James Sentrell Chism v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 16, 2009·No. 06-09-00045-CR·Published

Opinion



In The

Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana



______________________________



No. 06-09-00045-CR

______________________________



JAMES SENTRELL CHISM, Appellant



V.



THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee





On Appeal from the 115th Judicial District Court

Upshur County, Texas

Trial Court No. 14,970





Before Morriss, C.J., Carter and Moseley, JJ.

Opinion by Justice Carter



O P I N I O N



After unsuccessfully moving to suppress the physical evidence against him, James Sentrell Chism pled guilty to possession of a controlled substance, less than one gram of cocaine, and was sentenced to two years' confinement in a state jail facility. See Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 481.115 (Vernon 2003). Chism contends the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress.

The hearing on the motion to suppress revealed that former Gilmer Police Officer James Griswold responded to a report of a man panhandling (1) at a local convenience store. After finding a man who met the description provided, talking to him, patting him down, asking questions, and seeing a prescription pill bottle in his pants pocket despite his efforts to conceal it, Griswold ultimately seized the pill bottle, which contained a small plastic bag containing white residue later discovered to be cocaine. Chism challenges various stages of his interaction with Griswold and maintains the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress the physical evidence obtained during that interaction. We agree with Chism and outline the events in question in more detail below.

I. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress under a bifurcated standard. See Wiede v. State, 214 S.W.3d 17, 25 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). We review de novo the legal determinations of detention, reasonable suspicion, and probable cause under the Fourth Amendment while granting great deference to a trial court's factual findings. State v. Sheppard, 271 S.W.3d 281, 286-87 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). The trial court's evidentiary ruling "will be upheld on appeal if it is correct on any theory of law that finds support in the record." Gonzalez v. State, 195 S.W.3d 114, 126 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006).

"Beginning with the officer's initial intrusion, we evaluate the reasonableness of each incremental level of intrusion, based on the information possessed by the officer at that time." Citizen v. State, 39 S.W.3d 367, 370 (Tex. App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, no pet.). Here, we will examine the initial detention, the pat down, the viewing of the pill bottle, and the seizure of the pill bottle.

II. THE INVESTIGATIVE DETENTION

At about 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, a call came in to the Gilmer Police Department for service to the Top Stop convenience store concerning a black man panhandling. The store clerk reporting the incident described the suspect as a black male wearing blue jeans, a white tank top, and a black baseball cap and having left the scene on foot traveling north on Highway 271. (2)

Griswold went to the area to look for the individual. He shortly found Chism, walking along Highway 271, and made contact with Chism at that time. Griswold stepped out of his vehicle and "asked [Chism] to step over to [his] vehicle." Griswold testified that Chism "complied" with his "instructions." Griswold advised Chism that he was investigating a report of panhandling.

In response to the State's questioning, Griswold testified that when he stopped to talk to Chism, he had reasonable good faith to believe that the individual was the individual who had been reported as panhandling. Griswold would later concede the city ordinance prohibiting panhandling only applied to such activity between the hours of sunset and sunrise, a limitation of which Griswold was unaware at the time of his encounter with Chism. Though Chism had not committed a technical violation of the city ordinance prohibiting panhandling, Griswold maintained that he had a good-faith reasonable belief that a crime had occurred.

A. When and for What Purpose May an Officer Perform an Investigatory Detention



When an officer has a reasonable suspicion based on articulable facts that criminal activity is afoot and a certain person is connected with the activity, the officer may make an investigative stop of that person even though grounds for arrest do not exist. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20-29 (1968); Sheppard, 271 S.W.3d at 287. The articulable facts "must create some reasonable suspicion that some activity out of the ordinary is occurring or has occurred, some suggestion to connect the detainee with the unusual activity, and some indication the unusual activity is related to crime." Garza v. State, 771 S.W.2d 549, 558 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989).

These facts must amount to more than a mere inarticulable hunch or suspicion. Williams v. State, 621 S.W.2d 609, 612 (Tex. Crim. App. 1981). "The behavior of the suspect need not suggest the commission of a particular offense; any sufficiently suspicious criminal activity may justify a stop." Hill v. State, 951 S.W.2d 244, 247 (Tex. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1997, no pet.); see Jenkins v. State, No. 06-08-00158-CR, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 304, at *4-5 (Tex. App.--Texarkana Jan. 16, 2009, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication). Any investigative detention that is not based on reasonable suspicion is unreasonable and violates the Fourth Amendment. Davis v. State, 947 S.W.2d 240, 242 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997).

B. Reviewing the Validity of an Investigative Detention

The burden is on the State to elicit testimony showing sufficient facts to create a reasonable suspicion. Garcia v. State, 43 S.W.3d 527, 530 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001). Whether reasonable suspicion exists is determined by considering the facts known to the officer at the moment of detention. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 243. A determination of reasonable suspicion must be based on common-sense judgments and inferences about human behavior. See Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119

James Sentrell Chism v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

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