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State v. Watkins11/21/1995
GREENE, Judge.
The State appeals from the trial court's 9 November 1994 order which granted William Davis Watkins' (defendant) motion to suppress evidence in his trial for driving while impaired.
Defendant was arrested and charged with driving while impaired on 11 February 1990. On 16 August 1991, defendant made a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during defendant's stop on the ground that the arresting officer did not have a reasonable articulable suspicion to stop defendant. The trial court granted defendant's motion on 1 July 1992, but the trial court's order was reversed on appeal on 29 July 1994, after it was determined that an anonymous tip received by law enforcement and the arresting officer's subsequent observations supported a "reasonable articulable suspicion" to stop defendant. State v. Watkins, 337 N.C. 437, 446 S.E.2d 67 (1994). Subsequently, on 12 October 1994, the defendant made a "Supplemental Motion to Suppress based on Newly Discovered Evidence." In support of his motion, the defendant submitted an affidavit by Teresa Hundley Carter (Carter) stating that the Chief of Police of Stoneville, Jerry Fowler (Fowler), whom Carter dated in 1990, "set up" the defendant on 11 February 1990.
After a hearing on the supplemental motion to suppress, the trial court found that on 10 February 1990, defendant had been at the Virginia Carolina Well Drilling Company (Well Company) all day and at 11:30 p.m. called his wife to say that he had had too much to drink and would not be coming home. The Well Company was known by law enforcement to be a place where people in the community gathered to drink and Fowler "was having his department conduct a vigorous campaign to ferret out those motorists who drove while impaired in the Stoneville area" and Fowler knew that "defendant hung out at the" Well Company. On 10 February 1990, Fowler was "out socially" with Carter. Although Fowler was in his personal vehicle, he had his Stoneville Police walkie-talkie radio with him. After leaving Carter's home, and when the two were in the vicinity of the Well Company, Fowler "saw and recognized" defendant's vehicle, which did not have its lights on at the time. Defendant was not outside the building at any time that Fowler observed his vehicle at the Well Company. After telling Carter that the vehicle belonged to defendant, Fowler returned to Carter's home where he used the telephone and telephone book. Fowler asked Carter how the Well Company would be listed in the telephone book and then dialed and spoke into the phone, when Carter heard Fowler "tell the person on the other end that there was an emergency." The trial court further found that Fowler's call from Carter's home was to the defendant, at the Well Company, and that Fowler "without identifying himself, told the defendant there was an ambulance at the defendant's house." "This statement was false and was designed and intended to cause the defendant . . . to leave the [Well Company] and to get on the public road, so that he could be arrested for driving while impaired." After making the call to defendant, Fowler called Officer Shockley of the Stoneville Police Department on his walkie-talkie and requested that he meet Fowler and Carter in Stoneville. During this meeting, Fowler instructed Shockley to report a suspicious vehicle behind the Well Company to the Sheriff's Department, which Shockley did. Meanwhile, defendant called home and was told by his wife that there was no ambulance, but was requested to return home. Deputy Robert Knight was dispatched by the Sheriff's Department, in response to Shockley's report, and because he was "a good distance away, Stoneville Police Officer Harbour advised that he would assist." Defendant was st
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