Sanders v. State
| Decision Date | 22 January 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A02–1205–CR–361.,49A02–1205–CR–361. |
| Citation | 981 N.E.2d 616 |
| Parties | Erving SANDERS, Appellant–Defendant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee–Plaintiff. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Ellen M. O'Connor, Marion County Public Defender Agency, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.
Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, George P. Sherman, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.
Erving Sanders appeals the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. Sanders raises one issue, which we restate as whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. We reverse.
At approximately 4:30 p.m. on January 28, 2011, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Keith Minch noticed the tint of the rear window of Sanders's vehicle, a blue Chevy Suburban, and initiated a traffic stop. Officer Minch approached the driver's side door of Sanders's vehicle, spoke to Sanders, and Sanders identified himself. Officer Minch then noticed the smell of marijuana. After Officer Minch asked about the smell, Sanders stated that he had “just smoked a joint.” Transcript at 7. Officer Minch had Sanders exit the vehicle, conducted a search, discovered a substance which Sanders stated was cocaine, and placed Sanders under arrest.
On January 28, 2011, the State charged Sanders with possession of cocaine as a class D felony. On May 4, 2011, Sanders filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the traffic stop. The trial court held hearings on Sanders's motion to suppress on May 4, June 1, and November 16, 2011.
Several photographs of the Chevy Suburban were admitted into evidence during the May 4, 2011 hearing. The photographs admitted as State's Exhibits 1, 2, and 3 were taken by an evidence technician at approximately 5:30 p.m., about one hour after Officer Minch first observed Sanders's vehicle. State's Exhibits 1 and 2 show that the Suburban has side windows which are part of the front and rear doors and also side panel windows which are located over the rear wheels and cargo area of the Suburban. The photographs reveal that the rear window and side panel windows of the cargo area of the vehicle were tinted to some extent and that the front windshield and the side windows which were part of the vehicle's front and back doors were either not tinted or tinted to a lesser extent than the side panel windows of the cargo area and the rear window. In the photograph admitted as State's Exhibit 3, which appears to have been taken from several feet directly behind the vehicle without anyone inside, it is possible to see the outline of the front window, the top of the steering wheel, and a portion of the windshield wiper blade. Officer Minch testified that the photograph admitted as State's Exhibit 3 reflects the view that he had when he decided to stop Sanders.
During his testimony on May 4, 2011, Officer Minch testified that he noticed Sanders's vehicle at about 4:30 p.m. and the weather was “kind of gloomy.” Id. at 6. He testified that he noticed the window tint of Sanders's vehicle and that “[i]t did not allow [him] to clearly recognize or identify the occupant inside.” Id. When asked why he believed that the window tinting was an infraction, Officer Minch testified Id. at 7. When asked the angle from which he first observed Sanders's vehicle and determined that he wished to pull Sanders over for the window tinting, Officer Minch testified that he “would have been behind him.” Id. at 10. Officer Minch also indicated that he “could tell that there was one occupant” in the vehicle. Id. at 12.
On cross-examination, Officer Minch testified that he had been following “[a]pproximately twenty or thirty feet” behind Sanders's vehicle. Id. at 15. When asked how long he observed Sanders before he stopped him, Officer Minch indicated that he “was behind him probably half a block.” Id. Officer Minch also reiterated that he was able to see that there was an occupant in the Suburban and that the criteria he used to identify a person included age, ethnicity and gender. When asked “[h]ow many people can you determine the age, ethnicity and gender from behind their head,” Officer Minch stated “[a] lot,” and when asked “[s]o you think that you could tell if a person was twenty-one or fifty-two from the back of their head,” Officer Minch stated “Yes.” Id. at 17. When asked whether there was a significant amount of difference from the location of the sun in the sky at 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., Officer Minch stated that he could not “testify to that.” Id. at 24. Officer Minch further indicated that he did not attempt to look into the Suburban through any of the vehicle's side windows to identify the occupant inside.
