Mark David Zimmerman v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 20, 2018
Docket05-17-00492-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Mark David Zimmerman v. State (Mark David Zimmerman 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
Mark David Zimmerman v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

Affirmed as modified; Opinion Filed August 20, 2018.

In The Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-17-00492-CR

MARK DAVID ZIMMERMAN, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 397th Judicial District Court Grayson County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 067724

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Lang, Myers, and Stoddart Opinion by Justice Myers A jury convicted Mark David Zimmerman of four drug-related offenses: (1) possession

with intent to deliver more than 400 grams of gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB); (2) possession

of four ounces or more but less than five pounds of marijuana; (3) possession of less than one gram

of methamphetamine; and (4) possession of less than one gram of tetrahydrocannabinol. The State

alleged drug-free zone and habitual offender enhancements. The jury found the enhancement

allegations to be true and assessed punishment at ninety-nine years’ imprisonment and a $100,000

fine for possessing more than 400 grams of GHB; for the other three counts, the jury assessed

punishment for each offense at fifteen years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Appellant brings

two issues, contending the trial court erred in denying appellant’s pretrial motion to suppress and

that the trial court lacked the authority to order $180 in restitution for lab fees. The State responds that the trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress, but that the restitution order was

an abuse of discretion and should be set aside. As modified, we affirm.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Officer Cory Goodman was the K-9 officer for the Whitesboro Police Department and was

patrolling with his K-9 partner, Ninja. Goodman was a seven-year police department veteran who

was certified as a K-9 handler and had been trained in narcotics interdiction. At around 10:24 p.m.

on the night of June 7, 2016, Goodman observed a silver Mercedes SUV with a defective license

plate light driving westbound on Highway 82 in Grayson County, Texas. Officer Goodman’s body

camera recorded the subsequent interaction he had with the driver of that vehicle, appellant.

About thirty seconds after initiating the stop, Goodman approached the driver’s side door

of the vehicle and asked appellant for his driver’s license and proof of insurance. Appellant

complied, producing a Colorado driver’s license as identification. Appellant asked why he had

been pulled over, and the officer said he had a “tag light out.” The officer asked appellant if he

knew that, and appellant said he did not. The officer then quickly added, “I’m not going to give

you a ticket for a tag light or anything, no, nothing like that.” He asked appellant, “So what brings

you down to Texas?” Appellant said he was “pretty much from Texas,” that he “grew up here,”

that his “brother is from here,” and that he was “cutting out of here” and “going on vacation.” The

officer asked appellant where he was going on vacation, and appellant said he going to visit some

family in Colorado, then going to Las Vegas. The officer asked, “So, uh, whereabouts are you

living now?” Appellant replied, “Right now I was just actually staying in Austin Ranch, over in

The Colony.” Goodman asked appellant if he was heading to Colorado now, and appellant said

he was. The officer inquired, “Have you ever been in trouble with the law or anything?” Appellant

replied, “Uh, not in quite some time.” The officer asked appellant “[w]hen was the last time,” and

appellant replied, “Eight, nine years ago.” Goodman asked if it was for “[a]nything serious,” to

–2– which appellant said, “Not too serious.”

The body camera video shows Officer Goodman walking back to his patrol car and asking

Whitesboro dispatch to check appellant’s driver’s license, criminal history, and search for

outstanding warrants. He also checked the vehicle registration information. During the hearing

on appellant’s pretrial motion to suppress, Goodman testified that appellant’s driver’s license was

clear and valid, as was the proof of insurance. The vehicle registration information was in good

order. There were no outstanding warrants for appellant. But the “[c]riminal history revealed

multiple possession, misdemeanor possession, and [a] manufacture/delivery of controlled

substance arrest.” Goodman added that appellant had two offenses that were in penalty group two.

See TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE ANN. §§ 481.103, 481.113. “[A]t that point,” Goodman

testified, he believed, based on his training in narcotics interdiction, that appellant was

“transporting narcotics” or was “in some type of illegal activity” because appellant’s “story [was]

not really adding up for a long-distance travel, and he avoided multiple questions as to his criminal

history, answering not serious criminal history, things along that nature.” Goodman also testified

that he saw only “a very small bag” on the floorboard inside appellant’s vehicle, which the officer

believed was “not typical for a long-distance trip[,] as he was talking about.”

Goodman testified that he did not detect the odor of marijuana or anything else of an illegal

nature, and appellant did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Nor did the

officer notice anything of an illegal nature in plain view. Appellant made good eye contact. When

asked if appellant appeared to be in any way nervous, Goodman testified that he was “[n]ot too

extremely nervous.”

After receiving criminal history information from dispatch that was inconsistent with

appellant’s statements, Officer Goodman returned to appellant’s vehicle, pausing to shine his

flashlight into the back of the SUV. Goodman testified that, for officer safety because of the traffic

–3– on the highway, he asked appellant to step out of the vehicle so that he talk with him further. As

appellant was about to get out of the vehicle, Goodman asked him if he had “no weapons or

anything on you, is there?” Appellant started reaching for something with his left hand, and

Goodman told him, “No reach, no reach. What you got? Knife?” Then appellant said, “No, I got

a paperweight.” Appellant removed brass knuckles from his left pocket and, at Goodman’s request,

handed them over to the officer. Goodman asked appellant to walk to the back of the vehicle, and

then asked him if he had any other weapons on him. Appellant said, “No.”

Goodman patted appellant down, after which the officer told appellant that he did drug

interdiction and that he noticed appellant had a couple of convictions for possession of marijuana,

and another for manufacture/delivery. He asked appellant if there was anything illegal inside of

the vehicle. Appellant said, apparently referring to his criminal history, that “[a]ll of that stuff was

from a long time ago.” Goodman asked, “There’s no more of that going on now?” Appellant said,

“No, sir,” and quickly added, “I’ve been very, very good.” Appellant told the officer he had his

own company and that if Goodman was interested in “VIP” asset protection, “That’s actually what

I do.” Appellant added that he hires exclusively officers and ex-military. Goodman continued to

question appellant, asking him, “Now, you live in The Colony?” Appellant said he was staying in

The Colony with an older woman; that he had lived there before; and that he had moved back to

Texas from Colorado.

Goodman and appellant had been standing behind the SUV while they talked, and the

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