State v. Jackson

436 S.W.3d 576, 2013 WL 6834810, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 1542
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided December 26, 2013·No. No. SD 32201·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

DON E. BURRELL, J.

A jury found Keith T. Jackson, Jr. (“Defendant”) guilty of driving while intoxicated. See section 577.010, RSMo 2000.1 Defendant waived jury sentencing, and the trial court subsequently announced a four-year sentence, suspended its execution, and placed Defendant on a five-year term of probation.

In a single point relied on, Defendant claims the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress and subsequent trial objection to evidence presented by the arresting officer because the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity was afoot at the time he seized Defendant.2 Specifically, Defendant claims that “although stopping [a vehicle] abruptly at a house and then driving around the block through a private drive [at night] with no headlights [illuminated] might have been suspicious to the officer at first,” because the officer “did not know whether [Defendant] continued to drive with no headlights,” the officer’s “suspicions should ... have been dispelled when [Defendant] left his car ... and walked toward the door of the house where he had previously parked his car.”

Because the arresting officer observed Defendant violate state law by driving at night without his headlights illuminated, we affirm the judgment of conviction and sentence.

Applicable Law and Principles of Review

“At a suppression hearing the [S]tate bears both the burden of producing evidence and the risk of nonpersuasion to [578]*578show by a preponderance of the evidence that the motion to suppress should be overruled.” State v. Franklin, 841 S.W.2d 639, 644 (Mo. banc 1992). “Where, as here, a motion to suppress was overruled and the evidence was introduced at trial, an appellate court will consider the evidence presented both at the suppression hearing and at trial in determining whether the motion should have been granted.” State v. Goff, 129 S.W.3d 857, 861-62 (Mo. banc 2004).

“[W]e give deference to the trial court’s factual findings and credibility determinations and consider all evidence and reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling.” State v. Reed, 400 S.W.3d 509, 511 (Mo.App.S.D.2013). As a result, we must disregard all evidence and inferences contrary to that ruling. State v. Hutchinson, 796 S.W.2d 100, 104 (Mo.App.S.D.1990). “Finally, we will affirm the trial court’s decision with respect to a motion to suppress evidence ‘if it is plausible under any theory.’ ” State v. Deaton, 395 S.W.3d 50, 52 (Mo.App.S.D.2013) (quoting State v. McDonald, 170 S.W.3d 535, 540 (Mo.App.W.D.2005)).

Relevant Facts and Procedural Background

Around 1:30 a.m. on August 27, 2009, Springfield Police Officer David Snider was on patrol in “a marked police car” when he saw a silver Infiniti turn from Jefferson onto Bennett. Officer Snider was heading south on Jefferson, and the Infiniti was heading north, but both vehicles were “turning in the same direction” onto Bennett. After the Infiniti completed its turn onto Bennett, it “pulled to the curb and stopped very abruptly.” Officer Snider saw Defendant “behind the wheel” as he drove by the now-stationary vehicle. Officer Snider looked in his rearview mirror and saw that Defendant’s vehicle “had parking lights on only” and that “[t]here were no headlights displayed on the vehicle” as it pulled away from the curb and resumed its progress down Bennett.

The Infiniti traveled to a third street, and Officer Snider “tried to maintain visual contact with the vehicle.” Officer Snider “made the block” in time to see Defendant’s vehicle turn west on “a private drive” and head back “toward Jefferson.” After turning back onto Bennett from Jefferson, Defendant’s vehicle “again stopped in front of the same residence[,]” and Officer Snider pulled up behind it. He did not activate his emergency lights because the Infiniti was already stopped, but he decided to “stop” the car “[b]ased on the actions that [he had] seen[,]” including the vehicle traveling “without headlights,” stopping “abruptly” in front of a residence, driving back around toward the residence again, and stopping in front of that same residence a second time.

As Officer Snider “pulled in behind” the Infiniti, Defendant exited the driver’s side of the vehicle. A passenger also exited the vehicle and walked with Defendant “toward the front of the residence.” Officer Snider exited his patrol car and “asked them to come and approach [him].” Officer Snider testified that he could not recall the “exact words” he used in asking Defendant to approach him, but he also recalled that if Defendant had not complied he “would have taken the necessary actions to keep [Defendant] where [Officer Snider] could talk to him[.]”

When the officer described his observations to Defendant, Defendant denied driving the car. Defendant’s speech was slurred, and Officer Snider noticed the strong smell “of an alcoholic beverage” on Defendant’s breath. After having Defendant perform various field sobriety tests, Officer Snider arrested Defendant for driving while intoxicated.

[579]*579At the suppression hearing, defense counsel asserted “that [Officer Snider] lacked reasonable suspicion to detain [Defendant] for any sort of investigation of suspected criminal activity, in violation of Terry v. Ohio.”3 After the parties rested, the trial court found that

the officer was doing exactly what a reasonable officer would do and what a community and everyone would expect him to do, and that is that if [he] ob-servéis] facts occurring, as [he] did in this case, that the officer would make an inquiry to see what, if anything, was afoot.

The trial court denied the motion to suppress, and it later denied Defendant’s trial objections to the admission of any evidence concerning what took place after Defendant approached Officer Snider as directed.

Defendant preserved the issue he now asserts on appeal by including it in his motion for new trial, and this appeal timely followed the trial court’s denial of that motion and subsequent entry of its judgment of conviction and sentence.

Analysis

Citizens are guaranteed “the right to be free from ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’” under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. State v. Oliver, 293 S.W.3d 437, 442 (Mo. banc 2009). “Article I, section 15 of the Missouri Constitution provides the same guarantees against unreasonable searchfes] and seizures; thus, the same analysis applies to cases under the Missouri Constitution as under the United States Constitution.” Id. “A ‘seizure’ occurs when the totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident indicates that ‘a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.’ ” State v. Sund, 215 S.W.3d 719, 723 (Mo. banc 2007) (quoting State v. Werner,

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State v. Jackson, 436 S.W.3d 576, 2013 WL 6834810, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 1542 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013).

436 S.W.3d 576 (State v. Jackson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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