State v. Carter

• Decision Date: 06 May 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-0807.,03-0807.
• Citation: State v. Carter, 696 N.W.2d 31 (Iowa 2005)
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Frederick Darnell CARTER, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

696 N.W.2d 31

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Frederick Darnell CARTER, Appellant.

No. 03-0807.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 6, 2005.

Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Martha J. Lucey, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Mary E. Tabor, Assistant Attorney General, John P. Sarcone, County Attorney, and Charles Kenville, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

LAVORATO, Chief Justice.

The district court in a bench trial found the defendant, Frederick Darnell Carter, guilty of possession of a controlled substance (crack cocaine) with intent to deliver. The controlled substance was found in the vehicle Carter was driving at the time he was stopped by the police. He appealed, contending that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the police lacked probable cause to search the vehicle. He also contended that there was insufficient evidence to support his subsequent conviction. We transferred the case to the court of appeals. That court reversed, finding there was insufficient evidence for the conviction.

We granted the State's application for further review. On that review, we now conclude that the district court correctly denied Carter's motion to suppress and that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the conviction. We therefore vacate the court of appeals decision and affirm the district court judgment.

I. Background Facts.

Des Moines Police Officers Sean Wissink and Jeff Edwards were on patrol together in their police vehicle during the evening of December 16, 2002 and the early morning hours of December 17. Wissink was driving.

While the officers were stopped for a red light at the intersection of 19th and Clark Street, they saw a black 1991 Chevy Blazer with its front license plate in the dash rather than affixed to the bumper in violation of Iowa Code section 321.37 (2001) (display of plates). The officers were northbound on 19th, and the Blazer was westbound on Clark.

Wissink got behind the Blazer and tried to stop it by activating the emergency equipment of the police vehicle. Rather than stopping, the Blazer turned onto M.L. King Jr. Parkway, crossed three lanes of traffic, struck the curb, and just missed a light pole. While all of this was going on, Wissink saw the driver of the Blazer making movements with his right hand all the way down to the floorboard, causing his head to go down so he could not see the road.

After the Blazer struck the curb, the driver quickly exited the vehicle, left the door open, and appeared nervous. Wissink thought he would have to chase the driver on foot so he exited the police vehicle and handcuffed him. Wissink asked the driver for identification but he had none. However, the driver did identify himself as Daryl Saunders and quickly provided the officer a birth date and social security number. Wissink then walked the driver to Edwards, who was between the two vehicles.

After walking the driver to Edwards, Wissink went back to the Blazer, which was still running, looked inside to make sure the car was in park, and saw two inches of a baggie sticking out of the ashtray of the center console. The baggie was in the same area toward which the driver of the Blazer was moving his hand just prior to the stop.

Wissink's observation of the baggie, coupled with the driver's movements and erratic driving, led the officer to believe that the baggie contained narcotics and that the driver was trying to conceal the baggie by putting the baggie under the ashtray. Wissink had seen baggies used in connection with narcotics before and had made many narcotics arrests out of vehicles in this same area. Up to this time, Wissink had worked in the neighborhood area of the stop for nearly six years. Wissink lifted the ashtray and found in the baggie what appeared to the officer to be six individually wrapped rocks of crack cocaine. A later field test confirmed the items in the baggie were cocaine.

The driver of the Blazer expressed surprise at the discovery of the drugs and claimed they were not his. He had $6.09 on his person, did not have a cell phone, pager, or drug notes.

At the time of the stop, Edwards focused on the passenger, who identified himself as Sidney Saunders. Saunders remained in the Blazer. Edwards approached the passenger side of the Blazer and removed Saunders from it. At this point Saunders was not in handcuffs because he was compliant.

After Wissink relayed the driver's identifying information to Edwards, Edwards ran a warrant and driver's license check on Sidney Saunders and Daryl Saunders. The checks on Daryl Saunders came back clear while the checks on Sidney Saunders revealed that he had two outstanding warrants for his arrest. Edwards then placed Sidney Saunders under arrest. Saunders had $295.75 on his person.

