State v. K.N.

66 So. 3d 380, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 11904
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 29, 2011
DocketNos. 5D09-4297, 5D09-4298, 5D09-4299, 5D09-4300, 5D09-4301, 5D09-4302, 5D09-4303, 5D09-4304 & 5D09-4305
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 66 So. 3d 380 (State v. K.N.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. K.N., 66 So. 3d 380, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 11904 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

COHEN, J.

The State and Appellee, K.N., both challenge the trial court’s ruling partially granting and denying Appellee’s motion to suppress, which affected nine delinquency cases involving numerous counts of burglary of a conveyance, grand theft, petit theft, possession of burglary tools, and loitering and prowling. We reverse the trial court’s order suppressing evidence, affirm to the extent it denied the motion to suppress, and remand for trial.

The facts are undisputed. Around 2:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, the Orange County Sheriffs Office received a 911 call from an identified resident of Courtleigh Drive. The resident reported a suspicious incident involving a white Toyota and its passenger: a tall, white male with long hair and a thin build running from house to house, peering into vehicles and checking door handles. This behavior was consistent with an increased number of burglaries involving unlocked vehicles in the Dr. Phillips area; handguns were stolen from some of the vehicles. The Orange County Sheriffs Office formed a specialty unit to combat the increased vehicle burglaries. Officer Adams was assigned to this task force and responded quickly to the resident’s report.

As Adams came around a bend on Courtleigh Drive, he spotted a white Toyota stopped in the road, facing him. Adams’ spotlight allowed him to observe two males in the car; the passenger met the resident’s description. Upon activating the spotlight, the Toyota began to move towards the patrol car and the neighborhood’s exit. Adams decided to investigate and activated his overhead lights. Because he was aware that handguns had been stolen in the rash of vehicle burglaries and, in his experience, burglars often carry weapons for defense, he decided to execute a high-risk traffic stop while awaiting backup units. After the vehicle stopped, Adams exited his patrol vehicle with gun drawn and waited for backup.

Once backup arrived, Adams asked Ap-pellee to exit the vehicle first. Adams handcuffed him, patted him down for weapons, and secured him in the patrol car. He executed the same procedure with the driver, later identified as Appel-lee’s cousin. As Appellee exited the car, Adams swept the car’s interior with his flashlight and noticed, in plain view, a flashlight and small multi-tool on the front passenger seat and an iPod on the rear seat. Adams often saw multi-tools used in the commission of burglaries. After securing the pair, Adams returned to the car to perform a protective sweep of the trunk to make sure no one was hiding there.1

Adams performed the protective sweep based on prior experience when he encountered someone hiding in a trunk. As he shone his flashlight inside the trunk, he saw a Dell Latitude 610 laptop like the one he personally used. Based on his years of experience with the Sheriffs Office, he believed this model was used exclusively by law enforcement. Adams then returned to the patrol car, advised Appellee [383]*383and his cousin of their Miranda2 rights, and gave them an opportunity to identify themselves and provide an explanation for their presence and conduct.

Appellee and his cousin explained that they were just driving around the neighborhood, enjoying the last day of spring break before school started the next morning — about four hours later. Neither knew anyone in the neighborhood. Although Appellee denied exiting the vehicle, his cousin contradicted him, stating that Appellee had done so several times to look at a boat. When asked about the multi-tool and flashlight in the front seat, Appel-lee answered that he was just holding the tool because it was in the car. Adams’ concern was not dispelled. He concluded that the resident’s report of suspicious activity and matching description of the car and passenger, the contradiction about whether Appellee exited the car, and the unlikely story that they were looking at someone’s boat at 2:00 a.m., gave him probable cause to arrest Appellee for loitering and prowling and possession of burglary tools. Appellee was subsequently arrested and so charged.

Officer Adams proceeded according to the then-prevailing interpretation of New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), which held that “when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile.” (Footnotes omitted.) When he turned on the laptop, the warning screen popped up indicating it was the property of the Orange County Sheriffs Office. Before having the vehicle towed for safekeeping, an inventory of the vehicle was conducted and several items collected. Appellee and his cousin were transported to the West Orange substation for questioning where Detective Thompson and Deputy Shellenberger took over the investigation.

Deputy Shellenberger testified that he advised Appellee of his Miranda rights and obtained his statement admitting other vehicle burglaries, stolen property from which was at his residence. After the deputy explained that the owners of the property would probably like to recover the items and asked if they could do that, Appellee signed a consent form and took the deputy to his house. The deputy only searched Appellee’s bedroom and found a handgun in a black case between Appel-lee’s bed and the wall exactly where Ap-pellee described it would be. There were various electronics scattered all over the room.

At the suppression hearing, Appellee’s argument was three-pronged: there was no probable cause to arrest him for loitering and prowling and any statements he made while in custody should be suppressed; the search of the car was illegal under Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009); and any confession or consent to search subsequent to his unlawful detention and arrest should be suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” The State countered that Appellee, as a passenger, lacked standing to challenge the seizure of evidence from the vehicle under Gant or any other theory. In the alternative, the State argued the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied to any evidence seized because the police acted in accordance with Belton, the prevailing law at the time, and noted that Gant was decided a few weeks after the seizure. Further, even if Gant applied, the State argued the search was lawful under the second prong of Gant, which authorizes a search of the [384]*384passenger compartment when it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest — in this case, possession of burglary tools.

The trial court found that Officer Adams had a reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory stop of the vehicle because he observed a vehicle and passenger that matched the description and location relayed by a citizen informant. The trial court also found the high-risk traffic stop was warranted based upon the officer’s training and experience in cases involving vehicle burglary. Further, it also found that Appellee’s and his cousin’s answers did not alleviate the officer’s justifiable concern because neither Appellee nor his cousin knew anyone in the neighborhood, both gave poor explanations for their presence at 2:00 a.m., and their answers were contradictory about whether Appellee had exited the vehicle.

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State v. KN
66 So. 3d 380 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 So. 3d 380, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 11904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kn-fladistctapp-2011.