Leday v. State

3 S.W.3d 667, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 8126, 1999 WL 980336
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 27, 1999·No. No. 09-95-361 CR·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

OPINION ON RECONSIDERATION

BURGESS, Justice.

Pursuant to Tex.R.App. P. 50, we withdraw our opinion on remand of August 25, 1999, and substitute the following in its place.

Appellant was convicted of Aggravated Possession of a Controlled Substance. On direct appeal, we affirmed the conviction. See Leday v. State, No. 09-95-361-CR

(Tex.App.—Beaumont, June 25, 1997) (not designated for publication), 1997 WL 354770. Appellant petitioned for review. In reversing our judgment affirming the conviction, the Court of Criminal Appeals abrogated approximately thirty years of precedent in ultimately holding that a defendant who testifies at the punishment stage of a trial and admits his guilt does not waive appellate review of any error alleged to have occurred during the guilt/innocence stage of the trial. See Leday v. State, 983 S.W.2d 713, 721-26 (Tex.Crim.App.1998). This former rule had become known as “the DeGarmo doctrine” “[bjecause of the infamy of the case.” Id, at 723, n. 14. The Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the case to us for substantive consideration of appellant’s complaints regarding the admissibility of the contraband used to prosecute him.

The two issues appellant presents to us on remand contend the trial court erred in overruling Leday’s motion to suppress because (1) the cocaine seized from Leday and his companion, Ms. Lynch, was “the product of an unreasonable warrantless detention without reasonable suspicion in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments,” and (2) the cocaine seized from Leday was “the product of an unreasonable warrantless arrest and search of Leday without probable cause in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.” The basis for suppressing the contraband as set out in Le-day’s written motion to suppress provides, “The search and seizure were made without probable cause and without warrant. That the arrest was illegal and without warrant.” The deference an appellate court should afford a trial court in reviewing a search and seizure ruling is often “determined by which judicial actor is in a better position to decide the issue.” Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 87 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). If the issue involves the credibility of a witness, thereby making the evaluation of that witness’s demeanor important, “compelling reasons exist for allowing the trial court to apply the law to [670] the facts.” Id. Appellate courts should afford almost total deference to a trial court’s determination of historical facts that the record supports, especially when based on the trial court’s evaluation of credibility and demeanor. See id. at 89. An appellate court “should afford the same amount of deference to trial courts’ rulings on ‘application of law to fact questions,’ also known as ‘mixed questions of law and fact,’ if the resolution of those ultimate questions turns on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor.” Id. However, “appellate courts may review de novo ‘mixed questions of law and fact’ not falling within this category.” Id. In the instant case, the admissibility of the contraband involved mixed questions of law and fact that did turn, to some extent, on the credibility of Officer Lawson. We therefore afford the trial court deference in its ultimate determination of the historical facts, and decide de novo whether the continued detention of Lynch and Leday was reasonable.

The Court of Criminal Appeals set out the facts surrounding the discovery of the contraband as follows:

The appellant was the passenger in a vehicle which a deputy constable stopped for speeding. The officer’s dog, which was trained to detect narcotics, began barking in the officer’s car. The driver asked if the dog would bite someone who had cocaine on their person. The officer said no. The driver asked the officer to take a bag out of her coat pocket in such a way that the appellant could see that she was not giving it willfully. The bag contained about 124 grams of “crack” cocaine. The driver and the appellant were arrested and taken to the constable’s office. After talking to the driver, the officer searched the appellant’s shoes and found about 28 more grams of “crack” cocaine.

Leday v. State, 983 S.W.2d at 714.

Appellant does not contend that the initial traffic stop was improper. We will supply any further details as needed as we discuss the issues presented.

The scope of a permissible temporary detention was succinctly set out in Davis v. State, 947 S.W.2d 240, 242-45 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). In Davis, the Court reiterated the well-recognized rule that an investigative detention must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop, and 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. Id. at 244-45. In the instant case, the only evidence before the trial court when it ruled on Leday’s suppression motion was the testimony of the arresting officer, Craig Lawson. Lawson’s testimony indicates that he observed the vehicle in which Leday was a passenger speeding at about 1:40 a.m. on November 24, 1993. He stopped the vehicle at that time. The vehicle displayed Georgia licence plates. During his conversation with the driver, Ms. Lynch, Lawson noticed that she was “overly nervous” and at one point blurted out something to the effect of, “Don’t take us to jail.... We’re not criminals.” After getting driver’s li-cence and insurance information from Ms. Lynch, Lawson then spoke to Leday. Lawson noted that Leday’s responses to questions about the couple’s itinerary “did not match” the responses from Lynch.1 Lawson then requested, and was granted, written consent to search the vehicle from Lynch. The time of the consent was listed at “1:50” a.m. The elapsed time between the time of the traffic stop and the time Ms. Lynch agreed to the search of her vehicle was only ten minutes.

As noted in Davis, in a traffic stop situation, an officer may demand identification, a valid driver’s license, and proof [671] of insurance from the driver. Davis, 947 S.W.2d at 245, n. 6. From the record before us, as Lawson was in the course of conducting these routine matters incident to the traffic stop, his suspicions were raised by Lynch’s excessive nervousness, her request to Lawson not to take she and Leday to jail, and the inconsistent responses. The continued detention of Lynch and Leday was certainly reasonable up to the point of Lawson’s request for consent to search the vehicle, as well as reasonable up to the point when Lynch asked Lawson to retrieve the contraband from her coat. Therefore, for Fourth Amendment purposes, the continued detention of Lynch and Leday was reasonable up to the point that Lynch voluntarily and unexpectedly asked Lawson to retrieve the contraband from her person. Issue one is overruled.

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Leday v. State, 3 S.W.3d 667, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 8126, 1999 WL 980336 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

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