State v. Goddard
| Decision Date | 12 November 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 20190740-CA,20190740-CA |
| Citation | 501 P.3d 1188 |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Zachary Lynn GODDARD, Appellant. |
| Court | Utah Court of Appeals |
Lori J. Seppi and Samantha R. Dugan, Attorneys for Appellant
Sean D. Reyes and David A. Simpson, Attorneys for Appellee
Opinion
¶1 Zachary Lynn Goddard entered a conditional plea to one count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, reserving his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence he alleges was obtained as a result of an unlawful search. On appeal, Goddard argues that the district court's factual findings on the motion to suppress are clearly erroneous and that the court should have granted the motion for three reasons: (1) officers conducted a Terry stop of Goddard without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, (2) officers frisked Goddard for weapons without reasonable suspicion that he was armed and dangerous, and (3) officers subjected Goddard to custodial interrogation without providing Miranda warnings. We reject these arguments and affirm.
¶2 While on bike patrol, an officer and his partner were passing through an alley known to them as a "high-drug-use area." They spotted Goddard, alone, "kind of hunched over some items." Among those items were some twist wrappers that the officer recognized as drug paraphernalia. The officer testified that "a twist is a small user amount of a controlled substance"—usually "heroin or cocaine"—that is "tightly wrapped" in plastic and then "wrapped up in another plastic which is tightly tied." The color of the twist wrapper indicates which "drug is inside." The officer had been trained to recognize illegal drug use and drug paraphernalia and had learned "quite a bit" about identifying drug paraphernalia from patrolling the area around the alley, where he commonly saw paraphernalia strewn about. In particular, the officer was familiar with twists as he had observed "hundreds" of them in his career.
¶3 The officer testified that he suspected the twist wrappers belonged to Goddard because they were "directly in front" of him and close enough to reach. The only other people in the alley were some distance from the twists, "maybe 30 feet up or so and on the other side." The officer noticed that "one of the white twist wrappers," which "was directly underneath" Goddard, "appeared to be relatively clean," meaning "[i]t didn't appear that it had been there and had dirt on it ... from being kicked around the alley for a little while." The officers walked toward Goddard, but as they approached, he "stood up" and attempted to "leave the area."
¶4 Based on these facts, the officers initiated a Terry stop2 to investigate whether Goddard was engaged in drug-related activity. When the officers approached Goddard and asked for identification, he "appeared nervous" and "made some motion towards his chest." Specifically, the officer testified that Goddard "reach[ed] up towards" the "area above [his] breast line" and "point[ed] and motion[ed] as if he was going to continue and put his hand inside [his] coat." The officer testified that Goddard's actions "made us feel nervous," so his partner asked Goddard whether he had any weapons. Goddard told the officers that he had a gun "in his left coat pocket" and "moved his hand toward that." Goddard discontinued the motion only when the officers "told him to stop."
¶5 The officers told Goddard to put his hands above his head, and the partner reached into Goddard's left coat pocket, pulling out a handgun. The officers asked if Goddard had a concealed weapon permit, and Goddard admitted that he did not.3 Then, after giving Goddard Miranda warnings, the officers arrested him.
¶6 Relevant to this appeal, the State charged Goddard with crimes arising from his possession of the firearm. At the preliminary hearing, the officer testified regarding the stop and events leading up to Goddard's arrest.
¶7 Goddard later moved to suppress evidence of the firearm, along with his statements about having a gun and lacking a concealed weapon permit. Goddard argued that (1) the officers lacked reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to conduct a stop, (2) the officers frisked Goddard for weapons without reasonable suspicion that he was armed and dangerous, and (3) Goddard was subjected to custodial interrogation before receiving Miranda warnings.
¶8 After hearing testimony from the officer at the motion to suppress hearing,4 the district court denied the motion. The court concluded that the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop Goddard. The court found that Goddard "was segregated from others" and "hunched over the drug paraphernalia," that the drug paraphernalia "was new and clean," and that Goddard and the drug paraphernalia were "isolated" because "there wasn't anyone else in the same vicinity." The court did not, however, explain its reasons for rejecting Goddard's challenges to the seizure of the gun or the pre- Miranda questioning.
