State v. Velasquez

982 S.W.2d 73, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2561, 1998 WL 209251
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 30, 1998
DocketNos. 01-97-00317-CR, 01-97-00318-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 982 S.W.2d 73 (State v. Velasquez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Velasquez, 982 S.W.2d 73, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2561, 1998 WL 209251 (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

OPINION

MIRABAL, Justice.

The question presented is whether a “detention” occurred during an encounter with police officers on a Greyhound bus.

Defendant Allen Brian Velasquez was charged with two felony offenses: possession of cocaine with the intent to deliver,1 and possession of marihuana.2 The trial court granted defendant’s motion to suppress evidence, and the State appeals. We affirm.

In a sole point of error, the State asserts the trial court erred in finding that defendant was detained by the police prior to his abandonment of the contraband.3

We generally review a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress for abuse of discretion. Maddox v. State, 682 S.W.2d 663, 564 (Tex.Crim.App.1985); Santos v. State, 822 S.W.2d 338, 339 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1992, pet. ref d). However, when presented with a question of law based on undisputed facts, we apply a de novo review. Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex.Crim.App.1997) (holding that de novo standard applies to motion to suppress involving mixed questions of law and fact not turning on the credibility of witnesses). Where the resolution of mixed questions of law and fact turns on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor, we still review the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling. Guzman, 955 S.W.2d at 89.

In the present ease, the trial court specifically found that “defendant engaged in a consensual conversation with Officer Corley while on the bus,” and that “Corley is a credible witness, and the Court accepts as true his testimony regarding his observations of the defendant and his conversation with the defendant.” Officer Corley testified as follows:

A minute or two before 6:00 a.m. on August 22, 1996, defendant boarded a Greyhound bus scheduled to depart from the bus station at 6:00 a.m. Houston Police Officers Corley and Ordaz then talked to the bus driver, said they were police officers, and entered the bus. The officers were not in uniform. Ordaz sat down in a seat a couple of rows in front of defendant. Corley walked past defendant towards the back of the bus, turned around and came back, and stopped just behind defendant. Corley squatted down in the aisle. He leaned over, showed defendant his badge, identified himself as a police officer, and asked defendant if he could talk to him. Defendant replied, “Sure.” When Corley asked his destination, defendant responded, “Corpus Christi.” When Corley asked if he could see defendant’s ticket, defendant responded affirmatively, gave Corley his ticket and said, “Well, I’m actually going to Victoria.” Victoria is the mid-point of the trip between Houston and Corpus Christi. Corley returned the ticket. In response to Corley’s request, defendant then gave Corley his driver’s license. The names on the driver’s license and bus ticket matched. Corley gave the driver’s license back to defendant. Corley asked defendant if he was going to Victoria on business, and defendant said, “No, he lived there.” Corley asked defendant how long he had been in Houston, and defendant said he had been there for several days. As defendant was talking to Corley, he was looking around, instead of looking directly at Corley. Corley asked defendant if he had any luggage and defendant responded that he had no luggage. During the conversation up to this point, defendant had not touched the black duffel bag sitting on the seat next to him.

[75]*75Corley testified he then pointed to the bag and asked defendant if it was his, to which defendant replied, “No, that’s not my bag.” When Corley then reached to pick up the bag, defendant put his hands on it and said, “What are you doing?” to which Corley replied, “I’m getting this bag. Is it your bag?” Defendant said, “Uh, no, it’s not.” Corley testified that at that point, defendant took his hands off the bag, and Corley picked it up. Corley asked defendant if he could look in the bag and defendant said, “It’s not my bag.” Corley sat it in the aisle next to defendant and opened it, saw what appeared to be marihuana, and told defendant he was under arrest. When they reached the security office, the officers completed the search of the duffel bag, and found inside it two bags of marihuana and a bag of cocaine. Corley admitted the encounter with defendant lasted past 6:00 a.m., and the bus did not depart on time.

Officer Ordaz testified that it is normal practice for police officers to talk to the bus driver before boarding a bus to .tell the driver that they are narcotics officers and that they plan to talk with someone on the bus. He knows the bus will not leave while the officers are on the bus.

Defendant testified that after he got on the bus, he saw the two officers come on the bus; one of the officers grabbed the door handle and closed the door. Officer Corley walked past him and then came right at him. “He said his name, he was an officer with the Houston Police Department, showed me his badge.... He said he had reason to believe that I was carrying narcotics.” Everybody started standing up in their seats and looking over their seats at defendant. Defendant felt humiliated and seared. According to defendant, by the time the officers were talking to him, it was 6:00 a.m. and the bus should have left. Defendant told Corley the black bag did not belong to him because he was scared and intimidated; he thought Corley could be a “stranger coming to take my bag from me or something.” Corley was positioned so that he blocked defendant’s way — defendant couldn’t get up.

The trial court specifically concluded that the officers detained the bus to conduct their investigation, and defendant abandoned the black bag as a result of police activity. The trial court ruled that the fruits of the illegal detention were inadmissible as evidence.

The State correctly notes that not every encounter between a police officer and another person implicates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 497-98, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324, 76 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). Nor does a consensual encounter necessarily implicate article 1, section 9 of the Texas Constitution. State v. Grant, 832 S.W.2d 624, 628-29 (Tex.App.—Houston [14 th Dist.] 1992, pet. refd), citing Gearing v. State, 685 S.W.2d 326, 328-29 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). The State argues that the standard for determining whether a consensual police encounter becomes a detention depends on whether the police display such official authority that a “reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave.” Wooden v. State, 886 S.W.2d 385, 387 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1994, no pet.), citing United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980).

The State relies largely on Wooden and Grant to make its case. In Wooden, police officers, acting on information about drug couriers, stopped and questioned the suspect in a bus terminal. 886 S.W.2d at 386.

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Related

United States v. Mendenhall
446 U.S. 544 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Florida v. Royer
460 U.S. 491 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Florida v. Bostick
501 U.S. 429 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Mitchell v. State
831 S.W.2d 829 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Gearing v. State
685 S.W.2d 326 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Santos v. State
822 S.W.2d 338 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
State v. Grant
832 S.W.2d 624 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Hunter v. State
955 S.W.2d 102 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Guzman v. State
955 S.W.2d 85 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Kaufhold v. McIver
682 S.W.2d 660 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Wooden v. State
886 S.W.2d 385 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
982 S.W.2d 73, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 2561, 1998 WL 209251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-velasquez-texapp-1998.