State v. Vance

2026 Ohio 876
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided March 16, 2026·No. 2025-L-087·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT LAKE COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO, CASE NO. 2025-L-087

Plaintiff-Appellee,

Criminal Appeal from the

- vs - Court of Common Pleas

DEVON M. VANCE, Trial Court No. 2024 CR 001117 Defendant-Appellant.

OPINION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY

Decided: March 16, 2026

Judgment: Affirmed

Charles E. Coulson, Lake County Prosecutor, and Kristi L. Winner, Assistant Prosecutor, Lake County Administration Building, 105 Main Street, P.O. Box 490, Painesville, OH 44077 (For Plaintiff-Appellee).

Cory R. Hinton, Hanahan & Hinton, L.L.C., 7351 Center Street, Suite 1, Mentor, OH 44060 (For Defendant-Appellant).

JOHN J. EKLUND, J.

{¶1} Appellant, Devon M. Vance, appeals the judgment of conviction from the Lake County Court of Common Pleas after her plea of no contest to one count of Aggravated Possession of Drugs and one count of Possession of Drugs. Appellant argues that the trial court erred by denying her Motion to Suppress evidence seized from her person and her vehicle during a traffic stop. She argued a lack of reasonable suspicion to stop her vehicle and a lack of probable cause to search her vehicle for contraband.

{¶2} Having reviewed the record and the applicable caselaw, we find Appellant’s assignment of error to be without merit. First, the officer witnessed Appellant commit two traffic violations, which created not only reasonable suspicion, but probable cause, necessary to justify stopping her vehicle. Second, during the course of the traffic stop, the officer learned that Appellant’s passenger had an active warrant, and the officer placed the passenger under arrest, this provided reasonable suspicion to extend the duration of the traffic stop. During this time, the officer observed Appellant attempting to take items from her purse and conceal them in the back seat of the car. He then discovered that she had attempted to conceal a digital scale from her purse and found the scale to have suspected drug residue on it. Upon discovering this, the officer had probable cause to arrest Appellant, and the remaining contraband was discovered on her person during a lawful arrest.

{¶3} Therefore, the judgment of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas is affirmed.

Substantive and Procedural History

{¶4} On November 22, 2024, the Lake County Grand Jury indicted Appellant on one count of Aggravated Possession of Drugs (Methamphetamine), a second-degree felony in violation of R.C. 2925.11(A), and one count of Possession of Drugs (Naloxone), a fifth-degree felony in violation of R.C. 2925.11(A). Appellant pled not guilty.

{¶5} On January 21, 2025, Appellant filed a Motion to Suppress, arguing: one, the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to conduct a traffic stop and detain her; and two, the officer lacked probable cause to search her vehicle and her person. Appellant further argued that the “scale” recovered from her vehicle was not a digital scale used for weighing contraband but was instead a bathroom-style scale meant to weigh a person. On January 31, 2025, the State responded to the Motion to Suppress.

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{¶6} The trial court held a suppression hearing on March 27, 2025. The State called Detective Don Swindell of the Mentor Police Department as its sole witness. The State did not play any dash camera or body camera videos during the hearing. Appellant did not call any witnesses.

{¶7} Detective Swindell testified he had been promoted to Detective after the events leading to Appellant’s arrest but before the suppression hearing. On September 9, 2024, Detective Swindell said that he was assigned to traffic patrol duties. He said that he saw a gray Chevy at the eastbound exit ramp for State Route 2 at State Route 306 in Mentor, Ohio. He watched the vehicle make a right turn on red “into the left straight only lane. In that area there’s a clearly marked traffic control device, a sign that says that you’re only allowed to make a right turn on red in the curb lane only.” Detective Swindell said that there are two southbound turning lanes and that the gray Chevy did not make the right turn on red from the curbside lane. He also said the vehicle “made a wide turn, crossing over the double yellow line into the marked hazard zone, both driver side tires. It reentered that left straight lane and then it made a left turn into” the Suburban Inn located at 7677 Reynolds. Detective Swindell noted that the location and its surrounding area are known for numerous calls for police service.

{¶8} Detective Swindell said that upon observing a Traffic Control Device violation and a Marked Lanes violation, he effected a traffic stop of the vehicle in the Suburban Inn parking lot. On cross-examination, Detective Swindell confirmed that he was within a “couple hundred feet” of Appellant’s vehicle when he saw the traffic violations.

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{¶9} Detective Swindell identified the driver as Appellant and the lone passenger as Appellant’s husband. Detective Swindell said that he knew Appellant through prior involvements with the Mentor Police Department. After conducting the stop and identifying the occupants of the vehicle, Detective Swindell confirmed that the passenger had an active warrant for his arrest. Detective Swindell had the passenger exit the vehicle and detained him.

{¶10} As Detective Swindell was placing the passenger in the rear of his police cruiser, he “observed” Appellant “inside the vehicle attempting to hide items.” He saw her “digging items out of her purse and putting them on the floor in the front passenger area and then trying to put them behind the front seat . . . .” He said that his police cruiser was parked alongside her vehicle at a “forty-five degree angle . . . the way her vehicle was parked . . . would be . . . the side view of her vehicle.” On cross-examination, he specified that he was approximately ten feet away from Appellant’s vehicle. The stop occurred during the night, but the parking lot was well-lit, and Detective Swindell testified that the lights from his cruiser illuminated Appellant’s vehicle.

{¶11} After seeing Appellant engage in these movements, he confronted her about them and had her exit the vehicle. He said that Appellant “openly stated that she was hiding a scale behind the front seat.” Detective Swindell testified that he did not think Appellant was talking about a bathroom scale but rather a “scale to weigh narcotics.” He said that Appellant’s purse was not large enough to hold a bathroom style scale. Based on her statement, Detective Swindell detained Appellant in the rear of his partner’s patrol vehicle and then recovered a digital scale with what he believed was methamphetamine

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residue on it located behind the passenger seat. He then searched Appellant’s purse and found a methamphetamine pipe in the purse.

{¶12} Detective Swindell then contacted a female officer to respond to the scene in order to conduct a search of Appellant’s person. He said that the responding officer searched Appellant and that a “large baggie of methamphetamine was located in her bra along with prescription pills, a hundred sixty dollars in currency and a Samsung cellphone.”

{¶13} Detective Swindell testified that Appellant said that she had driven to Cleveland to pick up methamphetamine and that she was going to the Suburban Inn to give the drugs to a dealer staying at the hotel. When asked whether there were any recordings of the events he described, Detective Swindell explained that his vehicle is equipped with a dash camera but that it did not capture video of Appellant’s traffic infraction or the subsequent search and arrest. In addition, the dash camera does not record sound. Finally, he said that there was no body camera footage of the arrest because the unit was not working.

{¶14} The State rested and, after a brief recess, the trial court issued an oral ruling from the bench. The trial court stated the following findings on the record:

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State v. Vance, 2026 Ohio 876 (Ohio Ct. App. 2026).

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