State v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 19 February 2008
• Docket Number: No. COA07-903.,COA07-903.
• Citation: 656 S.E.2d 721
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Anthony Lenair CAMPBELL.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals

656 S.E.2d 721

STATE of North Carolina v. Anthony Lenair CAMPBELL.

No. COA07-903.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

February 19, 2008.

Appeal by defendant from order entered 15 December 2006 by Judge R. Allen Baddour in Orange County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 13 December 2007.

Attorney General Roy A. Cooper, III, by Special Deputy Attorney General Marc Bernstein, for the State.

Appellate Defender Staples Hughes, by Assistant Appellate Defender Daniel R. Pollitt, for defendant-appellant.

JACKSON, Judge.

Anthony Lenair. Campbell ("defendant") appeals from his convictions entered upon guilty pleas for possession of burglary tools and possession of drug paraphernalia. Specifically, he appeals from an order of the trial court denying his motion to suppress. For the following reasons, we affirm.

At approximately 3:40 a.m. on 24 July 2006, Officer Thomas Coyle ("Officer Coyle") of the Carrboro Police Department responded to a report of a breaking and entering in progress at 109 South Peak Drive in. Carrboro, North Carolina. Coyle was the first to respond and arrived within three minutes of the call. While driving toward the location of the alleged breaking and entering, Officer Coyle turned onto Old Pittsboro Road and observed someone riding a bicycle on the road. Old Pittsboro Road does not intersect with South Peak Drive, but is connected to it via Daffodil Lane, and Officer Coyle testified that Old Pittsboro Road is "close" to South Peak Drive. Officer Coyle observed that the rear of the bicycle had a flashing red light. At the time, Officer Coyle and the bicycle rider were within a quarter of a mile of the location of the alleged breaking and entering, and the trial court found that the bicyclist "was in the vicinity of 109 S[outh] Peak Drive." Officer Coyle did not observe anyone else in the area. He radioed other officers about the bicycle rider "[i]n case that person may be involved with the breaking and entering," and proceeded to the house at 109 South Peak Drive. During his investigation at the residence at 109 South Peak Drive, Officer Coyle observed that a window had been opened with "a small, flathead screwdriver or a pry tool," and he notified other officers of that information.

Officer Michelle Gandy ("Officer Gandy") of the Carrboro Police Department testified that she was on patrol in her police vehicle when she responded to the call concerning the alleged breaking and entering in progress at 109 South Peak Drive. Officer Gandy also received Officer Coyle's call concerning the bicyclist, and she observed defendant riding on a bicycle and turning from Old Pittsboro Road onto South Greensboro Street. Defendant had an illuminated light on his cap, and the bicycle had a headlight and two flashing rear reflectors. Officer Gandy testified that she recognized defendant "by face[,] not name." Officer Gandy drove past defendant, turned around, drove back past defendant, and pulled off the road into a parking lot. Officer Gandy watched as defendant took a right turn onto the uphill on-ramp of Highway 54 West Bypass. Defendant stopped at the top of hill, and Officer Gandy turned on her overhead lights and spotlights. She observed that defendant was wearing a backpack and was "playing with something in his backpack." Officer Gandy testified that she stopped defendant because he was "coming from the area that the burglary came out of."

As defendant stood with his bicycle, Officer Gandy exited her vehicle and approached defendant. Officer Gandy asked defendant for his name and identification, and he complied. Lieutenant Rodney Taylor ("Lieutenant Taylor") of the Carrboro Police Department then arrived at the scene. Lieutenant Taylor recognized defendant and "knew that he had an extensive history of breaking and enterings [sic] and crimes of that nature as well as being a substance abuser." Officer Gandy asked defendant "where he was coming from," and defendant replied that he was coming from a friend's house on Laurel Avenue. Officer Gandy was aware that Laurel Avenue is off of Jones Ferry Road.

