Wilson v. State

Decision Date16 January 2014
Docket NumberNo. CR-13-488,CR-13-488
Citation2014 Ark. 8
PartiesRAYMOND WILSON APPELLANT v. STATE OF ARKANSAS APPELLEE
CourtArkansas Supreme Court

APPEAL FROM THE MISSISSIPPI

COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT,

CHICKASAWBA DISTRICT

HONORABLE CINDY THYER,

JUDGE
AFFIRMED; ARKANSAS COURT OF

APPEALS OPINION VACATED.

JOSEPHINE LINKER HART, Associate Justice

The circuit court denied Raymond Wilson's motion to suppress evidence seized during a traffic stop of the rental car that he was driving. Wilson entered a conditional guilty plea, in accordance with Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 24.3, to trafficking a controlled substance—cocaine. He was sentenced to 120 months' imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction followed by 120 months' suspended imposition of sentence. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court's decision. Wilson v. State, 2013 Ark. App. 337. Wilson filed with this court a petition for review, which we granted. When we grant a petition for review, we treat the appeal as if it had been originally filed in this court. Jackson v. State, 2013 Ark. 201, _ S.W.3d _. Wilson argues that the circuit court erred in failing to suppress evidence that was seized in violation of article 2, section 15 of the Arkansas Constitution, the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United StatesConstitution, and Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.1.

The following facts were developed at a hearing on Wilson's motion to suppress. A Missouri law enforcement officer, Mark McClendon, placed a global-positioning-satellite (GPS) tracking device on a rental car, a Dodge Charger, while it was parked at or next door to Wilson's home in Malden, Missouri. On the evening of October 2, 2011, Pam Buchanan, a Missouri drug task-force officer, called her distant relative, Officer Blake Bristow of the Jonesboro Police Department. Buchanan stated that her office, through controlled-narcotics buys by confidential informants, had developed information that Wilson was selling crack cocaine in Malden, Missouri. This information indicated that Wilson used rental cars to transport his drugs. Buchanan informed Bristow that they were conducting electronic monitoring on a vehicle being driven by Wilson. She expected that Wilson would be driving the vehicle back from Texas, and it would probably be passing through Jonesboro. Buchanan supplied Bristow with log-in information so that he could access the tracking information from the GPS tracking device on the vehicle. Bristow was tracking the vehicle on October 2, 2011.

Arkansas State Police Trooper Brandon Bennett was on patrol when he received a call from Bristow. Bristow advised him that a vehicle possibly carrying "a load of dope" was on Interstate 40 coming from the Fort Worth, Texas, area and that the vehicle was believed to be headed to Jonesboro. Bristow gave Bennett a description of the vehicle and a tag number, and Bristow continued to update Bennett about the location of the vehicle. Bristow advised Bennett that Wilson did not turn toward Jonesboro off of Interstate 40 but had instead gonethrough West Memphis and was on Interstate 55 in Mississippi County, Arkansas. Bristow instructed Bennett to look for the vehicle.

Bennett was stationed in the median of Interstate 55 when he first observed the vehicle. He followed and stopped the vehicle after observing the car traveling seventy-four miles per hour in a seventy-mile-per-hour speed zone and crossing the fog line. Bennett approached the driver of the vehicle, Wilson, asked for his driver's license and insurance information, and inquired about his itinerary. Wilson told Bennett that he was traveling from the Fort Worth area after being there for one day to help a friend move and was heading back to Malden, Missouri, where he lived. Bennett concluded that, given the distances traveled, this explanation did not "add up." According to Bennett, Wilson appeared nervous and would not make eye contact. Bennett asked Wilson for the vehicle's rental agreement. Wilson provided more than one contract, and Bennett noted that Wilson's name did not appear as an authorized driver on any of the agreements. Wilson told him that his girlfriend had "signed off on the rental agreement."

While waiting for information after calling in Wilson's license, Bennett asked for and received Wilson's consent to search the vehicle. Bennett searched for approximately fifteen minutes but did not find any contraband. He testified, however, that he did find "different spots" where the vehicle's carpet had been "purposely" pulled up. This seemed unusual to him because the vehicle was a "fairly new vehicle." Shortly after he completed his search of the vehicle, Bennett learned that Wilson had a prior drug-related arrest.

Prior to the stop, Bennett had tried to find a drug dog, and he contacted theBlytheville Police Department and spoke with off-duty police officer Steu Sigmon, who agreed to assist, but stated that he would have to drive to Blytheville, pick up his police car, load up the dog, and then drive to his location. After Bennett unsuccessfully tried to find an on-duty officer, he again called Sigmon. According to Bennett, when Sigmon arrived, he "deployed" the dog, and the dog alerted on the rear of the rented vehicle. A videotape of the stop from Bennett's patrol car showed that Bennett pulled Wilson over at 9:03 p.m. Bennett's unsuccessful search of the vehicle concluded at 9:20 p.m. The drug dog arrived at 9:43 p.m. The search with the canine resulted in the discovery of cocaine underneath speakers after the back seat had been pulled down. The cocaine was discovered at 9:59 p.m.

