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McSwain v. State9/15/1999
FIRST DIVISION
After stopping a vehicle driven by Dexter McSwain, police discovered cocaine in the trunk. McSwain and his three passengers, Antonio Stepps, Toriono Lawson, and Eric Easter, were arrested and charged with trafficking in cocaine. The defendants moved to suppress the evidence obtained in the search of the vehicle, but the trial court denied their motion. McSwain and Stepps appeal, asserting that the police lacked reasonable suspicion to initiate the traffic stop. As explained more fully below, we reverse.
The uncontroverted evidence presented at the suppression hearing follows. On the afternoon of October 10, 1995, Corporal Clay Kicklighter of the Georgia State Patrol ("GSP") was monitoring traffic on I-95 in McIntosh County when he heard the Brunswick GSP post announce over the radio that GSP units in Camden and McIntosh counties should be on the lookout for a vehicle headed northbound on I-95 from Florida to North or South Carolina. The dispatcher described the vehicle as a light green, four-door Honda Accord occupied by four black males, gave the vehicle's license plate number, and stated that there was "possibly some contraband" in the trunk. The dispatcher also gave names for the vehicle's occupants, but Kicklighter did not write the names down and, with the exception of Easter, did not remember them at the suppression hearing. No further details were provided.
About an hour later, Kicklighter saw a vehicle that matched the description and contained four black males traveling north on I-95. Kicklighter followed the vehicle for approximately one mile, but saw no traffic violations or other criminal activity. He then pulled the vehicle over based solely on the radio lookout. He asked the driver -later identified as McSwain - to step out of the car and produce his driver's license, at which point McSwain told him that his driver's license had been suspended. Kicklighter detected the odor of burnt marijuana on McSwain's clothing and noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. After reading McSwain his Miranda rights, Kicklighter sought McSwain's consent to search the car, which McSwain said belonged to passenger Easter. Kicklighter then ordered the three passengers out of the car, read them their Miranda rights, and asked for consent to search the car. According to Kicklighter, all four men consented to the search. A canine unit arrived at the scene, and the dog alerted at several places on the car, including the trunk. Subsequent searches revealed a small quantity of marijuana in the rear passenger's seat and one and one-half pounds of cocaine in the trunk.
As the evidence at the suppression hearing was undisputed and there was no question as to the credibility of the witnesses, we conduct a de novo review of the trial court's application of the law to the uncontroverted facts. Hughes v. State, 269 Ga. 258, 259 (1) (497 SE2d 790) (1998). It is well established that a brief, investigatory stop of a motorist by police
must be justified by specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U. S. 1, 21 (88 SC 1868, 20 LE2d 889) (1968). The issue critical to a determination of the validity of the stop is whether the officer had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity. Investigative stops of vehicles are . . . invalid if based upon only unparticularized suspicion or hunch. An investigatory stop must be justified by some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal conduct. What is demanded of the police officer, as the agent of the s
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