State v. Sykes

900 So. 2d 156, 2005 WL 896459
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 9, 2005
Docket2004-KA-1199, 2004-K-0947
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 900 So. 2d 156 (State v. Sykes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Sykes, 900 So. 2d 156, 2005 WL 896459 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

900 So.2d 156 (2005)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Matthew SYKES.

Nos. 2004-KA-1199, 2004-K-0947.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

March 9, 2005.

*158 Eddie J. Jordan, Jr., District Attorney, Claire DeVidas, Assistant District Attorney, New Orleans, LA, for State of Louisiana.

Sherry Watters, Louisiana Appellate Project, New Orleans, LA, for Matthew Sykes.

(Court composed of Judge TERRI F. LOVE, Judge EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge ROLAND L. BELSOME).

EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge.

Before the court is the defendant's appeal and the State's application for supervisory writ. After review of the record in light of the applicable law and arguments of the parties, we affirm in part and remand in part.

Procedural History

The defendant, Matthew Sykes, was charged on March 17, 2003, with one count each of possession with the intent to distribute heroin in violation of La.Rev.Stat. 40:966, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine in violation of La.Rev.Stat. 40:967, and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana in violation of La.Rev. Stat. 40:966. He was arraigned on October 14, 2003, and pleaded not guilty to all counts. On December 3, 2003, the court heard and denied his motion to suppress the evidence. On January 27, 2004, a twelve-person jury found him guilty as charged with respect to the heroin and cocaine charges and guilty of the responsive verdict of simple possession of marijuana. The State filed a multiple bill on that date. On February 10, 2004, the court sentenced him on the heroin and cocaine counts to serve eight years at hard labor and on the marijuana court to credit for time served, and it ordered all sentences to run concurrently. The court held the multiple bill hearing on April 1, 2004, at the conclusion of which the court found the defendant to be a second offender. The court vacated the previous sentence on the heroin count and resentenced *159 the defendant to serve twenty-five years at hard labor. Pursuant to a motion to reconsider sentence, the court on that same date vacated the twenty-five-year sentence and imposed a thirteen-year sentence on the heroin count as a second offender. The State noted its intent to seek writs, and on June 3 it filed writ 2004-K-0947 in this court. On June 23, a panel of this court ordered this writ consolidated with the present appeal.

Relevant Facts

On February 26, 2003, New Orleans Police Department ("N.O.P.D.") officers received a tip from a paid, reliable, confidential informant ("C.I.") concerning drug sales from a courtyard in the Fischer housing project. The C.I. stated that a slim African-American male wearing a hooded jacket was selling drugs in the 2100 block of LeBouef. Based on this information, Detectives Cesar Ruffin and Bennett Williams set up a surveillance of the area, stationing themselves in a breezeway in the 2000 block of LeBouef Court where they could see the courtyard in the 2100 block. Shortly thereafter, the defendant, fitting the description given by the C.I., walked into the courtyard and engaged in four hand-to-had transactions in a ten to fifteen minute period. In each transaction, the suspected buyer walked up to Sykes and conversed with him, the buyer gave Sykes some currency, and in return Sykes reached into his right pants pocket and retrieved an object, which he then gave to the suspected buyer.

Based on this suspicious behavior, the officers decided to stop Sykes. As the officers approached Sykes, he looked surprised, reached into his pocket, retrieved a brown paper bag, and dropped it to the ground. One of the officers retrieved the bag while the other officer detained Sykes. The bag contained tin foils of heroin, several large pieces of crack cocaine, and two bags of marijuana. The officers arrested Sykes, seized the bag of drugs, and seized $118.00 from his person. In addition, they arrested Sykes for trespassing in the housing project because he did not live there, and they later cited him for misrepresentation when they learned that he had given them a false name at his arrest.

Discussion

Defendant's Assignment of Error No. 1—Motion to Suppress

The defendant contends the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence and that the drugs he abandoned as a result of the stop must be suppressed because the officers had no reasonable suspicion to stop him. The defendant argues that the officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him because the C.I.'s tip was neither detailed nor predictive and the officers did not corroborate the tip. In addition, he argues that the officers' alternative basis for stopping him, that he was trespassing because he did not live in the housing project, was a pretense.

In response, the State argues the officers had at least reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant due to their observation of the suspected drug transactions and, moreover, it is immaterial whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant because he abandoned the bag of drugs prior to an actual or even an actual imminent stop.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 5 of the Louisiana Constitution protect persons from unreasonable searches and seizures. In order to discourage police misconduct, evidence recovered as a result of an unconstitutional search or seizure is inadmissible. If, however, property is abandoned prior to any unlawful intrusion into a citizen's right to be free from governmental *160 interference, then the property may be lawfully seized and used in the resulting prosecution. State v. Tucker, 626 So.2d 707, 710 (La.1993). "[T]he police do not need probable cause to arrest or reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop every time they approach a citizen in a public place." State v. Britton, 93-1990, p. 2 (La.1/27/94) 633 So.2d 1208, 1209 (mere communications between officers and citizens implicate no Fourth Amendment concerns where there is no coercion or detention; police have the same right as any citizen to approach an individual in public and to engage him in conversation under circumstances that do not signal official detention).

In this case, the officers' actions did not constitute either an actual or an imminent actual stop[1], and thus the defendant abandoned the bag prior to any unlawful intrusion into his right to be left alone from governmental interference. Therefore, the officers lawfully seized the bag containing the drugs and, once the drugs were found, the officers had probable cause to arrest the defendant, and incident to this arrest they could lawfully search the defendant and seize the money from his pocket. Because there was no actual or imminent actual stop, it is immaterial whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant[2] but, even if the officers' action constituted an imminent actual stop, the informant's tip, corroborated by police surveillance, was sufficient to support an investigatory stop. See Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990) (an anonymous tip, corroborated by police surveillance, could supply enough reliability to support an investigatory stop);

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Bluebook (online)
900 So. 2d 156, 2005 WL 896459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sykes-lactapp-2005.