Cowart-Darling v. State

• Decision Date: 18 October 2018
• Docket Number: No. 1D17-5076,1D17-5076
• Citation: 256 So.3d 250
• Parties: Justin COWART-DARLING, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

256 So.3d 250

Justin COWART-DARLING, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 1D17-5076

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

October 18, 2018

Andy Thomas, Public Defender, and Laurel Niles, Assistant Public Defender, Tallahassee, for Appellant.

Pamela Jo Bondi, Attorney General; Tabitha Herrera and Kaitlin Weiss, Assistant Attorneys General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

Rowe, J.

Justin Cowart-Darling challenges his convictions and sentences for possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. He entered a plea but reserved the right to appeal the trial court's denial of his dispositive motion to suppress items seized from his vehicle following a traffic stop and a sniff test of his vehicle by a drug detection dog. For the reasons that follow, we find that the trial court correctly denied the motion to suppress, and affirm.

Facts

Deputy Kevin Kinik conducted a traffic stop of Cowart-Darling's vehicle at 10:28 p.m. on February 17, 2017. When the deputy asked for his license and registration, Cowart-Darling gave the deputy his registration and informed the deputy that he did not have his driver's license on him. Deputy Kinik conveyed Cowart-Darling's legal name and date of birth to dispatch to verify Cowart-Darling's identity and to check for outstanding warrants.

Deputy Kinik observed that Cowart-Darling's hands were shaking and that he kept moving his right hand towards his right hip area. This conduct prompted the deputy to call for assistance while he wrote Cowart-Darling a traffic citation. While writing the ticket, Deputy Kinik explained to Cowart-Darling that he was a K-9 officer and asked if there was anything in the car that could cause a drug detection dog to alert. Cowart-Darling shook his head up and down in an affirmative gesture. When the deputy asked about the nature of the illegal substance, Cowart-Darling denied having anything illegal in the vehicle.

Deputy Jeremiah Roe responded to Deputy Kinik's call for assistance at 10:40 p.m. At this point, Deputy Kinik still had not heard back from dispatch about whether Cowart-Darling had any outstanding warrants. Deputy Kinik retrieved his canine, "Zombie," from the car and proceeded to conduct a sniff search of Cowart-Darling's vehicle. Zombie alerted to the driver's side door, where a syringe and a spoon with a powdery residue were located. The powdery substance was field tested and tested positive for cocaine.

Following his arrest, Cowart-Darling moved to suppress the evidence seized during the sniff search, arguing that Deputy Kinik did not have reasonable suspicion to delay the traffic stop or to take his canine around the vehicle for a sniff search. The trial court denied the motion to suppress, finding that Cowart-Darling's nervousness combined with the fact that he did not have his driver's license was sufficient to give Deputy Kinik reasonable suspicion to conduct a search of the...