State v. Woods

• Decision Date: 10 March 2009
• Docket Number: No. WD 69194.,WD 69194.
• Citation: 284 S.W.3d 630
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Dimetrious L. WOODS, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

284 S.W.3d 630

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Dimetrious L. WOODS, Appellant.

No. WD 69194.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

March 10, 2009.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied April 28, 2009.

Application for Transfer Denied June 30, 2009.

Scott Rosenblum, Clayton, MO, for appellant.

Shaun J. Mackelprang, Asst. Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.

Before LISA WHITE HARDWICK, P.J., JAMES M. SMART, JR., and JOSEPH P. DANDURAND,¹ JJ.

JAMES M. SMART, JR., Judge.

Dimetrious Woods appeals the judgment of conviction of drug trafficking in the second degree and his sentence of twenty-five years of incarceration without the opportunity for probation or parole. He complains on appeal that evidence was improperly admitted and that his conviction is not supported by sufficient evidence. The judgment is affirmed.

Facts

Officer Bret Brooks was assisting another officer with a traffic stop near a "ruse checkpoint" on the eastbound route of Interstate 70. A "ruse checkpoint" involves placing signs along an interstate highway presenting a bogus message that a drug checkpoint is ahead. The police intended for the signs to induce drug couriers to exit the interstate in an attempt to avoid the fictitious checkpoint. By design, the exit near the signs was an exit without any commercial services so that non-local traffic would have no reason to take the exit other than to avoid the checkpoint.

A vehicle with two men exited the interstate after seeing the sign. The vehicle turned left onto the overpass. Officer Brooks had observed the vehicle and had begun to cross the overpass from the other direction at the same time. When Officer Brooks and the vehicle passed each other, Officer Brooks noticed the driver make eye contact with him, look "very hard" at him, then continue to look back at him over his shoulder after having passed him. The vehicle then turned and entered onto the interstate, heading in the direction opposite the one it had been taking prior to exiting the interstate.

Officer Brooks turned around and followed the vehicle down the interstate. The vehicle was driving erratically and well above the posted speed limit. He observed the vehicle exit the interstate after changing lanes without signaling. He decided to stop the vehicle for traffic violations. Officer Brooks activated his emergency lights and followed the vehicle as it exited the road and went into a gas station parking lot and pulled up to a gas pump.

The two occupants abruptly exited the vehicle and walked quickly toward the front doors of the gas station. Officer Brooks yelled twice for the two men to halt, at which point the passenger, Dimetrious Woods, turned, looked at the officer, stopped and walked toward him as directed. After a third yell, the driver of the vehicle also complied. Officer Brooks directed Woods back to the vehicle where he sat in the passenger seat. Officer Brooks took the driver of the vehicle a short distance away from the vehicle, advised him of the traffic violations, and asked for his driver's license. The driver was breathing very heavily and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. He had some difficulty removing his driver's license from his pants.

Officer Brooks believed that the actions of the two were indicative that some type of criminal activity was occurring. He did not issue a traffic citation but, instead, asked the driver for permission to search his person. The driver consented. Officer Brooks found two large bundles of cash consisting of hundred dollar bills (not counted) on the driver. Officer Brooks moved the driver to the patrol car and questioned him further about his criminal history while running a computer check on the driver's license. The driver admitted he had been convicted of a narcotics offense in the past and that he was on parole. The driver said that he and Woods were travelling to Columbia from Kansas City. Officer Brooks could tell the driver's heart was beating rapidly.

The records check did not disclose anything new about the driver. Officer Brooks requested permission to search the vehicle. The driver stated that the vehicle was a rental car. The driver said that Woods had rented it and that Woods would have to decide about permission. At that point, which was approximately ten minutes after the initial stop, Officer Brooks called for canine assistance.