When asked if he agreed that the “tinting on the passenger window is not as tinted as the back ... based upon the photos of the vehicle and your personal observation,” Officer Minch responded “[f]rom the angle, it is not possible to determine that,” and when asked “is the tinting in the back windows, as reflected in the photographs, darker than it is on the driver's and the passenger side,” Officer Minch stated “I cannot determine that from the photo.” Id. at 27. When asked Officer Minch testified “I believe it to be about the same.” Id. When asked “[a]re you saying that there are equal tinting on all windows of that vehicle,” Officer Minch stated “I don't know,” and when asked “[y]ou don't even have an opinion is that correct,” Officer Minch replied “I cannot determine from that photo.” Id. at 28.
Sanders testified that he had purchased the 1991 Suburban from his cousin four years earlier, that the rear window tint was on the vehicle when he bought it, and that his cousin had purchased the vehicle from D & S Auto.
In July 2011, Sanders filed a motion for an expert to view the automobile and the court granted the motion. On November 16, 2011, Sanders presented the testimony of Robert Rady who measured the window tint of the windows of the Suburban. Rady testified that the vehicle's front window and side windows which were part of the vehicle's doors were not tinted and were “clear glass.” Id. at 76. Rady testified that his measurements showed that the light transmittance of the side panel windows of the cargo area and the rear back window was thirty-eight percent. Rady also indicated that he had an opportunity to visually look into the vehicle at about 4:30 p.m. on the previous day and, when asked whether he was able to clearly see through the back window, responded “[a]bsolutely.” Id. at 81. Further, Rady testified that he had been tinting windows for twenty-four years, that he tinted windows for Butler Auto Group, Tom Wood Auto Group and several dealerships in Indianapolis, that he was familiar with the tinting regulations in Indiana, and that as a matter of course he tinted windows with a light transmittance of thirty-five percent for the car dealerships, which is higher than the thirty percent required by Indiana statute, in order that occupants of the vehicles could be identified and so that the windows complied with Indiana law.
On January 18, 2012, the court found that Sanders presented evidence showing that the tint of the windows of his vehicle was not unlawful. The court noted that Ind.Code § 9–19–19–4(c) provided that a window of a vehicle may not be tinted to the extent that the occupants of the vehicle could not be easily identified or recognized through the window, that the language was “[p]retty broad,” and that “[t]hat's why ... the statute ... shifts the burden to the defendant to prove ... that the window tint is within the prescribed limits.” Id. at 92. The court stated that “[t]he hard question for the Court is does that burden shifting, once they prove that the window tint is within the legal limits, does that affect only the driving offense or the tint charge or does that affect also, the suppression issue” and that “in other words, does it affect what the Court believes a good faith stop by the officer indicating that he believed the window tinting was not within the legal limits....” Id. The court noted that “during the suppression hearing, it did come out that [the officer] was able to identify or he could see someone was inside—was able to identify there was a male inside but as far as dynamics, male, black, white or what have you, ... he could not identify from the outside.” Id. at 92–93. The court found that the investigatory stop was lawful and stated “I do believe as long as there's a good faith intent of the officer when he believes that a window tint is illegal ... because he could not see the occupants inside, I do believe that that good faith effort or that good faith reasoning on the officer's part is enough to justify a stop.” Id. at 94. The court denied Sanders's motion to suppress. Sanders sought and obtained permission to bring this interlocutory appeal.
The issue is whether the trial court erred in denying Sanders's motion to suppress. Our standard of appellate review of a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress is similar to other sufficiency issues. State v. Quirk, 842 N.E.2d 334, 340 (Ind.2006). The record must disclose substantial evidence of probative value that supports the trial court's decision. Id. We do not reweigh the evidence, and we consider conflicting evidence most favorably to the trial court's ruling. Id. However, unlike the typical sufficiency of the evidence case, we must also consider the uncontested evidence favorable to the defendant. Ransom v. State, 741 N.E.2d 419, 421 (Ind.Ct.App.2000), trans. denied. We review de novo the ultimate determination of reasonable suspicion. Id. (citing Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct....
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Sanders v. State
...following a traffic stop. Concluding that the motion should have been granted, the Court of Appeals reversed. Sanders v. State, 981 N.E.2d 616, 623 (Ind.Ct.App.2013). We granted transfer and now affirm the trial court. In the late afternoon of January 28, 2011, the defendant was driving a 1......
- Sanders v. State