State v. Watson

472 S.E.2d 28, 122 N.C. App. 596
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJune 11, 1996
DocketCOA95-352
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 472 S.E.2d 28 (State v. Watson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Watson, 472 S.E.2d 28, 122 N.C. App. 596 (N.C. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

LEWIS, Judge.

Defendant was charged with and found guilty of impaired driving in Pitt County District Court. He appealed to Superior Court, where a jury again convicted him. Defendant appeals. For the reasons stated below, we find that defendant received a fair trial free of prejudicial error.

At trial the State’s evidence tended to show that one morning in June 1993 at approximately 2:30 a.m. Trooper Everett Lee Deans, a highway patrolman, observed a 1971 Ford pickup truck driving on the dividing line on State Road 1534, a two-lane highway, near a nightclub called Hard Times. After Trooper Deans turned to follow the vehicle, he noticed it weaving back and forth in its lane. After observing this behavior for approximately 15 seconds, the officer pulled the vehicle over.

Trooper Deans testified that defendant was driving the vehicle. After smelling a strong odor of alcohol as he approached the truck, Trooper Deans requested that defendant join him in his patrol car. In the car, the officer noticed a strong odor of alcohol coming from defendant and that his eyes were red and glassy. Trooper Deans arrested defendant for impaired driving.

Trooper Deans, a certified chemical analyst, then transported defendant to the intoxilyzer room where he examined and prepared the machine. Prior to administering the test, he informed defendant of his intoxilyzer rights and gave him a copy of those rights. After the test, the results showed a .13 alcohol concentration. Trooper Deans provided a copy of the results to defendant.

Next, defendant consented to a series of psychophysical tests including a one-legged stand, walking a line, a sway test, and a finger-to-nose test. The officer’s testimony revealed that defendant performed only the sway test satisfactorily. After receiving his Miranda *599 rights, defendant told Trooper Deans that he had drunk three or four beers that evening but did not think he was under the influence of alcohol.

The trooper testified that in his opinion after observing the defendant for approximately two hours, he believed defendant “had consumed enough alcoholic beverage to appreciably impair both his mental and physical faculties that he should not have been operating that vehicle on that night.” On cross-examination, Trooper Deans agreed that there was nothing unusual about defendant’s speech or ability to walk.

Defendant’s evidence consisted of testimony from himself and a Ms. Brinkley, a passenger in his truck that evening. Defendant testified that he had about four beers that evening but was not impaired. Ms. Brinkley, who at the time had known defendant for a year and a half, stated that she noticed nothing different about defendant and that she had no concerns about riding with him that evening.

Defendant made fifteen assignments of error. However, because he only argued five in his brief, the rest are deemed abandoned. N.C.R. App. P. 28(a) (1996).

Defendant first argues that Trooper Deans did not have a reasonable and articulable suspicion when he stopped the defendant’s vehicle. We disagree.

Since the Fourth Amendment applies to brief investigatory stops such as this one, an “investigatory stop must be justified by some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 66 L. Ed. 2d 621, 628 (1981). It is our job to consider the totality of the circumstances to determine whether there was a reasonable suspicion to make the investigatory stop. See State v. Watkins, 337 N.C. 437, 441, 446 S.E.2d 67, 70 (1994). “The stop must be based on specific and articulable facts, as well as the rational inferences from those facts, as viewed through the eyes of a reasonable, cautious officer, guided by his experience and training.” Id. (citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 906 (1968)). All that is required is a “minimal level of objective justification.” Id. at 442, 446 S.E.2d at 70.

In this case, Trooper Deans testified that he observed defendant driving on the center line and weaving back and forth within his lane for 15 seconds. This observation occurred at 2:30 a.m. on a road near a nightclub. Looking at the totality of the circumstances, we hold that *600 this evidence is sufficient to form a suspicion of impaired driving in the mind of a reasonable and cautious officer. We therefore overrule this assignment of error.

Defendant next argues that the trial court erred in not granting his motion to suppress the results of his chemical analysis. The first basis for his argument is that he was not properly advised of his rights under N.C. Gen. Stat. 20-16.2(a) because Trooper Deans did not take him before another officer to have his rights read. Defendant argues that Nicholson v. Killens, 116 N.C. App. 473, 448 S.E.2d 542 (1994), controls. We disagree.

In Nicholson, the charging officer requested that the defendant submit to a chemical analysis, but the defendant refused. Id. at 474, 448 S.E.2d at 542. The defendant was not taken before another officer to be advised of his rights under G.S. section 20-16.2(a). Id. The defendant’s driver’s license was revoked. The trial court subsequently entered an order rescinding the revocation on the ground that the defendant had not been notified of his rights in accordance with G.S. section 20-16.2(a). Id. at 475, 448 S.E.2d at 542. This Court affirmed, holding that a second officer should have advised the defendant of his rights. Id. at 478, 448 S.E.2d at 544. However, the Court stated: “[0]ur decision here has no adverse effect whatever on the admissibility of the results of the breath analysis using an automated breath instrument that prints the results of its analysis, where the driver has agreed to submit to the breath analysis.” Id. Its holding was limited to cases in which a driver refuses to submit to a breath analysis.

In this case, the record contains no evidence that defendant refused to submit to the test. In fact, the evidence is clearly to the contrary. Defendant was informed of his rights, signed a form containing those rights and submitted to the chemical analysis. Therefore, Nicholson is inapplicable. We hold that defendant was adequately notified of his rights as required by G.S. section 20-16.2(a).

The second basis defendant uses to support his suppression motion is that Trooper Deans did not record the printed results of the test nor did he provide defendant with a copy prior to trial as mandated by N.C. Gen. Stat. section 20-139.1(e). We find no merit in this argument.

N.C. Gen. Stat. section 20~139.1(e) (1993) requires the chemical analyst to record the results of the test and the time of collection of the breath samples. It also requires that a copy of this information be

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472 S.E.2d 28, 122 N.C. App. 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-watson-ncctapp-1996.