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State v. Joe3/19/2003
On the evening of July 12, 2001, Defendant was seen by San Juan County Sheriff's Deputy Eric Jiles driving at sunset in a car without its headlamps illuminated. Deputy Jiles testified that it was very dark, overcast, very cloudy, and black at 8:31 p.m, and that all the other cars on the road had their headlamps illuminated. Both parties stipulated that the sun set that night at 8:33 p.m. Deputy Jiles turned his car around, drove up behind Defendant, and pulled Defendant over to advise him to turn his lights on. As he approached the car, Deputy Jiles saw a 40-ounce can of beer on the rear floor, smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Defendant, and observed that Defendant had bloodshot and watery eyes. Deputy Jiles administered several field sobriety tests, which Defendant failed. A subsequent blood test revealed that Defendant's blood alcohol content was .17. Defendant was charged with driving a vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquors, driving a motor vehicle on the highway with an open container of alcohol, failure to carry evidence of financial responsibility, driving on the highway without headlamps at a time when there was not sufficient light to render clearly discernible persons and vehicles at a distance of 500 feet (the Section 66-3-802 offense), and driving a vehicle without a current registration.
Defendant moved to suppress evidence obtained as a result of the stop, alleging that the stop itself was illegal. At the suppression hearing, Deputy Jiles testified that he would have been unable to see Defendant's car at 500 feet away without his headlights. See § 66-3-802 (requiring headlamps on vehicles when there is not sufficient light to render clearly discernible persons and vehicles on the highway at a distance of 500 feet). He also testified that he stopped Defendant for safety reasons and only stopped him to advise him to turn on his headlamps. The trial court denied the motion to suppress.
At trial, Deputy Jiles testified three different times that he could see Defendant's car at approximately 500 yards away. He testified that he could clearly discern the vehicle at 500 yards away, and that he never lost sight of Defendant's car.
After the State presented its case, Defendant renewed his motion to suppress based on Deputy Jiles' testimony at trial. The trial court granted the motion based on the new evidence of 500 yards of visibility, and issued a directed verdict on the Section 66-3-802 count. The trial court then directed a mistrial on the other counts because the jury had heard evidence that should have been suppressed. The State now appeals the granting of the motion to suppress.
MOTION TO SUPPRESS
Standard of Review
When reviewing the trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we determine whether the law was correctly applied to the facts, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party. State v. Cline, 1998-NMCA-154, 6, 126 N.M. 77, 966 P.2d 785. "As a general rule, we will indulge in all reasonable presumptions in support of the [trial] court's ruling." State v. Gonzales, 1999-NMCA-027, 15, 126 N.M. 742, 975 P.2d 355. We review evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court's decision, and we indulge the inferences drawn by the trial court even though, with similar facts, another trial court may have drawn different inferences. See State v. Anderson, 107 N.M. 165, 168, 754 P.2d 542, 545 (Ct. App. 1988).
Discussion
The State argues that Deputy Jiles' uncontradicted testimony supports the stop as a community caretaking encounter and supports that he had a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation, and therefore the trial court erred in its application of the
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