State v. Cox
| Decision Date | 26 August 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. M2002-01849-SC-R11-CD.,M2002-01849-SC-R11-CD. |
| Citation | 171 S.W.3d 174 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee v. Kimberly Jeannine COX. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Roger E. Nell, District Public Defender (on appeal), and Russel A. Church, Assistant Public Defender (at trial and on appeal), Clarksville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Kimberly Jeannine Cox.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Richard H. Dunavant, Assistant Attorney General; John Carney, District Attorney General; and Arthur Bieber, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.
ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J., and E. RILEY ANDERSON, JANICE M. HOLDER, and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ., joined.
We accepted review of this cause under the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 11, in order to address a question properly preserved and certified pursuant to the provisions of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 37(b)(2)(i). The question, as certified, is: Whether the consent given to search the defendant's motel room is consistent with the requirements of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee?
Because we hold that during the course of a lawful traffic stop the defendant voluntarily consented to a search of her motel room, we find the trial court was correct in denying the motion to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of that search. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
On the morning of February 3, 2002, at approximately 12:15 a.m., Officer David Randall Odell, a drug enforcement agent attached to the Major Crimes Unit of the Clarksville Police Department, observed the defendant, Kimberly Cox, driving out of an exit near a business that had been burglarized several times recently. He followed the defendant in his unmarked vehicle until she entered the left turn lane. Thereafter, she failed to activate her left-turn signal before turning into a mobile home park. At this point, he activated his emergency equipment and pulled her over.
Upon approaching Cox's vehicle, Odell asked the defendant for her driver's license; she complied. Odell informed her he was going to check the validity of her license and determine whether she had any outstanding warrants. He stated that if she did not have any outstanding warrants he intended to issue a verbal warning and let her go. Approximately five minutes later, Odell had determined that her license was valid and no warrants were outstanding against her. However, upon checking her license plate, Odell discovered that it was registered to a different vehicle. Odell called for back-up and asked the defendant to step out of the car.
When Odell asked the defendant about the discrepancy, she told him that she had borrowed the vehicle from a friend. At this time, three officers arrived in response to Odell's request for back-up. He then transmitted the vehicle identification number to his dispatcher to determine whether the vehicle had been stolen. While waiting for the results, Odell asked the defendant for permission to search both her person and the vehicle. She consented to both searches, which took about ten minutes. Odell discovered a seed and flake of marijuana on the driver's side floorboard; this evidence was not field testable.1
After finding the marijuana, Odell asked the defendant where she was going. She stated that she lived in a trailer at the mobile home park, and was going there to retrieve her mobile phone charger. She further explained that she and her boyfriend were staying at the Travel Inn because there were several people in her trailer. Odell then asked for permission to search her room at the Travel Inn, which was located about a quarter of a mile away. The defendant assented and gave Odell the number of the room where she and her boyfriend were staying. Odell returned the defendant's license, and then he and another officer followed the defendant to the Travel Inn. At this time, about twenty to twenty-five minutes had elapsed since the initial stop. As they entered the motel parking lot, Odell was told by the dispatcher that nothing indicated the defendant's vehicle had been stolen.
Upon arrival at the defendant's motel room, the defendant unlocked the door. Odell identified himself to John David Scott, a man present in the room, and explained why he was there. Scott immediately told Odell that he had a marijuana cigar and handed it to the officer. Odell asked Scott if he could search his person; Scott assented. Odell then asked if there were any weapons or other drugs in the room. Both the defendant and Scott replied in the negative.
Odell advised the defendant and Scott of their Miranda2 rights and told them that he was going to continue to search the motel room. While searching the room, Odell found a small tube in a night stand, which contained approximately eight pieces of what appeared to be crack cocaine. He then arrested both the defendant and Scott. The laboratory tests ultimately confirmed Odell's suspicions regarding the evidence he found. The defendant and Scott were each indicted for simple possession of marijuana, Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-418, possession of more than .5 grams of cocaine with intent to sell, Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-417, and possession of more than .5 grams of cocaine with intent to deliver, Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-417.
The defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the search of the motel room. After hearing testimony and argument, the trial court overruled the motion. In finding the consent to search the motel room voluntary, the trial court stated:
Now the testimony was very, very clear from the officer that she agreed to the search of the motel room back at the initial stop. Basically, sure go ahead. And she wasn't detained from that point. She got into this other car and went with — drove the car to the motel and, basically, opened the door for the officer and said come on in and you can search, as she had already said.
So, I think it's was [sic] very important that she was not being detained there to go search the motel room. She agreed to it. And, again, that's what the law is in this state is whether she agrees to it voluntarily, and she certainly did.
And, again, if she had said no to that, that would have been the end of that. There wasn't any reasonable suspicion, any activity either for the car or for the motel room. But when you consent you take that out of the . . . consideration for the Court.
I think under all the circumstances her consent was voluntary; it was intelligently made.
Thereafter, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to one count of possession of cocaine greater than .5 grams, and the trial court sentenced her to a term of eight years, all suspended, to run concurrently with a prior sentence. The remaining charges were dismissed.
In keeping with the agreement, the defendant reserved a certified question for appeal pursuant to Rule 37(b)(2)(i) of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure. The reserved question is: whether the consent given to search the defendant's motel room is consistent with the requirements of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Tennessee. Within that reserved question the defendant states that there are four issues: (1) whether the trial court was correct that the consent was voluntarily given as that requirement exists under both constitutions; (2) whether the police have any requirement to discuss the voluntariness of consent — specifically the right to refuse; (3) whether there are any limitations on the ability of the police to seek a consent search under circumstances where any other exception to the search requirement does not exist; and (4) under the facts of this case, whether the request to search a motel room at another location as a result of a traffic stop that resulted in the issuance of no charges or citations, was a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights.
On direct appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. Now, we consider the same question pursuant to Rule 11 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. Although the four supplemental questions are posited as discrete issues, the determinative issue is the constitutional validity of the defendant's consent to the search of her motel room. The other questions are tangential and subordinate to this issue, and resolution of the determinative issue will, in turn, resolve the certified question.
Our standard of review for a trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law on a motion to suppress evidence is set forth in State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18 (Tenn.1996). Under this standard, "a trial court's findings of fact in a suppression hearing will be upheld unless the evidence preponderates otherwise." Id. at 23. As is customary, "[t]he prevailing party in the trial court is afforded the `strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable and legitimate inferences that may be drawn from that evidence.'" State v. Carter, 16 S.W.3d 762, 765 (Tenn.2000) (quoting State v. Keith, 978 S.W.2d 861, 864 (Tenn.1998)). Nevertheless, this Court reviews de novo the trial court's application of the law to the facts, without according any presumption of correctness to those conclusions. See State v. Walton, 41 S.W.3d 75, 81 (Tenn.2001); State v. Crutcher, 989 S.W.2d 295, 299 (Tenn.1999).
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that "the right of the people to be secure . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause. . . ."3 Simil...
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