Negrette v. State

2007 WY 88, 158 P.3d 679, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 93, 2007 WL 1484054
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMay 23, 2007
Docket06-39
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 2007 WY 88 (Negrette v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Negrette v. State, 2007 WY 88, 158 P.3d 679, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 93, 2007 WL 1484054 (Wyo. 2007).

Opinion

KITE, Justice.

[¶ 1] Sotero Lepe Negrete 1 pled guilty to one count of possession of a controlled substance conditioned upon his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence. He claims the district court erred by denying his motion because his detention by law enforcement was unreasonable under all the cireumstances in violation of Article 1, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution. He also claims the detention violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because the cireumstances did not give rise to a reasonable suspicion by law enforcement that he was involved in eriminal activity. We hold the district court did not err in denying the suppression motion and affirm.

*681 ISSUE

[¶ 2] The sole issue for this Court's determination is whether the district court erred in denying Mr. Negrete's motion to suppress because his detention was unconstitutional under both the federal and state constitutions.

FACTS

[¶ 3] On April 14, 2005, at approximately 2:45 p.m., Deputy Jeff Hodge of the Crook County Sheriff's Office was patrolling 2 west bound on Interstate 90 near Moorcroft, Wyoming with his certified drug detection dog in the back seat when he observed a pickup truck with tinted windows traveling in the opposite direction at approximately fifty-five miles per hour in a seventy-five mile per hour zone. The vehicle's speed aroused Deputy Hodge's concerns and he turned his patrol car around and followed the pickup. He called dispatch, provided the dispatcher with the pickup's Illinois license plate number and asked for a license check. The dispatcher advised him the license plate "was not on file." 3 Deputy Hodge activated his emer gency lights and the driver of the pickup responded by pulling over to the side of the highway.

[¶ 4] Deputy Hodge approached the driver's side of the pickup. Inside were the driver, later identified as Maria Guadalupe Lombera-Perez, and a passenger, Mr. Neg-rete. Deputy Hodge advised them that he had stopped them because the license plate number was not on file. Mr. Negrete handed the deputy a vehicle registration and proof of insurance card. Deputy Hodge asked Mr. Negrete if he owned the vehicle and he responded that it belonged to a friend but was insured under his name. Deputy Hodge informed the occupants that he was going to have dispatch run a check on the vehicle identification number (VIN) to verify that it was properly registered and licensed. He asked the driver to accompany him to the patrol car while he contacted dispatch. The driver and Mr. Negrete spoke to each other in Spanish and Mr. Negrete advised the deputy that the driver did not speak English. Because Ms. Lombera-Perez did not speak English and Mr. Negrete seemed more closely connected with the vehicle, Deputy Hodge asked Mr. Negrete to accompany him to the patrol car while he checked the registration and license plates. Deputy Hodge obtained Ms. Lombera-Perez's driver's license and he and Mr. Negrete went to his patrol car.

[¶ 5] Mr. Negrete sat in the front passenger seat of the patrol car while Deputy Hodge contacted dispatch. As he waited for dispatch to respond, Deputy Hodge asked Mr. Negrete where he and Ms. Lombera-Perez were traveling from. Mr. Negrete stated they were headed back to Illinois from Oregon where they had visited her family for one or two days. Deputy Hodge noticed the registration appeared to have been altered and the insurance card was for temporary liability insurance effective from April 10 through May 10, 2005. The card showed the named insured as Gilberto Maldonado and Mr. Negrete as an insured driver. Ms. Lombera-Perez was not listed on the card.

[¶ 6] The dispatcher advised that the VIN was a duplicate, meaning more than one vehicle had the same number. Deputy Hodge went back to the pickup, obtained the VIN from the vehicle, and determined that it matched the VIN on the registration.

[¶ 7] Back in the patrol car, Deputy Hodge asked Mr. Negrete the name of the pickup's owner. Mr. Negrete said that Gilbert Mendoza owned the pickup and he had let him borrow it. Deputy Hodge concluded "that there was some type of criminal activity afoot" and decided to run a criminal history check on Mr. Negrete. While he waited for the results, Deputy Hodge asked Mr. Neg-rete the names of Ms. Lombera-Perer's brother and sister whom they had just visited in Oregon. Mr. Negrete said that he did not know their names; they went by nick *682 names. Deputy Hodge asked what their nicknames were. Mr. Negrete stated he did not know, laughed nervously and tried to explain. Deputy Hodge "became increasing ly more suspicious" because Mr. Negrete did not know the names of the people he had just visited in Oregon. Deputy Hodge also thought that driving from Illinois to Oregon seemed like a long way to go for a one or two day visit.

[¶ 8] By this time, Deputy Hodge had verified the pickup was not stolen but had not verified the license plates on the pickup belonged on it. Based on the totality of the cireumstances, he decided to have his dog sniff the pickup. He advised Mr. Negrete of his intent and Mr. Negrete responded, "[All right. No problem." The dog alerted to the rear of the vehicle. A subsequent search revealed thirty-nine packages containing 21.88 pounds of marijuana in a compartment concealed by a false panel underneath the pickup bed.

[¶ 9] Mr. Negrete was charged with one count of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 85-7-10831(a) (LexisNexis 2005). Prior to trial, he filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized in the vehicle search, claiming that Deputy Hodge lacked a reasonable basis to detain him and the detention violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution. After a hearing, the district court denied the motion, holding that the deputy had a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity that justified expanding the seope of the traffic stop; use of the drug dog was not a search; and once the dog alerted the deputy had probable cause to search.

[¶ 10] As a consequence of the district court's ruling, Mr. Negrete and the State entered into a plea agreement in which the State agreed to amend the information to charge Mr. Negrete with possession of marijuana in violation of 35-7-1081(c), rather than possession with intent to deliver as originally charged. 4 In exchange, Mr. Negrete agreed to plead guilty to the amended charge conditioned on his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion. The district court accepted the plea agreement and Mr. Neg-rete's plea of guilty to possession. The district court sentenced him to imprisonment for twenty-four to sixty months with credit for the time he served between his arrest and his sentencing.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[111] The following standards govern our review of alleged error in the denial of a motion to suppress:

Rulings on the admissibility of evidence are within the sound discretion of the trial court. We will not disturb such rulings absent a clear abuse of discretion.

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Bluebook (online)
2007 WY 88, 158 P.3d 679, 2007 Wyo. LEXIS 93, 2007 WL 1484054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/negrette-v-state-wyo-2007.