State v. Walton

2021 Ohio 3958
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 8, 2021
DocketCA2020-12-124
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 2021 Ohio 3958 (State v. Walton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Walton, 2021 Ohio 3958 (Ohio Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Walton, 2021-Ohio-3958.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO

BUTLER COUNTY

STATE OF OHIO, :

Appellee, : CASE NO. CA2020-12-124

: OPINION - vs - 11/8/2021 :

MARCQUAN D. WALTON, :

Appellant. :

CRIMINAL APPEAL FROM BUTLER COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS Case No. CR2020-05-0599

Michael T. Gmoser, Butler County Prosecuting Attorney, and Stephen M. Wagner, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Repper-Pagan Law, Ltd., and Christopher J. Pagan, for appellant.

PIPER, P.J.

{¶1} Appellant, Marcquan Walton, appeals a decision of the Butler County Court

of Common Pleas denying his motion to suppress evidence related to his convictions for

trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound, possession of a fentanyl-related compound, and

illegal possession of drug paraphernalia.

{¶2} Police received a call that a robbery occurred behind the U.S. Market in

Hamilton, Ohio. The information obtained by police indicated that the robbery involved a Butler CA2020-12-124

firearm and was perpetrated by five teenage African American males. A police sergeant

was patrolling the area nearby with his partner and responded to the U.S. Market location

within one to two minutes after receiving the dispatch. The sergeant and his partner began

to search for the reported suspects.

{¶3} Approximately 30 seconds after arriving at U.S. Market, and one block away

from the market itself, the officers observed two African American males walking. One of

the males, later identified as Walton, looked like a teenager. The sergeant asked Walton

to raise his hands and then approached him. The sergeant asked Walton whether he had

weapons or illegal items on his person, and Walton replied that he had marijuana in his

pocket. Walton then reached for his right pocket, and the sergeant reminded him to keep

his hands in the air. Even then, Walton reached again toward his right pocket.

{¶4} The sergeant and his partner performed a pat down of Walton and located

marijuana, fentanyl, a digital scale, as well as approximately $2,300 in cash. Walton was

indicted for trafficking and possession of a fentanyl-related compound, as well as

possession of drug paraphernalia. Walton filed a motion to suppress, arguing that the police

lacked reasonable articulable suspicion to stop him and that police lacked legal grounds to

search his person. The trial court denied the motion, and Walton pled no contest to the

charges. The trial court found Walton guilty, merged the allied offenses, and sentenced

Walton to community control. Walton now appeals the trial court's denial of his motion to

suppress, raising the following assignment of error:

{¶5} THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN OVERRULING THE MOTION TO

SUPPRESS.

{¶6} Walton argues in his assignment of error that the trial court erred by denying

his motion to suppress.

{¶7} Appellate review of a ruling on a motion to suppress presents a mixed

-2- Butler CA2020-12-124

question of law and fact. State v. Gray, 12th Dist. Butler No. CA2011-09-176, 2012-Ohio-

4769, ¶ 15. When considering a motion to suppress, the trial court, as the trier of fact, is in

the best position to weigh the evidence to resolve factual questions and evaluate witness

credibility. State v. Vaughn, 12th Dist. Fayette No. CA2014-05-012, 2015-Ohio-828, ¶ 8.

{¶8} This court is therefore bound to accept the trial court's findings of fact if they

are supported by competent, credible evidence. State v. Cyrek, 12th Dist. Butler No.

CA2019-02-037, 2019-Ohio-4515, ¶ 9. "An appellate court, however, independently

reviews the trial court's legal conclusions based on those facts and determines, without

deference to the trial court's decision, whether as a matter of law, the facts satisfy the

appropriate legal standard." State v. Cochran, 12th Dist. Preble No. CA2006-10-023, 2007-

Ohio-3353, ¶ 12.

{¶9} Both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I,

Section 14 of the Ohio Constitution protect individuals from unreasonable searches and

seizures. State v. Jimenez, 12th Dist. Warren No. CA2011-09-103, 2012-Ohio-3318, ¶ 9;

Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S.Ct. 507 (1967). Any searches or seizures

that occur "outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate are

per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment — subject only to a few specially

established and well-delineated exceptions." Id. at 357. An investigative stop, or a Terry

stop, by a police officer is a common exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant

requirement. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868 (1968).

{¶10} Pursuant to Terry, a police officer may detain an individual without probable

cause when the officer has reasonable suspicion based on specific, articulable facts, that

criminal activity is afoot. Id. at 21. "An investigatory stop does not violate the Fourth

Amendment to the United States Constitution if the police have reasonable suspicion that

'the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.'" State v. Jordan, 104

-3- Butler CA2020-12-124

Ohio St.3d 21, 2004-Ohio-6085, ¶ 35.

{¶11} Reasonable articulable suspicion is "something more than an undeveloped

suspicion or hunch" but is less than the level of suspicion required for probable cause. State

v. Hinkston, 12th Dist. Clermont No. CA2020-03-012, 2020-Ohio-6903, ¶ 18; United States

v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7, 109 S.Ct. 1581 (1989). "Reasonable articulable suspicion exists

when there are specific and articulable facts which, taken together, with rational inferences

from those facts, reasonably warrant the intrusion." State v. Hill, 12th Dist. Warren No.

CA2015-05-044, 2015-Ohio-4655, ¶ 10.

{¶12} Reasonable and articulable suspicion is determined by evaluating the totality

of the circumstances "through the eyes of a reasonable and prudent police officer on the

scene who must react to events as they unfold." State v. Popp, 12th Dist. Butler No.

CA2010-05-128, 2011-Ohio-791, ¶ 13. "This process allows officers to draw on their own

experience and specialized training to make inferences from and deductions about the

cumulative information available to them that might well elude an untrained person." United

States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744 (2002).

{¶13} An assessment of the totality of the circumstances "does not deal with hard

certainties, but with probabilities." United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418, 101 S.Ct.

690, (1981). As such, this court will consider the cumulative facts "not in terms of library

analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement."

Id.

{¶14} After an officer makes a lawful Terry stop, the officer may conduct a limited

protective search, or a pat down, for weapons if the officer has "reason to believe that he is

dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether he has probable

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2021 Ohio 3958, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-walton-ohioctapp-2021.