Officer Brooks then obtained Woods' license and questioned him in a similar manner. Officer Brooks observed that Woods was anxious. After obtaining permission to search Woods' person, the officer found that Woods possessed two cell phones. It seemed unusual to the officer that Woods had rented a car in St. Louis when he lived in Columbia, and stated that he was travelling to Columbia from Kansas City. Woods revealed that he had a prior narcotics conviction for drug trafficking. Woods refused Officer Brooks' request for permission to search the vehicle.

Twenty-five minutes after the initial stop, two additional officers and a canine arrived. After the canine was allowed time to orient to the location, the dog went to work. The dog "indicated" on the vehicle. An officer opened the trunk to reveal brown packages which revealed cocaine when opened. Woods and the driver of the vehicle were arrested. Officer Brooks discovered a large bundle of cash consisting of hundred dollar bills (not counted) on Woods' person.

Woods filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained from the stop based on a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. After a hearing, the motion was denied. Woods renewed his objection at trial when the evidence of the cocaine was offered by the State. The evidence was admitted over his objection. Woods further objected on the same basis to any and all statements procured during the stop and the currency seized from his person.

Woods moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the State's case based on insufficient evidence that he had any knowledge of or control over the cocaine located in the trunk of the rental vehicle. The motion was denied. He again moved for a judgment of acquittal at the close of all evidence, which was also denied. Woods was convicted of the class A felony of trafficking on the second degree and was sentenced as a prior drug offender to twenty-five years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Woods appeals.

Analysis

Suppression of Evidence

Woods claims that the evidence obtained when he and the driver of the vehicle were stopped by officer Brooks should have been suppressed because it was discovered through an unlawful search and seizure. He maintains that Officer Brooks unlawfully detained him and the driver of the vehicle for longer than necessary to complete a traffic stop by questioning them regarding matters unrelated to the traffic violation. Woods also argues that Officer Brooks had no reasonable, articulable grounds for suspicion of criminal activity prior to the time it would have taken to complete the traffic stop or thereafter.

"A trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress will be reversed on appeal only if it is clearly erroneous." State v. Sund, 215 S.W.3d 719, 723 (Mo. banc 2007). "This Court defers to the trial court's factual findings and credibility determination and considers all evidence and reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the trial court's ruling." Id. (citation omitted). "Whether conduct violates the Fourth Amendment is an issue of law that this Court reviews de novo." Id.

"The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that individuals will not be subject to unreasonable searches or seizures." Id. "The Missouri constitution offers the same level of protection; the same analysis applies to cases under the Missouri Constitution as under the United States Constitution." State v. Pike, 162 S.W.3d 464, 472 (Mo. banc 2005). "A `seizure' occurs when the totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident indicates that a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave." Sund, 215 S.W.3d at 723. "A routine traffic stop based upon an officer's observation of a violation of state traffic laws is a reasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment." Id.

"The fact that the police may detain a person for a routine traffic stop does not justify indefinite detention, however." Id. "The detention may only last for the time necessary for the officer to conduct a reasonable investigation of the traffic violation." Id. Once a traffic stop is complete, the law enforcement officer is required to allow the person to "proceed without further questioning unless specific, articulable facts created an objectively reasonable suspicion that the individual was involved in criminal activity." Id.

The existence of reasonable suspicion is determined objectively. The question is whether the facts available to the officer at that moment would "warrant a man of reasonable caution to believe that the action taken was appropriate." Pike, 162 S.W.3d at 472. "Reasonable suspicion is a less stringent standard than probable cause." Id. at 473. "Reasonable suspicion may be established with information that is different in amount or content, or that is less reliable, than the evidence required to establish probable cause." Id. "The quantity and quality of the information must be considered in the `totality of the circumstances' to determine whether reasonable suspicion exists." Id. "A suspicion is reasonable when the officer is able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion." State v. Hawkins, 137 S.W.3d 549, 557 (Mo.App.2004).

"The standard is whether, prior to the seizure, the detaining officer has a `particularized and objective basis' for suspecting legal wrongdoing." Id. "This process allows officers to draw on their own experience and specialized training to make inferences...