ruled that she had reasonable suspicion for the search, the trial court obviously weighed these considerations in her favor. Nevertheless, our independent review is necessary “to maintain control of, and to clarify the legal principles” behind determinations of reasonable suspicion. See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. at 696-98, 116 S.Ct. at 1662.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids unreasonable searches and seizures, and Texas courts adhere to this requirement of reasonableness. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Davis v. State, 947 S.W.2d 240, 244 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). A necessary inquiry in determining reasonableness, and the ultimate issue in the present case, is whether the officer’s action was justified at its inception.1 See Terry, 392 U.S. at 19-20, 88 S.Ct. at 1878-79; Davis v. State, 947 S.W.2d at 242. “The police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant intrusion.” See id. (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1879-80). “[D]ue weight must be given, not to his inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch,’ but to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience.” See Terry, 392 U.S. at 27, 88 S.Ct. at 1883.

Flores cites several Texas cases holding reasonable suspicion lacking when the conduct raising suspicion was as consistent with innocent activity as with criminal activity. See, e.g., Johnson v. State, 658 S.W.2d 623, 626 (Tex.Crim.App.1983); Schwartz v. State, 635 S.W.2d 545, 547 (Tex.Crim.App. [Panel Op.] 1982). The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has recently disavowed the “consistent with innocent activity” construct in favor of a “totality of the circumstances” approach. See Woods v. State, 956 S.W.2d 33, 38 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). Thus, “the reasonableness of a temporary detention must be examined in terms of the totality of the circumstances and will be justified when the detaining officer has specific articulable facts, which taken together with rational inferences from those facts, lead him to conclude that the person detained actually is, has been, or soon will be engaged in criminal activity.” Id.

The State argues there were five articula-ble bases for Coleman’s stop of Flores: (1) she noticed the Blazer coming from the direction where the assault occurred; (2) she noticed the occupants of the vehicle met a general description of suspects in a recent rash of crimes; (3) she noted the occupants [484]*484were juveniles driving in the parking lot of an establishment open only to adults; (4) she remembered an earlier dispatch concerning the theft of a black Blazer that night; and (5) the driver of the Blazer attempted to flee when she began effecting the stop.

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967 S.W.2d 481, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2113, 1998 WL 161928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flores-v-state-texapp-1998.