Moultry v. State

• Decision Date: 17 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. 49A02-0304-CR-320.,49A02-0304-CR-320.
• Citation: 808 N.E.2d 168
• Parties: Christopher MOULTRY, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

808 N.E.2d 168

Christopher MOULTRY, Appellant-Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 49A02-0304-CR-320.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

May 17, 2004.

Timothy J. O'Connor, O'Connor & Auersch, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Matthew D. Fisher, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION

MAY, Judge.

Christopher Moultry was charged with Count I, dealing in cocaine, a Class A felony;¹ Count II, possession of cocaine, a Class C felony;² Count III, possession of cocaine and a firearm, a Class C felony;³ and Count IV, carrying a handgun without a license, a Class A misdemeanor.⁴ He appeals the denial of his motion to suppress evidence of cocaine and handguns found in his car. Moultry asserts the evidence supporting the charges was obtained pursuant to an investigatory stop conducted without the reasonable suspicion required by the Fourth Amendment.

We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On July 9, 2002, Officer Shaughnessy of the Indianapolis Police Department ("IPD") arrested Kendre Harris on outstanding warrants. While being interrogated, Harris told Officer Shaughnessy he had worked with men who were selling drugs around 9th and Delaware Streets in Indianapolis.

Harris told Shaughnessy that one of the men named "Chris" was dealing drugs out of his white Cadillac, which had silver rims. Harris also informed Shaughnessy the men used two-way radios and employed "runners" (Tr. at 54) to go to an apartment to obtain drugs and deliver them.

Two days after Harris' arrest, Shaughnessy saw a white Cadillac with silver rims fitting the description Harris had given him with the license plate number "97R1934." Shaughnessy ran the license plate number and found the car was registered to Moultry. The officer also discovered Moultry had drug-related prior offenses.

The following day, July 12, 2002, Officer Brian Swingle⁵ of the IPD received a dispatch relaying an anonymous report of drug dealing by the occupants of a white Cadillac with silver rims with license plate number "97R1934." According to the caller, the car was traveling up and down 9th Street near Delaware Street about every fifteen minutes. Officer Swingle found the white Cadillac, pulled behind it, and radioed to dispatch he had found the car.

Officer Shaughnessy heard Officer Swingle's radio call and told Officer Swingle he had enough information to stop the occupants of the Cadillac. Officer Swingle activated his emergency lights and pulled the vehicle over at a nearby gas station. In the Cadillac, Officer Swingle saw three men, one of whom was Moultry, the driver. Officer Swingle asked Moultry to exit the vehicle. After Officer Shaughnessy and other officers arrived, the other two men were removed from the vehicle.

Moultry allowed the officers to search the ashtray of his car where officers noticed marijuana seeds and residue. The officers also noticed in plain view on the driver's seat a piece of plastic associated with narcotics. The officers searched Moultry and found $800 and crack cocaine in his front pocket. The officers continued to search the vehicle and discovered cocaine and handguns.

The State charged Moultry with three felonies and one misdemeanor. On January 8, 2003, Moultry filed a motion to suppress any evidence discovered after the initial traffic stop. The trial court denied his motion. Moultry subsequently requested that denial of the motion be certified for interlocutory appeal and the trial court granted that request. We accepted jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

At issue in this case is an investigatory stop. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the Government, and its safeguards extend to brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002). However, a police officer may briefly detain a person for investigatory purposes without a warrant or probable cause if, based upon specific and articulable facts together with rational inferences from those facts, the official intrusion is reasonably warranted and the officer has a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity "may be afoot." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).

Reasonable suspicion is a "somewhat abstract" concept, not readily reduced to "a neat set of legal rules." Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 274, 122 S.Ct. 744. When making a reasonable suspicion determination, reviewing courts examine the "totality of the circumstances" of the case to see whether the detaining officer had a "particularized and objective basis" for suspecting legal wrongdoing. Id. at 273, 122 S.Ct. 744. The reasonable suspicion requirement is met where the facts known to the officer at the moment of the stop, together with the reasonable inferences arising from such facts, would cause an ordinarily prudent person to believe criminal activity has occurred or is about to occur. Francis v. State, 764 N.E.2d 641, 644 (Ind.Ct.App.2002). We review the trial court's ultimate determination regarding reasonable suspicion de novo. Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 275, 122 S.Ct. 744; Williams v. State, 745 N.E.2d 241, 244 (Ind.Ct.App. 2001).

Moultry asserts the officers who stopped his vehicle "lacked reasonable suspicion for their actions, and the evidence gained as a result of the unlawful seizure should, therefore have been suppressed." (Br. of Appellant at 5.) Further, Moultry contends the three sources of information relied on by the police to justify the stop of his car taken individually or collectively could not have provided the officers with reasonable suspicion to stop his vehicle. We disagree.

The police relied on 1) information provided to Officer Shaughnessy by Harris on July 9, 2002; 2) information obtained by Officer Shaughnessy when he ran Moultry's license plate and criminal history on July 11, 2002; and 3) the anonymous 911 call that was relayed by police dispatch to the officers in the field on July 12, 2002.

We have previously held that "an anonymous tip is not sufficient to permit police to detain a citizen and subject him or her to an investigatory stop absent independent indicia of reliability or officer-observed...