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State v. Bellamy10/20/2004
The appellant, Andrew John Bellamy, pled guilty to driving on a revoked license and third offense DUI and reserved, with the consent of the State and the court, the right to appeal a certified question of law that is dispositive of the case. The certified question of law relates to whether the trial court was correct in overruling the appellant's motion to suppress all the evidence introduced against the appellant because of an allegedly illegal stop of his vehicle. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Trial Court is Affirmed.
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Sullivan County, No. S45,958, Phyllis H. Miller, Judge.
Kenneth F. Irvine, Jr., Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Andrew John Bellamy.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Kathy D. Aslinger, Assistant Attorney General; Greeley Wells, District Attorney General; and William Crabtree, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: Jerry L. Smith, Judge
Jerry L. Smith, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which David H. Welles, J., joined and James Curwood Witt, Jr., J., not participating.
OPINION
Factual Background
On May 19, 2001, Officer Keith Feathers of the Bristol Police Department was working the evening shift when he received a telephone call from his cousin, Todd Martin, an Assistant District Attorney General. General Martin informed Officer Feathers that the appellant was driving a red Mercedes sports car with a black top and that he believed the appellant was driving on a revoked license. During the telephone conversation, General Martin provided Officer Feathers with a detailed description and the license number of the vehicle. When Officer Feathers subsequently checked this information, he confirmed that the appellant's driver's license had been revoked. At that point, Officer Feathers informed other officers over the radio to be on the lookout for the red sports car.
Sometime later that evening, Officer Feathers received another telephone call from General Martin, who stated that he had gone to a wedding reception at the Holiday Inn in Bristol, Virginia and that the appellant was present. Around 10:30 that night, Officer Feathers contacted the Bristol, Virginia police department and confirmed that the appellant's car was still at the Holiday Inn.
Between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and midnight, Officer Feathers was in the area of Holiday Drive and Highway 11-W in Bristol, Tennessee, when he observed a "red sports car at a high rate of speed going towards Kingsport." The car appeared to be traveling much faster than the posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Holiday Drive is approximately one-half of a mile inside the city limits of Bristol.
Officer Feathers immediately turned around and attempted to catch up to the vehicle. He lost sight of the vehicle momentarily, but caught up to the vehicle near a Conoco gas station on Highway 11-W, which is approximately one-half mile outside the Bristol city limits. According to Officer Feathers, he had to drive at "well over a hundred miles an hour" in order to catch up to the vehicle. By the time he caught up to the vehicle, it was traveling at least 80 miles per hour. He realized at that point that the tag number matched that of the appellant's vehicle that had been provided earlier by General Martin. After following the appellant for a short while, Officer Feathers noted that the appellant changed lanes several times and crossed over the right line twice. Officer Feathers activated his onboard camera a
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