Officer Gandy asked defendant to step off of the bicycle, and Lieutenant Taylor instructed Officer Gandy to place defendant in investigative detention because he knew defendant had "run before and things of that nature." Officer Gandy and defendant walked to the front of the patrol car, where she handcuffed him and frisked him for "officer safety." Officer Gandy testified that defendant had not done anything to make her feel nervous or scared, but noted that defendant could have been "carrying anything from a pen that has a knife enclosed in it to a small handgun." Lieutenant Taylor moved defendant's bicycle off of the road, and during the frisk, "Officer Coyle advised [Officer Gandy] and Lieutenant Taylor that it appeared that some type of screwdriver had been used to pry the window open." Officer Gandy noticed that defendant was wearing two pairs of shorts-a "sports" pair on top without pockets and another pair underneath that had pockets. She felt items in his pockets and asked what they were. Defendant told Officer Gandy to take the items out, and Officer Gandy observed that the items were "[a] small flashlight and a Swiss Army-type knife." No evidence was introduced about the size or shape of the knife, or whether or not the instrument could have be used for prying, but Officer Gandy testified that she "believed that he [defendant] could have used at least part of that Swiss Army knife to open that window." Upon Lieutenant Taylor's instruction, Officer Gandy placed defendant under arrest. While conducting a search incident to arrest, Lieutenant Taylor found in defendant's backpack "[a] lot of different things from jewelry to tools." Specifically, the officers seized from the backpack multiple tools, two crack pipes, rolling papers, a crowbar, and screwdrivers.

On 30 October 2006, defendant was indicted for first-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Defendant moved to suppress the physical evidence seized during his arrest, and on 15 December 2006, the trial court entered an order denying his motion. Defendant gave notice of his intent to appeal the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. Defendant then pled guilty to possession of burglary tools and possession of drug paraphernalia. The trial court consolidated the convictions and sentenced defendant as a prior record level IV offender to seven to nine months imprisonment.

On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion on the grounds that (1) Officer Gandy stopped defendant without reasonable suspicion in violation of the Fourth Amendment; (2) the officers unreasonably seized and searched defendant after they stopped him in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and (3) the officers arrested defendant without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

"It is well established that the standard of review in evaluating a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress is that the trial court's findings of fact are conclusive on appeal if supported by competent evidence, even if the evidence is conflicting.'" State v. Buchanan, 353 N.C. 332, 336, 543 S.E.2d 823, 826 (2001) (quoting State v. Brewington, 352 N.C. 489, 498, 532 S.E.2d 496, 501 (2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1165, 121 S.Ct. 1126, 148 L.Ed.2d 992 (2001)). In addition, find ings of fact to which defendant failed to assign error are binding on appeal. See State v. Lacey, 175 N.C.App. 370, 376, 623 S.E.2d 351, 355 (2006), "`Once this Court concludes that the trial court's findings of fact are supported by the evidence, then this Court's next task "is to determine whether the trial court's conclusion[s] of law [are] supported by the findings."'" Brewington, 352 N.C. at 498-99, 532 S.E.2d at 502 (alterations in original) (quoting State v. Steen, 352 N.C. 227, 237, 536 S.E.2d 1, 7 (2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1167, 121 S.Ct. 1131, 148 L.Ed.2d 997 (2001)). "[T]he trial court's conclusions of law are reviewed de novo and must be legally correct." State v. Pickard, 178 N.C.App. 330, 334, 631 S.E.2d 203, 206, appeal dismissed and disc. rev, denied, 361 N.C. 177; 640 S.E.2d 59 (2006).

Defendant first contends that the evidence should have been suppressed because Officer Gandy lacked reasonable suspicion to stop him. We disagree.

The Fourth Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the right of people to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. See State v. Watkins, 337 N.C. 437, 441, 446 S.E.2d 67, 69 (1994). This protection "applies to seizures of the person, including brief investigatory detentions." Id.¹ As our Supreme Court has explained,

[o]nly unreasonable investigatory stops are unconstitutional. An investigatory stop must be justified by a reasonable suspicion based on objective facts, that the individual is involved in criminal activity.²

A court must consider the totality of the circumstances—the whole picture [—] in determining whether a reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop exists. The stop must be based on specific and articulable facts, as well as the rational inferences from those facts, as viewed through the eyes of a reasonable, cautious officer, guided by his experience and training. The only requirement is a minimal level of objective justification, something more than an unparticularized suspicion or hunch.

Id. at 441-42, 446 S.E.2d at 70 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). It is well-settled that the standard for reasonable suspicion is "less demanding than that for probable cause." Sokolow, 490 U.S. at 7, 109 S.Ct. at 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d at 10.

In the instant case, defendant contends that he was stopped without reasonable suspicion and offers various factors tending to diminish the State's assertion of reasonable suspicion. Specifically, defendant contends that the evidence demonstrates...