Muse v. State

• Decision Date: 09 September 2002
• Docket Number: No. 1354,1354
• Citation: 146 Md. App. 395,807 A.2d 113
• Parties: James MUSE, v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

807 A.2d 113

146 Md. App. 395

James MUSE, v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 1354, September Term, 2001.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

September 9, 2002.

Mark Colvin, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Steven L. Holcomb, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baltimore and Sandra A. O'Connor, State's Atty. for Baltimore County, Towson, on the brief), for appellee.

Submitted before GREENE, SHARER, and CHARLES E. MOYLAN, JR. (Retired, Specially Assigned) JJ. SHARER, Judge.

James Muse was convicted, after a bench trial on an agreed statement of facts in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, on a single charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Muse's conviction drew a sentence of ten years as a repeat offender, without the possibility of parole, and he appeals the judgment of conviction.

Muse asks this Court¹ to review his conviction by determining whether the trial court was wrong in (1) denying his motion to suppress and (2) accepting a jury trial waiver without a sufficient examination of him on the record as required by Maryland Rule 4-246(b).² We view this appeal as presenting an issue of first impression in Maryland, as we have not found a case in which the stated reasonable suspicion for an automobile stop was a cracked windshield, and that the stop was challenged as a result.³

Procedural Background

Appellant was arrested on December 21, 2000, charged with traffic offenses, and was also accused of possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. On February 28, 2001, the State's Attorney for Baltimore County filed a five-count criminal information charging appellant with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and three violations of the Transportation Article.⁴ On August 29, 2001, this matter went to a hearing on appellant's motion to suppress. After the circuit court denied his motion to suppress, Appellant opted to stand trial on a "not guilty, agreed statement of facts" basis. He was found guilty of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The State entered a nol pros on the four remaining counts. This timely appeal followed.

Facts

On December 21, 2000, Baltimore County Officer Robert Bouder was on a routine patrol on Old Eastern Avenue in Baltimore County. At 7:50 a.m., he happened to be following the blue, four-door Nissan sedan that was being operated by appellant. Officer Bouder did not know appellant, and there was nothing in the way appellant was operating his vehicle that was suspicious. As Officer Bouder closed to within two car lengths, and perhaps as close as 15 feet,⁵ he noticed a crack "going on one side of the windshield to the other side of this windshield" of appellant's auto. This observation prompted Officer Bouder to initiate a traffic stop, the results of which confirmed his observation about the windshield. The crack reached "[p]robably 24 plus inches." Looking at the windshield of the car in front of him, Officer Bouder said that he "couldn't miss it. It is cracked across the front of the windshield. I'm looking at the car that's in front of me." The crack was in the middle of the windshield.

Officer Bouder asked the driver, who was appellant Muse, for his license and registration, intending to issue an equipment repair order. Appellant failed to provide either document, and Officer Bouder initiated a record check with the Motor Vehicle Administration. As a result of this inquiry, he learned that appellant's license had been suspended, and that he had failed to appear for a matter in district court. Bouder then arrested appellant,⁶ and in a search incident to the arrest he discovered "two vials of an off-white powder substance" in appellant's left breast pocket. Appellant was transported to the precinct station, where a body cavity search yielded 24 small bags of an "offwhite chunk substance." The suspected contraband was forwarded for chemical analysis, where it was confirmed to be cocaine measuring 4.5 grams.

Immediately following the motions hearing, the parties proceeded on the agreed statement of facts, with the State relying on Officer Bouder's testimony without objection and a summary of the findings of the police chemist. The trial court entered a verdict of guilty, ruling that the agreed statement was sufficient to satisfy the State's burden of proof.

Discussion

Appellant assails the circuit court's refusal to suppress the cocaine that was seized from appellant's car after the traffic stop. He specifically contends that the record does not support a finding, which the trial court did not attempt to make in any event, that Officer Bouder had a reasonable suspicion to believe that appellant was driving with improper or unsafe equipment.

