State v. Adams

Citation794 S.E.2d 357,250 N.C.App. 664
Decision Date06 December 2016
Docket NumberNo. COA15-1384,COA15-1384
Parties STATE of North Carolina v. Calvin Lamar ADAMS
CourtCourt of Appeal of North Carolina (US)

Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Associate Attorney General Paige Phillips, for the State.

Jeffrey William Gillette for defendant-appellant.

McCULLOUGH, Judge.

Calvin Lamar Adams ("defendant") appeals the denial of his motion to suppress following the entry of judgments on his convictions for driving while impaired ("DWI") and resisting a public officer. For the following reasons, we find no error.

I. Background

On 7 October 2011, defendant was arrested and citations were issued for driving while license revoked ("DWLR"), DWI, resisting a public officer, and possession of less than one-half ounce of marijuana. Officers then sought and obtained a search warrant for defendant's house, vehicle, and person. Defendant's vehicle was seized during the execution of the search warrant on 8 October 2011. On 10 October 2011, defendant successfully petitioned for the pretrial release of his vehicle pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-28(e2) on the ground that any period of license revocation had expired prior to the date of the alleged offense. In an order striking the storage fees for defendant's vehicle, the district court noted that defendant's vehicle was seized in error because, although the DMV system showed defendant's license was revoked from 27 July 2011, defendant's license was in fact active from 29 August 2011 when defendant paid the civil revocation fee, even though it was not sent to the DMV.

After several motions to continue the matter, defendant's case came on for trial in Gaston County District Court before the Honorable Richard B. Abernathy. On 9 December 2014, the DWLR charge was dismissed, defendant was found not guilty of possession of marijuana, and defendant was found guilty of impaired driving and resisting a public officer. Defendant gave notice of appeal.

Prior to his case coming on for trial in superior court, on 6 March 2015, defendant filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained during and subsequent to his seizure on the bases that his seizure was unlawful, entry into his home was unlawful, and his arrest was unlawful—all in violation of defendant's constitutional rights. Defendant elaborated as follows: "[s]pecifically, law enforcement officers unlawfully seized [defendant] without the requisite reasonable suspicion and unlawfully entered his residence without a warrant or probable cause to arrest him. Moreover, those officers arrested him without probable cause."

Defendant's motion to suppress came on for hearing in Gaston County Superior Court before the Honorable Todd Pomeroy on 22 April 2015. The evidence presented at the suppression hearing tended to show as follows: Gastonia Police Officer C. Singer was on routine patrol with Officer R. Ghant on 7 October 2011 when, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Officer Singer observed defendant driving a vehicle eastbound on Meade Avenue in the opposite direction the officers were traveling. Officer Singer was familiar with defendant and defendant's vehicle because he had stopped defendant and charged defendant with DWI on 27 July 2011, approximately three months prior. Officer Singer knew defendant's license had been suspended as a result of the July DWI and turned around to follow defendant in time to observe defendant pull into his driveway from Meade Avenue. Officer Singer then had Officer Ghant run defendant's tag and license information through DCI, which confirmed that defendant's license was revoked.

Upon the belief that defendant was driving while his license was suspended, Officer Singer pulled into defendant's driveway directly behind defendant's vehicle and initiated a traffic stop by activating his blue lights. By the time Officer Singer activated his lights, defendant had exited from the driver's seat of his vehicle and was approximately 15-20 feet away from the front door of his residence, walking toward the front door. At that time, Officer Ghant instructed defendant to stop and to get back inside his car. Despite having a boot on one of his feet as the result of an injury, defendant picked up his pace toward the front door and Officer Singer advised him to stop running. Officer Ghant pursued defendant while Officer Singer grabbed the in-car camera mic. Defendant entered the front door and then attempted to close the front door on Officer Ghant. Officer Ghant was able to keep the front door from shutting and held the door open until Officer Singer arrived. The officers were then able to force the front door open and made physical contact with defendant just inside the front door. Officer Singer then patted defendant down for a safety check and found what he believed was a bag of marijuana in defendant's pocket. Defendant was arrested and charged with DWLR, possession of marijuana, and resisting a public officer. Further observation of defendant after his arrest led Officer Singer to believe defendant was impaired. Consequently, another officer was called to perform field sobriety tests. Defendant was then additionally charged with DWI.

Following the evidence, defendant focused his argument for suppression on the officer's alleged illegal entry into defendant's residence. The State argued the officers were in hot pursuit. Upon consideration of the facts and arguments, the trial judge denied defendant's motion to suppress, concluding there was reasonable suspicion to stop defendant's vehicle for DWLR and probable cause to arrest for resisting a public officer once defendant ignored the blue lights and verbal commands to stop and entered his residence.