¶9 After the district court denied the motion to suppress, Goddard entered a conditional plea to possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and reserved his right to appeal the ruling on the motion to suppress. The State dismissed the remaining charges. Goddard now appeals.
¶10 Goddard challenges the district court's denial of his motion to suppress, contending that: (1) the court's factual findings supporting reasonable suspicion were clearly erroneous and, in any event, the stop was not "justified by reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and that [Goddard] was sufficiently connected to that criminal activity"; (2) the officers "did not have reasonable suspicion that Goddard was armed and presently dangerous" to justify a frisk for weapons; and (3) "Goddard was entitled to Miranda warnings before the officers" asked him "whether he had a firearm or a concealed weapon permit." (Cleaned up.) "We review a denial of a motion to suppress as a mixed question of law and fact and will disturb the district court's factual findings only when they are clearly erroneous, but we afford no deference to the district court's application of law to the underlying factual findings." State v. Paredez, 2017 UT App 220, ¶ 11, 409 P.3d 125 (cleaned up).
¶11 Goddard contends that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion that he was involved in criminal activity and, therefore, were not legally permitted to detain him to investigate his connection to the drug paraphernalia. In challenging the district court's conclusion to the contrary, Goddard first argues that the court's factual findings were clearly erroneous. Next, Goddard argues that even if the court's findings are supported by the evidence, those facts do not give rise to reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and that Goddard was sufficiently connected to that activity. We address both arguments in turn.
¶12 Goddard first challenges the factual findings supporting the district court's reasonable suspicion determination. We review a district court's factual determination under a "clearly erroneous" standard and in so doing, we "do[ ] not consider and weigh the evidence de novo." State v. Walker , 743 P.2d 191, 193 (Utah 1987) (cleaned up). Accordingly, the mere fact that we "might have reached a different result" when looking at the same evidence will not justify setting the findings aside. Id. (cleaned up). Rather, we "may regard a finding as clearly erroneous only if the finding is without adequate evidentiary support or induced by an erroneous view of the law." Id . (cleaned up). Under this standard, the district court's findings are not clearly erroneous.
¶13 The district court made three factual findings that Goddard challenges. First, the court found that, during the events in question, Goddard was "segregated from others" and that he and the drug paraphernalia "were isolated" because "there wasn't anyone else in the same vicinity." Second, the court found that the drug paraphernalia "was new and clean" at the time. Lastly, the court found that Goddard had been "hunched over the drug paraphernalia." The court's findings are adequately supported by the officer's testimony at both the preliminary hearing and the evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress.
¶14 Goddard first challenges the court's finding that he was "segregated from others," he was "isolated," and "there wasn't anyone else in the same vicinity." Goddard argues that he was not isolated because the alley where he was stopped is "public." But the court did not find that Goddard was alone in a private space, only that Goddard and the drug paraphernalia were "segregated" or "isolated" relative to others in the alley. The officer testified that there were no people in Goddard's "immediate area" and that the closest group of people was sitting "maybe 30 feet up or so and on the other side" of the alley. The distance between Goddard and the other group of people supports the court's finding that, with respect to their proximity to the drug paraphernalia, Goddard was "segregated" and "isolated," and "there wasn't anyone else in the same vicinity." Thus, the court's finding is adequately supported by the officer's testimony and not clearly erroneous.
¶15 Goddard next challenges the court's finding that the drug paraphernalia was "new and clean." The officer testified that he had seen "hundreds" of twist wrappers in his career and confirmed that he commonly saw them strewn about the area where Goddard was sitting. In comparison, the paraphernalia directly underneath Goddard "appeared to be relatively clean." He explained that at least one of the twist wrappers had an ...
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...of the day. Moreover, they didn't "attempt to leave the area when the police approached." State v. Goddard , 2021 UT App 124, ¶ 27, 501 P.3d 1188 ; cf. Illinois v. Wardlow , 528 U.S. 119, 124, 120 S.Ct. 673, 145 L.Ed.2d 570 (2000) (explaining that an individual's "unprovoked flight" or "eva......