Ansley v. State

• Decision Date: 18 November 2013
• Docket Number: A13A1079,Nos. A13A1078,A13A1303.,s. A13A1078
• Citation: 750 S.E.2d 484,325 Ga.App. 226
• Parties: ANSLEY v. The STATE. Johnson v. The State. Hannah v. The State.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

325 Ga.App. 226

750 S.E.2d 484

ANSLEY

v.The STATE.

Johnson

v.The State.

Hannah

v.The State.

Nos. A13A1078

A13A1079

A13A1303.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Nov. 18, 2013.

Reconsideration Denied Dec. 3, 2013.

Certiorari Denied June 2, 2014.

John M. Petty, Jr., for appellants (case nos. A13A1078 and A13A1079).

John W. Donnelly, for appellant (case no. A13A1303).

Layla H. Zon, Dist. Atty., Kimberly M. Minicozzi, Ronald V. McNease, Jr., Walter C. Howard, Asst. Dist. Attys., for appellee.

BOGGS, Judge.

Randy Ansley, Brian Lamar Johnson, and Quincy Hannah were tried together and convicted of armed robbery. Their amended motions for new trial were denied, and they appeal, asserting various enumerations of error. Finding no error, we affirm.

All three appellants contend the trial court erred in denying their motions to suppress documentary and testimonial evidence. "When reviewing a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we apply the ‘any evidence’ standard, which means that we sustain all of the trial court's findings of fact that are supported by any evidence. We construe all evidence presented in favor of the trial court's findings and judgment." (Citation, punctuation, and footnote omitted.) Davis v. State, 302 Ga.App. 144, 144–145, 690 S.E.2d 464 (2010). Because the defendants "intensely cross-examined the officer[s] and challenged [their] credibility" in multiple hearings on the motions to suppress, and at trial, we "do not apply a de novo standard of review, which applies only where the facts are undisputed." (Citation and footnote omitted.) Id. at 145, 690 S.E.2d 464. In reviewing the trial court's rulings, we may look at trial testimony as well as testimony at the hearing on the motion to suppress. Jones v. State, 318 Ga.App. 614, 616(2), 734 S.E.2d 450 (2012).

So construed, the evidence showed that a finance company in Monroe, Georgia was robbed on December 4, 2009, shortly before 1:00 p.m. The manager of the company testified that the third day of the month was the company's busiest day, because social security, retirement and VA checks were received by their customers, who then made payments owed to the company. She further testified that the employees customarily collected all the receipts and secured them in her desk for deposit with the bank. On December 4, the company had approximately $600 as "normal operating cash" and just over $5,200 to deposit with the bank.

The robber arrived while the sole male employee of the business was on his regular lunch break from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. The robber entered the business through an open back door, which was ordinarily kept locked and barricaded with a two-by-four board, chain, and padlock during business hours. Employee Cassandra Cameron was the last person to open the door before the robbery; she had asked to borrow the manager's keys that morning to take out the trash, although trash was not ordinarily taken out until mid or late afternoon, which was the slowest time in the office.

After entering the business by the back door, the robber put a gun to the manager's head and demanded, "Get the money." He took the manager's cell phone and instructed Cameron to get the money; the manager told Cameron to obey the robber, and she unlocked the manager's desk drawer and put the money in a bag. The manager described the robber as a black male with dark eyes and a "very well groomed" goatee and mustache, wearing a black Carhartt-style heavy jacket with a grey hoodie underneath, khaki pants, white tennis shoes and a black ski mask. The manager also testified that Cameron was unnaturally calm during the robbery and ignored the robber's instructions to remain in the bathroom for ten minutes after he left. The male employee returned about five minutes before 1:00 p.m. and chased the robber out the back door; he caught a glimpse of "dark clothes, white shoes." After the robbery, the deposit bag was discovered lying on the floor near the manager's desk "as if someone had dropped it."

At about 1:00 p.m., a Monroe police officer on patrol noticed Johnson, whom he knew from prior law enforcement contact, walking down the street behind the finance company. Johnson, whose photograph depicts a black male with a neatly-trimmed goatee beard and mustache, was wearing khaki pants and a dark-colored jacket, and it appeared to the officer that Johnson was trying to avoid him. A few minutes later, the officer learned that the finance company had been robbed and received the description of the suspect. He immediately returned to the area but was unable to relocate Johnson. After obtaining a photograph of Johnson, he provided it to other officers and they all continued the search. Several hours later, Johnson was located and taken into custody; $300 in cash, a cell phone, and a cell phone charger were found on his person.