Appellant places considerable weight on the State's failure to point to any provision in the Code which specifically addresses a "cracked windshield," and avers that, "assuming that [equipment standards set forth in the Transportation Article] apply, the State failed to prove that [his] windshield

`apparently does not meet the [the Code's] standards[.]" As explained below, we disagree with the suggestion that Officer Bouder lacked an objectively reasonable basis to stop appellant in order to investigate the damaged windshield.

The Fourth Amendment provides that the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated[.]" U.S. Const., amend. IV. The central requirement of this amendment⁷ is that searches and seizures be "reasonable[,]" City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 37, 121 S.Ct. 447, 148 L.Ed.2d 333 (2000); see Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 164 n. 4, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), and its "protections extend to brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest." United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 122 S.Ct. 744, 750, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002).

Ordinarily, "seizures of personal property are `unreasonable within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment,' without more, `unless ... accomplished pursuant to a judicial warrant,' issued by a neutral magistrate after finding probable cause." Illinois v. McArthur, 531 U.S. 326, 330, 121 S.Ct. 946, 148 L.Ed.2d 838 (2001) (quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 701, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983)). But "a police officer may stop and briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has [a] reasonable suspicion, supported by articulable facts, that criminal activity `may be afoot.'" In re David S., 367 Md. 523, 532, 789 A.2d 607 (2000) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). An officer may stop an automobile if he is "`able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences [therefrom] reasonably warrant that intrusion.'" Cartnail v. State, 359 Md. 272, 284, 753 A.2d 519 (2000) (quoting Ferris v. State, 355 Md. 356, 384, 735 A.2d 491 (1999)).

In Williams v. State, 19 Md.App. 204, 310 A.2d 593 (1973), this Court noted that "an occupant of an automobile is just as subject to a reasonable `stop' and to a reasonable `frisk' as is a pedestrian." Id. at 210, 310 A.2d 593 (citing Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972)). Thus, if an officer has a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, he may make a brief investigatory stop of a vehicle, and his conduct in doing so will be gauged by the lesser justification sanctioned by Terry and its progeny, provided the totality of the circumstances supports that reasonable suspicion. Moreover, if a police officer observes the commission of a traffic violation, the Terry analysis would not come into play because that officer would have the requisite probable cause to stop the automobile and would not need to rely on Terry to justify his action. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 810, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996) (decision to stop automobile reasonable where police have probable cause of occurrence of traffic violation).

We turn to the case at hand, and we begin by articulating the appropriate standard of review. Our review of the trial court's denial of the appellant's motion to suppress under the Fourth Amendment is confined exclusively to the record of the suppression hearing. In re David S., 367 Md. at 529, 789 A.2d 607; State v. Fernon, 133 Md.App. 41, 43-44, 754 A.2d 463 (2000). We review the trial judge's findings of historical fact for clear error. State v. Funkhouser, 140 Md.App. 696, 703, 782 A.2d 387 (2001). Given our deferential scrutiny, we accept those facts found by the trial court in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, in this case the State, id., and otherwise will consider only those facts that are "`most favorable to the State as the prevailing party on the motion'" where findings have not been rendered below. Dixon v. State, 133 Md.App. 654, 668, 758 A.2d 1063,cert. denied, 362 Md. 36, 762 A.2d 969 (2000)(quoting Matthews v. State, 106 Md.App. 725, 732, 666 A.2d 912 (1995), cert. denied, 341 Md. 648, 672 A.2d 623 (1996)).

We exercise plenary review of the suppression court's conclusions of law, Ferris, supra, 355 Md. at 368, 735 A.2d 491, engaging in this de novo review of mixed questions of law and fact we conduct an independent constitutional appraisal by reviewing the law and applying it to the established facts to determine the validity of a search and resultant seizure. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 697, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996); Fernon, supra, 133 Md.App. at 44, 754 A.2d 463.

As we have noted, we have discovered no Maryland case dealing with the question of whether the observation, by a police officer, of the operation of a motor vehicle, the windshield of which is cracked or otherwise damaged, affords the requisite...