Marcus McKinney, the regional manager for Enterprise Rental Car, also testified at the suppression hearing, and he identified the vehicle Wilson was driving on the date of the arrest as a rental from Enterprise that was rented by Billie Williams. McKinney testified that the rental agreement specified that Williams was the only authorized driver. Among the agreements was one for the period of September 20—27, 2011. According to McKinney, the contract "must have been extended," because the car was not returned until October 3, 2011.

Also at the hearing, Billie Williams testified that on September 20, 2011, she rented the vehicle to accommodate Wilson, who was the father of her eight-year-old child. After renting the vehicle, she immediately turned it over to Wilson so that he could provide transportation and care for their child while Williams was at work. According to Williams, she rented the car for Wilson because a debit card or credit card was required, and Wilson did not have one. Wilson was unemployed at the time and did not own a vehicle. Nonetheless,he agreed to, and did, reimburse her for renting the car.

McClendon, the officer who placed the GPS tracking device on the vehicle, testified at the hearing that it was his decision to place a GPS tracking device on the rental car that Wilson was using without first obtaining a search warrant. According to McClendon, he was guided by a "good rule of thumb" that he could attach the device on a vehicle as long as he did not invade the curtilage. He testified that, at approximately 4:30 a.m. on September 22, 2011, he placed the battery-powered device on the undercarriage of the vehicle while it was parked in the side yard of 601 Gertie in Malden, Missouri. It was his understanding that Wilson resided at 603 Gertie.

McClendon stated that he was familiar with the United States Supreme Court case of United States v. Jones, _ U.S. _, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012), holding that the government's placement of a GPS tracking device on a vehicle constituted a search, and he conceded that it affected how law enforcement agencies utilized GPS devices. He noted, however, that he installed the device well before the Court handed down Jones. McClendon asserted that he did not invade what he understood to be the curtilage of Wilson's residence. He described the location of the vehicle to be on a "path . . . where cars had been on and off." McClendon stated that he understood curtilage to mean "the immediate area around the house—right up against the house."

Wilson testified in his own defense and confirmed that he lived at 603 Gertie but denied that he or anyone else had ever parked the Charger at 601 Gertie. He claimed that while he was living at 603 Gertie, he parked the car at his home next to the porch area in thedriveway.

In support of his motion to suppress the cocaine, Wilson argued that placing a GPS tracking device on the vehicle without a warrant and gathering data about the vehicle's movements was an unconstitutional search and that the evidence seized pursuant to the search should be suppressed. Wilson further challenged the detention following a consensual but unproductive search by Bennett. After arguments of counsel, the circuit court denied Wilson's motion to suppress.

In its written ruling, the circuit court found that Wilson was the driver of a rental car that had been rented for him by Williams. The court noted that, while it was undisputed that Wilson reimbursed Williams for rental of the vehicle, Wilson was never designated as an authorized additional driver as Wilson had not rented the vehicle in his name and Williams did not pay the $10 authorized-driver fee for Wilson to drive the vehicle. Thus, Williams was prohibited from granting permission for others to drive the vehicle, which "defeats the ability of [Wilson] to claim he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the vehicle." Nonetheless, the circuit court concluded that "if Ms. Williams had authority to grant permission under the contract with Enterprise, she indeed granted permission to [Wilson]."

The court further found that the length of Wilson's detention after the initial stop was not unreasonable in light of the totality of the circumstances. Also, the court found credible McClendon's testimony that the vehicle was located at 601 Gertie, the residence next...

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4 cases
  • Rea v. State
    • United States
    • Arkansas Supreme Court
    • October 27, 2016
    ...found. An appellant must have standing to assert Fourth Amendment rights because those rights are personal in nature. Wilson v. State , 2014 Ark. 8, 2014 WL 197836. Whether an appellant has standing depends on whether he manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in the area searched an......
  • Hoey v. State
    • United States
    • Arkansas Court of Appeals
    • April 26, 2017
    ...detention did not violate Rule 3.1 because the officer acted diligently in securing the closest available drug dog. See Wilson v. State , 2014 Ark. 8. When both Taylor and Hoey declined to consent to a search, Pettit informed them that he was requesting a canine to conduct a free-air sniff ......
  • Ashby v. State
    • United States
    • Arkansas Court of Appeals
    • November 3, 2021
    ... ... On ... review of a circuit court's denial of a motion to ... suppress evidence, we conduct an independent inquiry based on ... the totality of the circumstances, evaluating findings of ... historical facts for clear error. Wilson v. State, ... 2014 Ark. 8. We give due weight to inferences drawn by the ... circuit court, and we will reverse the circuit court only if ... the ruling is clearly against the preponderance of the ... evidence. Thomas v. State, 2020 Ark. 154, at 9, 598 ... S.W.3d 41, 46 ... The ... ...
  • Thomas v. State
    • United States
    • Arkansas Supreme Court
    • April 23, 2020
    ...independent inquiry based on the totality of the circumstances, evaluating findings of historical facts for clear error. Wilson v. State , 2014 Ark. 8, 2014 WL 197836. We give due weight to inferences drawn by the circuit court, and we will reverse the circuit court only if the ruling is cl......
1 books & journal articles

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