The City of Monroe police department is located less than a block from the scene of the robbery. The police arrived "very, very quickly" and began their investigation. A nearby resident reported seeing an older model "white BMW with light tinted windows" driving back and forth "four or five times" on his street at about 12:30 p.m. on the day of the robbery. The last time the vehicle went by, around 1:00 p.m., it was traveling at a high rate of speed "from downtown going towards Spring Street" and was occupied by two or three individuals. A sheriff's deputy took information from the resident and instructed officers to be on the lookout (BOLO) for a "white BMW with small, gold rims."

Another sheriff's deputy in an unmarked vehicle received the BOLO and recalled that he had recently seen a similar vehicle in a subdivision about two miles from the robbery scene. He drove to the subdivision, and around 1:45 p.m., he saw a white BMW pull up to a residence; two black males, whom he recognized from "dealing with them" although he did not recall their names, went in the house. A few minutes later, the deputy saw the same men get into a different vehicle and leave, and he radioed that information to dispatch.¹ Other officers made a traffic stop on the second vehicle; Ansley was driving and Hannah was a passenger.

Both men were questioned and arrested, but the trial court later determined that the arrests were based upon insufficient probable cause and suppressed their statements given at the time of the arrest. The trial court held, however, that the vehicle stop itself was permissible based upon the specific and articulable facts known to the police.

After police informed the manager of the finance company that Ansley had been arrested, she told police that she recognized his name. Ansley was the cousin of Roman, Cameron's live-in boyfriend and father of her child, and the manager had seen Ansley on several occasions when she gave Cameron a ride home. A police detective spoke with Cameron and her boyfriend that evening, and explained that he believed the robbery was committed by someone with " inside knowledge" who knew that there was a large amount of money on hand and that the only male employee would be out of the office. Both agreed that there had to be inside knowledge, and both agreed to come down to the police station for polygraph examinations. But when Cameron arrived for her polygraph, she instead gave a voluntary statement asserting that the robbery was planned by Ansley and Hannah in her apartment. Cameron pleaded guilty and testified at trial.

Four days after the arrest of Ansley and Hannah, a jail trusty, who was acquainted with both men, was asked by Hannah to deliver a letter to Ansley. The letter was intercepted by jail personnel; it was addressed to "White Boy" and instructed him in detail as to "your story." The letter added, "don't take no pleas all of us is taking to to [sic] trail [sic] if they don't drop it in less than 2 years nobody going to talk then we will be free." Ansley has "White Boy" tattooed on his arm; Johnson's given name is Brian, and Hannah's letter repeatedly referred to "Bryant" and "Black" and instructed Ansley to say that he knew "Bryant" as "Black."

Case No. A13A1078

1. In his sole enumeration of error, Ansley contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress, for two reasons. First, he contends that the traffic stop of the vehicle he was driving was improper, relying almost exclusively upon Vansant v. State, 264 Ga. 319, 320(1), 443 S.E.2d 474 (1994). Second, he contends that Cameron's statement to police should have been suppressed as "fruit of the poisonous tree" because she knew that he had been arrested and this knowledge caused her to reveal his involvement in the robbery. Neither contention has merit.

(a) A "particularized description of a suspect vehicle may provide a reasonable suspicion sufficient to warrant a Terry stop." Shorter v. State, 239 Ga.App. 625, 626(1), 521 S.E.2d 684 (1999). Here, police had a detailed description of the car including its make, color, approximate age, and features such as tinted windows and rims. A deputy was able to locate the car within 45 minutes after a BOLO was put out, at a location within two miles of the robbery that could be easily reached on main roads in the direction the vehicle was last seen traveling. This description "was much more particularized than that in Vansant. " Cray v. State, 291 Ga.App. 609, 611–612(1), 662 S.E.2d 365 (2008) (description including make, model, color, size, wheels; vehicle found and stopped 30 minutes after robbery). " Given the vehicle's description and proximity to the crime, the officer had a well-founded, objective basis for suspecting the occupant of the vehicle was the subject of the lookout." (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Id.

In addition, officers knew that the white BMW belonged to Ansley, went to the area where it was last seen, and had Ansley and his companion under observation when they switched cars—conduct that suggested an effort to throw off pursuit. See, e.g., Watt v. State, 317 Ga.App. 551, 554(1), 732 S.E.2d 96 (2012) (...