Defendant's DWI and resisting a public officer charges came on for trial in Gaston County Superior Court before the Honorable Robert T. Sumner on 17 August 2015. Prior to jury selection, the trial court addressed additional pretrial matters. Upon consideration of those matters, the trial court overruled defendant's objection to the introduction of a chemical analyst's affidavit into evidence, granted defendant's motion to exclude mention of prior DWI and DWLR charges against defendant, and denied defendant's motion to exclude marijuana evidence. The defense then alerted the trial judge that defendant's motion to suppress had been denied and, consequently, the defense may object when certain evidence or testimony was introduced. The trial then proceeded.

On 19 August 2015, the jury returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of DWI and resisting a public officer. The convictions were consolidated and an impaired driving judgment was entered. Defendant received a 60-day sentence that was suspended on condition that defendant serve 24 months of unsupervised probation. Defendant gave notice of appeal in open court.

II. Discussion

On appeal, defendant argues the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the officers’ entry into his residence to arrest him was unlawful. Thus, defendant contends all evidence of his impairment obtained as a result of the alleged unlawful entry was tainted and must be suppressed.

Yet, as an initial matter, we address the State's contention that defendant waived the argument now asserted on appeal. It has long been the rule that "[i]n order to preserve a question for appellate review, a party must have presented the trial court with a timely request, objection or motion, stating the specific grounds for the ruling sought if the specific grounds are not apparent." State v. Eason , 328 N.C. 409, 420, 402 S.E.2d 809, 814 (1991) ; see also N.C. R. App. P. 10(a)(1) (2015). In this case, the State contends defendant waived his argument on appeal by failing to include the precise argument on appeal in his pretrial motion to suppress and by failing to object when evidence of his impairment was introduced at trial. We disagree that defendant failed to adequately include the argument on appeal in his pretrial motion, but agree that defendant failed to object to evidence offered at trial.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-977 governs motions to suppress evidence in superior court and provides, in pertinent part, that "[a] motion to suppress evidence in [S]uperior [C]ourt made before trial must be in writing and ... must state the grounds upon which it is made." N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-977(a) (2015). The State asserts that the only grounds for suppression identified by defendant in the pretrial motion were that there was no reasonable suspicion for the initial stop of defendant and there was no probable cause to believe defendant was involved in criminal activity. The State then contends that defendant abandoned those two grounds during the suppression hearing and argued only that there were no exigent circumstances warranting hot pursuit. The State contends the lack of exigent circumstances is the argument now asserted on appeal and that it was not contained in defendant's pretrial motion to suppress. We are not convinced. It is clear from defendant's motion that defendant asserts there was an unlawful entry into his residence to arrest him "without a warrant and without exigent circumstances." While the motion does not mention "hot pursuit," the motion was sufficient to preserve the issue now on appeal.

Concerning preservation of the issues at trial, "[t]he law in this State is now well settled that ‘a trial court's evidentiary ruling on a pretrial motion [to suppress] is not sufficient to preserve the issue of admissibility for appeal unless a defendant renews the objection during trial.’ " State v. Hargett , ––– N.C. App. ––––, ––––, 772 S.E.2d 115, 119 (2015) (quoting State v. Oglesby , 361 N.C. 550, 554, 648 S.E.2d 819, 821 (2007) (citations omitted; emphasis in original)). In defendant's motion, defendant sought to suppress all evidence obtained subsequent to the officers’ entry into defendant's residence to arrest defendant. As indicated above, all evidence of impairment necessary to prove the DWI charge was obtained after d...

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5 cases
  • State v. Jordan
    • United States
    • North Carolina Court of Appeals
    • April 5, 2022
    ...either a warrant or probable cause plus exigent circumstances in order to make a lawful entry into a home."); State v. Adams , 250 N.C. App. 664, 670, 794 S.E.2d 357, 362 (2016) ("A warrantless arrest in the home may be reasonable where there is probable cause and exigent circumstances."). ......
  • State v. Johnson
    • United States
    • North Carolina Court of Appeals
    • September 21, 2021
    ...the defendant's in-court identification argument based on a theory not raised in the trial court); see also State v. Adams , 250 N.C. App. 664, 674, 794 S.E.2d 357, 364 (2016) (exercising discretion under Rule 2 to review the trial court's denial of the defendant's motion to suppress when t......
  • State v. Dalton
    • United States
    • North Carolina Court of Appeals
    • October 20, 2020
    ...omitted). By failing to renew his objection at trial, defendant waived review of this issue. See , e.g. , State v. Adams , 250 N.C. App. 664, 669, 794 S.E.2d 357, 361 (2016). However, "[t]o prevent manifest injustice to a party, or to expedite decision in the public interest," the Court may......
  • State v. Faulk
    • United States
    • North Carolina Court of Appeals
    • February 1, 2022
    ...Cir. 1970) ). The potential destruction of evidence may also contribute to the exigency of the circumstances. State v. Adams , 250 N.C. App. 664, 670-71, 794 S.E.2d 357, 362 (2016).¶ 10 We hold that the trial court's unchallenged findings,2 considered in their totality alongside uncontradic......
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