People v. Clark

• Citation: 60 N.Y.S.3d 590,153 A.D.3d 1093
• Decision Date: 17 August 2017
• Docket Number: 108057.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Quintril CLARK, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court Appellate Division

153 A.D.3d 1093
60 N.Y.S.3d 590

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,
v.
Quintril CLARK, Appellant.

108057.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Aug. 17, 2017.

60 N.Y.S.3d 591

Theresa M. Suozzi, Saratoga Springs, for appellant.

Joel E. Abelove, District Attorney, Troy (Vincent J. O'Neill of counsel), for respondent.

Before: McCARTHY, J.P., LYNCH, DEVINE, CLARK and AARONS, JJ.

McCARTHY, J.P.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Rensselaer County (Ceresia, J.), rendered November 25, 2015, convicting defendant upon his plea of guilty of the crimes of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (two counts) and criminal possession of a firearm.

On December 19, 2014, a detective with the City of Troy Police Department received information from a confidential informant (hereinafter CI) indicating that defendant was in possession of a handgun. Later that day, when the CI notified the detective that defendant was parked in a vehicle outside a home in the City of Troy, Rensselaer County, the detective went to the area to investigate. The detective observed defendant while waiting in a parked vehicle nearby and, as defendant drove away, he was followed by a marked patrol vehicle that had been dispatched to the scene. When the patrol officer following defendant observed that he did not come to a complete stop at a stop sign, he pulled defendant over and, together with other officers, executed a felony traffic stop. The officer approached defendant's vehicle with his gun drawn, instructed defendant to keep his hands up, handcuffed him, removed him from the vehicle and patted him down. During the pat down, the officer removed from defendant's coat pocket a handgun that matched the description provided by the CI. As a result, defendant was arrested and charged in an indictment with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and one count of criminal possession of a firearm. Following a Mapp/Dunaway hearing, County Court denied defendant's motion to suppress the evidence seized. Defendant later pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment with no promise being made concerning sentencing. County Court ultimately sentenced defendant to 6 ½ years in prison and five years of postrelease supervision on each of the two convictions of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and 1 to 3 years in prison on the conviction of criminal possession of a firearm, all sentences to run concurrently. Defendant now appeals.

Defendant contends that County Court erroneously denied his suppression motion because there was not probable cause for his arrest. Initially, it is well settled that "[p]robable cause to arrest a person for an offense without a warrant exits when a police officer has knowledge of facts and circumstances sufficient to support a reasonable belief that an offense has been or is being committed" ( People v. Tillie, 239 A.D.2d 670, 671, 657 N.Y.S.2d 791 [1997] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted], lv. denied 91 N.Y.2d 881, 668 N.Y.S.2d 580, 691 N.E.2d 652 [1997] ; see People v. Cruz, 131 A.D.3d 724, 726, 14 N.Y.S.3d 804 [2015], lv. denied 26 N.Y.3d 1087, 23 N.Y.S.3d 644, 44 N.E.3d 942 [2015] ; People v. Stroman 106 A.D.3d 1268, 1269, 964 N.Y.S.2d 766 [2013], lv. denied 21 N.Y.3d 1046, 972 N.Y.S.2d 543, 995 N.E.2d 859 [2013] ). Notably, the commission of a traffic violation has been

60 N.Y.S.3d 592

found to constitute probable cause for the police to stop a vehicle (see People v. Portelli, 116 A.D.3d 1163, 1164, 983 N.Y.S.2d 355 [2014] ; People v. Thompson, 106 A.D.3d 1134, 1135, 963 N.Y.S.2d 780 [2013] ). Furthermore, where the stop leads to an arrest, information given to the police by a confidential informant "may provide reasonable suspicion or probable cause if the People demonstrate the informant's ‘reliability and the basis of his or her knowledge’ " ( People v. Portelli, 116 A.D.3d at 1164, 983 N.Y.S.2d 355, quoting People v. Chisholm, 21 N.Y.3d 990, 994, 972 N.Y.S.2d 202, 995 N.E.2d 164 [2013] ; see Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 416, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 [1969] ; Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 [1964] ; People v. Cook, 134 A.D.3d 1241, 1243, 20 N.Y.S.3d 744 [2015], lv. denied 26 N.Y.3d 1143, 32 N.Y.S.3d 57, 51 N.E.3d 568 [2016] ).

Here, defendant's failure to heed the stop sign provided probable cause for the patrol officer's initial stop of his vehicle. To the extent that the initial stop...