Martinez v. State

500 S.W.3d 456, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7952, 2016 WL 4040118
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 27, 2016·No. NO. 09-14-00377-CR·Published·Cited by 21 cases

Opinion

OPINION

HOLLIS HORTON, Justice

Arguing that he did not violate a traffic law that prohibits a person from displaying an obscured license plate, Armin Martinez seeks to overturn the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress, a motion asking the trial court to suppress evidence that police found a large sum of money when they searched Martinez’s car. See Tex. Penal Code Ann.' § 34.02(a) (West Supp. 2015) (defining the elements of the offense of money laundering); Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 504.945 (West Supp. 2015)1 (creat[461] ing an offense for the display of wrong, fictitious,- altered, or obscured license plates). In one issue, supported by four separate arguments, Martinez contends the evidence should have been suppressed because (1) the trial- court erred in finding that the stop was justified; (2) the police did not have reasonable suspicion to justify Martinez’s continued detention while completing their investigation into whether he was driving a car with an obscured plate; (3) he did not voluntarily consent to the request that police made of him asking to search his car; and (4) section 504.945 of the Texas Transportation Code, the statute that regulates obscured plates, is unconstitutionally vague on its face and as it was applied under the facts of this case.

In response to these arguments, the State contends the trial court’s ruling denying Martinez’s motion to suppress should be upheld. According to the State, the evidence supports the trial court’s findings and its conclusion to deny Martinez’s motion. With respect to Martinez’s arguments, the State argues (1) that the police developed reasonable suspicion the plate was obscured, justifying the stop of Martinez’s car; (2) that the evidence showed Martinez voluntarily consented to the search; (3) that Martinez was not detained for an undue period of time; and, (4) that section 504.945 of the Texas Transportation Code is constitutional on its face and as applied to Martinez in this case. After reviewing the parties’ arguments, we conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying Martinez’s motion. We further conclude that section 504.945 is not void for vagueness or as applied to Martinez under the circumstances of this case.

Background

During the hearing the trial court conducted on Martinez’s motion to suppress, the officer who stopped Martinez described in detail the events that resulted in Martinez’s car2 being searched. According to the officer, who is employed by the Liberty County Sheriffs Department, he stopped Martinez’s ear to investigate his suspicion that the car had an obscured rear license plate. See Tex, Transp. Code Ann. § 504.945 (pertaining to offenses involving wrong, fictitious, altered, or obscured license plates). After stopping the car, the officer checked Martinez’s out-of-state plate through a database available to police officers, and he learned that eight days before, another Liberty County deputy had stopped the same car in Liberty County. The officer explained that he could not tell from the information he received on the car’s history whether Martinez had been driving the car when it was previously stopped.

After stopping Martinez, the officer approached Martinez’s car. Martinez told the officer that he lived in Chicago, and that he was traveling to the Houston area to visit his children. In the hearing, the officer related that when he initially encountered Martinez after the stop, he thought that Martinez seemed nervous. During the stop, Martinez told the officer that he had [462] been stopped earlier that day in Arkansas due to a problem with the car’s taillight, and that the car had been searched. Additionally, Martinez told the officer that he had not been given a citation or a warning in Arkansas. According to the officer, Martinez also stated that he had been in Houston one month earlier.

During the hearing, the officer described that he had significant prior experience in enforcing drug laws. The testimony from the hearing indicates that prior to the day the officer stopped Martinez, the officer had been involved in hundreds of cases involving individuals who were involved in trafficking narcotics or money. The officer explained that he thought Martinez’s account about going to Houston to visit his children was inconsistent with the information that the car Martinez was driving had previously been stopped in Liberty County just eight days earlier. To investigate his suspicions about Martinez and the use of the car, the officer indicated that he used the information from Martinez’s license to run a background check on Martinez through the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), an agency used by law enforcement officers to determine if active cases exist with other law enforcement agencies on individuals being investigated for crimes. According to the officer, an individual with EPIC told him that EPIC’s information indicated that Martinez had an active case in Chicago, which was being handled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). On learning that Martinez had an active case with the DEA, the officer indicated that he suspected Martinez might be using the car to transport narcotics or money.

To resolve his suspicion that Martinez might be using the car for an illegal purpose, the officer telephoned the contact given to him by EPIC, who the officer understood was handling Martinez’s case with the DEA. According to the officer, after contacting the DEA agent, the DEA agent told him that Martinez was associated with an organization known to use cars like the one Martinez was driving to transport contraband. The DEA agent also told the officer that the DEA believed that Martinez’s organization had sent someone “down” to pick up a large amount of cocaine, and that Martinez might be that person.

After speaking -with the DEA agent, the officer, indicated that he approached Martinez again and asked' Martinez if he would allow the car to be searched. A video recording of the stop, admitted into evidence during the hearing, shows that Martinez did not hesitate when he consented to the requested search. In the search that followed, police found bundles concealed beneath the front fenders of the car. After finding the hidden bundles, Martinez was arrested and taken to the police station. At the station, the police determined that the bundles contained more than $238,000 in bills.

Subsequently, Martinez was charged with money laundering. Before trial, Martinez filed a motion to suppress all the evidence found by police in the search of his car. In his motion, Martinez argued that he had been stopped and arrested without reasonable suspicion. He also argued that section 504.945 of the Transportation Code, the section creating a traffic offense for displaying obscured plates, was unconstitutionally vague.

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Martinez v. State, 500 S.W.3d 456, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7952, 2016 WL 4040118 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

500 S.W.3d 456 (Martinez v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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