Herrera v. State

80 S.W.3d 283, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 5059, 2002 WL 1369135
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 17, 2002
Docket06-01-00178-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by67 cases

This text of 80 S.W.3d 283 (Herrera 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
Herrera v. State, 80 S.W.3d 283, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 5059, 2002 WL 1369135 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice ROSS.

Edward Fabio Herrera appeals his jury conviction and assessment of twenty years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.00 for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Herrera contends the trial court erred by abusing its discretion in denying his motion to suppress evidence.

We review the denial of a motion to suppress by giving almost total deference to a trial court’s determination of historical facts, and we review de novo the court’s application of the law. Carmouche v. State, 10 S.W.3d 323, 327 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). When the trial court does not make explicit findings of historical fact, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling. Id. at 327-28. In determining whether a trial court’s decision is supported by the record, we generally consider only evidence adduced at the suppression hearing, because the ruling was based on that evidence, rather than evidence introduced later at trial. Rachal v. State, 917 S.W.2d 799, 809 (Tex.Crim.App.1996).

Houston police officers stopped Herrera for a traffic violation. While Herrera was stopped, the officers obtained written permission from him to search his vehicle and his apartment. The police found cocaine in Herrera’s apartment. There is no dispute the traffic stop was a pretext for furthering a narcotics investigation. Officer Dale Crawford was in an unmarked car, and while maintaining surveillance on Herrera, notified Officers O.X. Pena and Fernando Villasana that Herrera was leaving a nightclub. Pena and Villasana requested Crawford stop Herrera for a traffic violation if possible, and if not, to follow him to the apartment. Crawford observed [287]*287Herrera commit a traffic violation (failure to maintain a single lane) and called Officer Bryan Garrison, who was in a marked patrol unit, to stop Herrera’s vehicle. Garrison testified he did not witness any traffic violations by Herrera, but stopped Herrera solely at Crawford’s request. On stopping Hen-era, Garrison ascertained that he did not speak the English language. Gai-rison therefore called for a Spanish-speaking officer to come to the scene, Herrera gave Garrison his valid Texas driver’s license. Garrison ran a background cheek on the license number, which returned with no outstanding warrants for Hen-era’s arrest. Garrison first testified he could not remember if the background check came back before the Spanish-speaking officers arrived, but then testified he had completed the check when the officers arrived. Garrison testified he could not have written Hen-era a citation because he did not witness the infraction. Crawford testified he arrived at the scene shortly after Garrison stopped Herrera, but he never gave Herrera a citation, and he had little interaction with Garrison. Crawford further testified that Garrison told him Herrera did not speak the English language, and that he, Crawford, then radioed Pena and Villasana, who said they were on their way.

Villasana testified that, on his arrival at the scene, he immediately introduced himself to Herrera as a narcotics officer and told him they were investigating narcotics, and that he wanted his (Herrera’s) consent to search his car and apartment. Villasa-na further testified he did not talk with Herrera about any other law enforcement problems; he only wanted to get the consent to search. The State produced no evidence at the hearing that the Spanish-speaking officers helped further the investigation of the initial stop in any way. The evidence conclusively proves the sole purpose for Villasana’s presence at the scene was to obtain written consent to search Herrera’s vehicle and apartment.

Herrera does not contest the validity of the traffic stop. Rather, he challenges the duration of the stop. He contends the duration of the stop exceeded the time required for the stop, and because the written consent was granted beyond the time necessary for the stop for the traffic violation, his due process rights were violated. The question is whether the written consent was granted during the detention for the traffic stop, or if it occurred outside this time.

A routine traffic stop is a detention and thus must be reasonable under the United States and Texas Constitutions. See Davis v. State, 947 S.W.2d 240, 244 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). Two factors determine the reasonableness of an investigative detention: 1) whether the officer’s action was justified at its inception; and 2) whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19-20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 242. To be reasonable, a traffic stop must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983); Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 245. However, once the reason for the stop has been satisfied, the stop may not be used as a fishing expedition for unrelated criminal activity. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 243; see. Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 41, 117 S.Ct. 417, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996) (Ginsburg, J., concurring). The investigative methods employed should be the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel the officer’s suspicion in a short period of time. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 245, citing Perez v. State, 818 S.W.2d 512, 517 (Tex.App.—[288]*288Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, no pet.). If the detention becomes prolonged, it can no longer be considered an investigative stop; but there is no rigid time limitation on the permissible length of an investigative stop. The propriety of the stop’s duration is judged by assessing whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to quickly dispel or confirm their suspicions. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 686, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985). Any continued detention must be based on articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, would warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that a continued detention was justified, i.e., the detainee was or would soon be engaged in criminal activity. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 244-45. In other words, once the purpose of the original detention has been effectuated, any continued detention must be supported by some additional reasonable suspicion, that is, something out of the ordinary is occurring and there is some indication the unusual circumstance is related to a crime. See Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 244-45. A detention which is not temporary and reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference is unreasonable and violates the Fourth Amendment. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 243.

In this case, Herrera was stopped for a traffic violation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
80 S.W.3d 283, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 5059, 2002 WL 1369135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herrera-v-state-texapp-2002.