McGowan v. State

792 S.W.2d 155, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 1132, 1990 WL 66791
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 16, 1990
Docket6-89-088-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 792 S.W.2d 155 (McGowan 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
McGowan v. State, 792 S.W.2d 155, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 1132, 1990 WL 66791 (Tex. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

GRANT, Justice.

Arthur Joe McGowan, Jr. appeals a conviction of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver an amount weighing more than twenty-eight grams and less than two hundred grams by aggregate weight, including adulterants and dilutants. McGowan was tried before the court without a jury on his plea of not guilty. Two prior convictions were alleged for enhancement purposes. McGowan was found guilty, and the trial court assessed his punishment at thirty-five years in the Texas Department of Corrections.

On appeal, McGowan contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress evidence obtained by an illegal search and seizure, in finding him guilty when the evidence was insufficient to sustain a finding that he knowingly possessed cocaine found in a camera bag, and in overruling his motion to dismiss the enhancement provisions because he is not subject to enhancement under Article 4476-15, Section 4.012 of the Controlled Substances Act 1 for the first alleged prior conviction.

Three Houston police officers, Ismael Flores, Jr., Richard Rios, and J.H. Higgins, were working on an unrelated narcotics investigation at a Stop-N-Go convenience store. Flores and Rios were together in an unmarked vehicle in front of the convenience store. Higgins was in a separate vehicle in the same parking lot area. They observed two Hispanic men arrive in an automobile in front of the pay telephones outside the store. The two Hispanic men got out of their car and looked carefully around the parking lot. They then went to a telephone, and after one of the men used it for a short time, he hung up. The officers testified that it did not appear that he spoke to anyone on the telephone. A short time later, the telephone rang, one of the men answered it, and this time there appeared to be a conversation over the telephone. A short time later, McGowan drove up and parked in front of the telephones. McGowan and the two men walked into the convenience store and purchased a six-pack of beer. McGowan then got back into his car, and the two men walked up to the driver’s side of the car. One of the men handed McGowan some money, and McGowan handed him a small manila envelope. The two men then got back into their car and drove away, and McGowan also drove away. Flores and Rios followed McGowan, and Flores radioed the police dispatcher to have a patrol unit stop McGowan so that he could be identified. Officer Mike Ramos eventually stopped McGowan, and he approached the driver’s side of McGowan’s car while Flores approached on the passenger’s side. Flores saw McGowan put his hand between the seats and pull out what appeared to be the handle of a pistol. Flores instructed Ramos to take McGowan out of the car, and as McGowan got out, the opening of the door caused the dome light inside the car to come on. At that time, Flores saw on the floorboard a small glass vial containing a *158 white powdery substance, a spoon and a small plastic tray. The officers arrested McGowan and took custody of a pistol, narcotic paraphernalia, and cocaine found in the car. The officers later made an inventory search of the vehicle and found a pager-beeper and a camera bag containing various papers and pill boxes, each pill box containing a white or beige-colored rocklike substance. They also found a number of manila envelopes. Rios and another officer made a field test and weighed the narcotics. A later laboratory test confirmed that the substance was in fact cocaine and that the total weight was 34.1 grams with an average purity of eighty-nine percent. The glass vial found on the floorboard of the car contained one gram of cocaine.

McGowan contends that the police did not have probable cause to search his car and that the items were seized in violation of his constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 9, of the Texas Constitution.

McGowan points out that the officers did not hear what was said during the telephone conversation, did not hear any of the conversation between McGowan and the two men, were not looking for the two Hispanic men and did not know who they were, did not know who was called on the telephone, and did not know what was in the manila envelope. McGowan urges that the car was stopped on the basis of the officers’ inarticulate hunch and that this did not constitute probable cause.

An investigating officer’s hunch, suspicion, or good faith perception is not sufficient alone to constitute probable cause for warrantless search. Moreover, perceived events must be out of the ordinary, suspicious, and tie the suspect with a criminal act, and the suspect’s conduct cannot be as consistent with innocent activity as with a criminal act. Lunde v. State, 736 S.W.2d 665 (Tex.Crim.App.1987).

The State contends that the officers had a right to view the situation in light of common practices in the illegal narcotics trade. The officers testified that it was a common practice to use the process of having someone paged from a convenience store telephone in order to purchase narcotics, that numerous narcotics transactions were known to have taken place at this particular store, that numerous narcotics transactions had taken place in this general area, that the two Hispanic men seemed to be looking around to check the area for police officers, that the two men seemed nervous, that their use of the pay telephone and McGowan’s arrival shortly thereafter was indicative of the use of a pager system, and that the exchange of money for a small manila envelope, being the type of envelope often used in narcotics transactions, suggested that a narcotics transaction was taking place. Law enforcement officers are permitted to draw logical inferences and make intelligent deductions from the totality of the circumstances. Jackson v. State, 745 S.W.2d 4, 10 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances within the officers’ knowledge and about which they had reasonable trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense had been or is being committed. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925); Jackson v. State, 745 S.W.2d 4.

The State argues that it was not necessary for the officers’ reasonable suspicion to rise to the level of probable cause for them to make a temporary investigation. To justify a brief investigative detention, the officers must have specific articu-lable facts that, in light of their experience and personal knowledge, would warrant intrusion upon the person stopped. Stone v. State, 703 S.W.2d 652 (Tex.Crim.App.1986); Meeks v. State, 653 S.W.2d 6 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). A police officer may stop a suspicious individual to determine his identity or to maintain the status quo while obtaining more information. Terry v. Ohio,

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Bluebook (online)
792 S.W.2d 155, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 1132, 1990 WL 66791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgowan-v-state-texapp-1990.