McBurrows v. State
| Decision Date | 07 November 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. A13A1558.,A13A1558. |
| Citation | 325 Ga.App. 303,750 S.E.2d 436 |
| Parties | McBURROWS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
John Walter Kraus, for Appellant.
Paul L. Howard, Jr., Dist. Atty., Peggy Ann Katz, Asst. Dist. Atty., for Appellee.
Following a jury trial, Keith McBurrows was convicted of two counts of armed robbery ( OCGA § 16–8–41(a) ) and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony ( OCGA § 16–11–106(b)(1) ).1 McBurrows appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, contending that the trial court erred in: (1) denying his motion to suppress; (2) admitting bad character evidence; (3) allowing hearsay testimony; (4) allowing certain exhibits to go out with the jury in violation of the continuing witness rule; and (5) failing to conduct an in camera inspection of the State's file and denying his request to copy and seal the file. McBurrows also contends that the trial court erred in charging the jury, and the State improperly referred to evidence in violation of the trial court's ruling on a motion in limine. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict,2 the evidence shows that on the night of March 21, 2003, the first victim went to a check-cashing store located on the corner of Campbellton Road and DeLowe Drive in Atlanta. After she cashed her check, the first victim caught a bus to return to her apartment, which was located about five blocks away from the check-cashing store. Upon exiting the bus, the first victim walked across the street and onto the driveway that led into her apartment complex. The first victim heard a car and then someone running up from behind her. When the first victim turned around, McBurrows was standing about five feet away and pointing a silver gun at her. McBurrows demanded the victim's purse, which contained approximately $193 in cash. After the first victim gave her purse to McBurrows, he returned to the car and left the apartment complex and headed in the direction of the check-cashing store. The first victim then ran into her apartment and called the police. The first victim described the vehicle as a 1994 two-door, dark-blue Ford Thunderbird that had a drive-out tag.
A few days later, on March 25, 2003, the second victim left work at 11:00 p.m. and drove to the same check-cashing store located on Campbellton Road. After the second victim received some money orders and cash, she exited the store and returned to her car. She got into her car and put her purse, money orders, and some envelopes on the seat and began to close the car door. McBurrows then snatched open the door, pointed a silver gun at the second victim's head, and reached over the victim to turn off the car's interior light. The second victim testified that at one point, she was almost face-to-face with McBurrows and saw his face completely. McBurrows warned the second victim to keep quiet, grabbed her purse and money orders, and took off running. The victim got out of her car and started yelling for help. The victim learned that her assailant left in a dark Ford Thunderbird and headed toward an apartment complex. The second victim subsequently called the police.
A responding officer met the second victim at the apartment complex. The officer spoke to the owner of the Ford Thunderbird. The owner, who had lent his vehicle to McBurrows and his brother, had just seen McBurrows return to the apartment complex with a woman's purse that contained money orders. When questioned by the police, however, the owner lied to police and said that nobody had recently been driving his vehicle. Since the second victim did not identify the owner of the vehicle as being involved in the robbery, the officer did not believe that the vehicle was involved in the robbery.
About a week later, on April 2, 2003, officers received information that two men were sitting in a parked car across the street from the check-cashing store on Campbellton Road, and the description of the vehicle matched the description of the car given by the victims. Officers responded to the scene and subsequently arrested McBurrows. A search of the vehicle revealed a drive-out tag and a black and silver gun. A photo lineup was subsequently shown to both victims, who both positively identified McBurrows as their assailant.
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id.
(a) McBurrows first contends that the officers lacked a reasonable suspicion to conduct the stop. We disagree.
A law enforcement officer may make a brief, investigatory stop of a vehicle when he has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person stopped has been, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity. This specific, articulable suspicion must be based on the totality of the circumstances—e.g., objective observations, information from police reports, the modes or patterns of certain kinds of lawbreakers, and the inferences drawn and deductions made by a trained law enforcement officer; inferences and deductions that might well elude an untrained person. A founded suspicion is all that is necessary, some basis from which the court can determine that the detention was not arbitrary or harassing. The existence of an articulable suspicion can be based on the collective knowledge of law enforcement officials.
(Punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Prado v. State, 306 Ga.App. 240, 245(1), 701 S.E.2d 871 (2010).
As to the initial stop, the detective investigating the armed robberies testified at the motion to suppress hearing that he compared the similarities between the two armed robberies. The detective went to the check-cashing store on Campbellton Road and DeLowe Drive and to other nearby businesses to ask for their help in apprehending the individual involved in the rash of robberies in the area. The detective informed local businesses that he was looking for a black male between 5'8? and 6'1? and between 210 and 250 pounds, and he was also looking for a dark blue or black two-door Ford Thunderbird. The detective asked business owners to call him or 911 if they saw a vehicle matching that description in the area between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. At about 10:30 p.m. one night, the detective received a call from a local security guard that the guard saw a dark-colored Ford Thunderbird parked across the street from the check-cashing store and that two people were sitting inside the vehicle. The detective broadcast a be-on-the-lookout ("BOLO"), and dispatch then sent some units to Campbellton Road and DeLowe Drive. Police officers subsequently stopped the two-door black Thunderbird across the street from the check-cashing store, and McBurrows was detained.
The BOLO broadcast by the detective provided a reasonable basis to stop the vehicle in which McBurrows was a passenger. The BOLO provided particularized information describing the color, manufacturer and model of the vehicle, the number of occupants, and the location of the vehicle. "Particularized alerts issued by police officers for specifically described vehicles possibly involved in criminal activity have long served as a legitimate basis for investigatory stops." (Citations omitted.) Faulkner v. State, 277 Ga.App. 702, 704(1), 627 S.E.2d 423 (2006). Additionally, the identified vehicle was practically identical to the one involved in the armed robberies, the vehicle was in the area where the armed robberies had occurred, and the hour the vehicle was spotted was at about the same time that the other robberies had occurred.
To the extent McBurrows contends that reasonable suspicion could not be based solely on the detective's testimony, and that the officers who conducted the stop were required to testify, his argument is without merit.
Reasonable suspicion need not be based on [a responding] officer's knowledge alone, but may exist based on the "collective knowledge" of the police when there is reliable communication between an officer supplying the information and an officer acting on that information. In this regard, police are authorized to stop an individual based on a "be on the lookout" dispatch or even a radio transmission from another officer who observed facts raising a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity or a traffic violation.
(Citations omitted.) Camp v. State, 259 Ga.App. 228, 229(1), 576 S.E.2d 610 (2003). Based on the totality of the circumstances, the officers had a reasonable suspicion to believe that the vehicle and its occupants were about to be engaged in criminal activity, and therefore, the stop was valid.
(b) McBurrows also contends that his motion to suppress should have been
granted because the stop was unreasonably prolonged. We do not agree.
The United States Supreme Court has adopted a dual inquiry for evaluating the reasonableness of a lengthy investigative stop. First, we consider whether the officer's action was justified at its inception, and second, whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place. In assessing whether a detention is too long in duration to be justified as an investigative stop, we consider it appropriate to examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions...
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Gonzalez v. State
- Akintoye v. State
- Tremblay v. State
- In re Interest of K. K.