Upon the field confirmation that the items in the baggie were crack cocaine, the officers placed the driver under arrest for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and failure to display a registration plate. The officers also arrested Sidney Saunders for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. As events unfolded, it was determined that the driver of the Blazer was not Daryl Saunders but actually Frederick Darnell Carter.

II. Proceedings.

On January 17, 2003, the State charged Carter with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver in violation of Iowa Code section 124.401(1)(c)(3). Later, Carter filed a motion to suppress the cocaine seized from the Blazer. He alleged that the stop and seizure of his person and subsequent search of the Blazer lacked probable cause, a warrant, and voluntary consent. He also alleged that the stop, seizure, and search did not fall within any of the recognized exceptions to the Fourth Amendment to the federal constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution.

Following a hearing on the motion, District Judge Douglas F. Staskal denied it, concluding that because Wissink had probable cause to search the Blazer and because of the mobility of the vehicle, the search was proper.

Carter waived his right to a jury trial, and the case was tried to District Judge Glenn E. Pille, who found Carter guilty as charged. Judge Pille imposed a sentence of incarceration not to exceed ten years, suspended that sentence, and placed Carter on probation.

Carter appealed, contending the district court erred in overruling his motion to suppress. He also contended that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

We transferred the case to the court of appeals. The court of appeals reversed the judgment of conviction and remanded the case for entry of an order of dismissal. The court based its decision on Carter's sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge and did not reach the motion-to-suppress issue.

We granted the State's application for further review.

III. Issues.

On Carter's application for further review, we consider two issues: whether the district court erred in (1) overruling Carter's motion to suppress and (2) finding there was sufficient evidence to support his conviction.

IV. Scope of Review.

Because Carter's motion to suppress was based on alleged constitutional violations, our review of that ruling is de novo. State v. McConnelee, 690 N.W.2d 27, 30 (Iowa 2004). We evaluate the totality of the circumstances found in the record. State v. Reinders, 690 N.W.2d 78, 82 (Iowa 2004). In our review of the suppression ruling, we consider not only the evidence at the suppression hearing but also the evidence at trial. State v. Crawford, 659 N.W.2d 537, 541 (Iowa 2003). We give deference to the district court's fact findings because of that court's ability to assess the credibility of the witnesses. Id. However, we are not bound by those findings. Id.

We recently stated the standards governing review of an appeal based on a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence:

We review sufficiency-of-the-evidence claims for correction of errors at law. We uphold a verdict if substantial evidence supports it. "Evidence is substantial if it would convince a rational fact finder that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Substantial evidence must do more than raise suspicion or speculation. We consider all record evidence not just the evidence supporting guilt when we make sufficiency-of-the-evidence determinations. However, in making such determinations, we also view the "evidence in the light most favorable to the State, including legitimate inferences and presumptions that may fairly and reasonably be deduced from the record evidence."

State v. Quinn, 691 N.W.2d 403, 407 (Iowa 2005) (citations omitted).

V. The Suppression Ruling.

Carter contends here as he did in the district court that the officers did not have probable cause to search the vehicle and therefore the search was in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the federal constitution and article 1, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. Both provisions protect persons from unreasonable searches and seizures. Reinders, 690 N.W.2d at 81. "Evidence obtained in violation of these provisions is inadmissible `no matter how relevant or probative the evidence may be.'" Id. (citation omitted). The Fourteenth Amendment of the federal constitution makes the Fourth Amendment binding on the states. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 1691, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, 1090 (1961).

"Because the federal and state search-and-seizure clauses are nearly identical," federal cases interpreting the federal provision are persuasive in our interpretation of the state provision. Reinders, 690 N.W.2d at 81-82. However, such cases are not binding on this court regarding our interpretation of the state provision. Id. at 82. Because Carter has not asserted and we have not found a basis to distinguish the protection afforded by the Iowa Constitution from those...