Title: State v. Watkins

State: north-carolina

Issuer: North Carolina Supreme Court

Document:

446 S.E.2d 67 (1994)
337 N.C. 437
STATE of North Carolina
v.
William Davis WATKINS.
No. 407A93.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
July 29, 1994.
*68 Michael F. Easley, Atty. Gen. by Jeffrey P. Gray, Asst. Atty. Gen., for State-appellant.
McNairy, Clifford & Clendenin by Locke T. Clifford and Robert O'Hale, Greensboro, for defendant-appellee.
WHICHARD, Justice.
The State appeals from a decision of the Court of Appeals affirming an order granting a motion to suppress all of the evidence obtained by a law enforcement officer pursuant to his stop of defendant's vehicle. The trial court's findings of fact were not excepted to on appeal; therefore, they are not reviewable. Brown v. Board of Education, 269 N.C. 667, 670, 153 S.E.2d 335, 338 (1967); see also State v. Perry, 316 N.C. 87, 107, 340 S.E.2d 450, 462 (1986). The trial court found that:
The single issue is whether, based on these findings, the trial court and the Court of Appeals properly concluded that Officer Harbor did not have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when he activated his blue light and decided to stop defendant's vehicle. We conclude that they did not, and we accordingly reverse.
The Fourth Amendment protects the "right of the people ... against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. It is applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 1691, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081, 1090 (1961). It applies to seizures of the person, *70 including brief investigatory detentions such as those involved in the stopping of a vehicle. Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 440, 100 S. Ct. 2752, 2753-54, 65 L. Ed. 2d 890, 893 (1980).
Only unreasonable investigatory stops are unconstitutional. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 9, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 1873, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 899 (1968). An investigatory stop must be justified by "a reasonable suspicion, based on objective facts, that the individual is involved in criminal activity." Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 51, 99 S. Ct. 2637, 2641, 61 L. Ed. 2d 357, 362 (1979).
A court must consider "the totality of the circumstancesthe whole picture" in determining whether a reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop exists. U.S. v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S. Ct. 690, 695, 66 L. Ed. 2d 621, 629 (1981). The stop must be based on specific and articulable facts, as well as the rational inferences from those facts, as viewed through the eyes of a reasonable, cautious officer, guided by his experience and training. Terry, 392 U.S.  at 21-22, 88 S. Ct.  at 1880, 20 L. Ed. 2d  at 906; State v. Thompson, 296 N.C. 703, 706, 252 S.E.2d 776, 779, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 907, 100 S. Ct. 220, 62 L. Ed. 2d 143 (1979). The only requirement is a minimal level of objective justification, something more than an "unparticularized suspicion or hunch." U.S. v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7, 109 S. Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L. Ed. 2d 1, 10 (1989).
Here, Officer Harbor received a transmission on an official radio frequency stating that there was a "10-50" or "suspicious vehicle" behind the Virginia Carolina Well Drilling Company. Deputy Robert Knight, a five-and-one-half-year veteran on the county force, asked Officer Harbor for assistance. Officer Harbor observed a car moving with its lights off in the company parking lot. The time was 3:00 a.m., the area was generally rural, and the specific locale was a business which Officer Harbor knew to be "closed normally" at that time. These observations by Officer Harbor were sufficient to corroborate the tip that there was a "suspicious vehicle" at the locale. An anonymous tip may provide the requisite reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop if it is corroborated by independent police work on the scene. Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330, 110 S. Ct. 2412, 2416, 110 L. Ed. 2d 301, 309 (1990).
Defendant argues that the facts here are similar to those in State v. Fleming, 106 N.C.App. 165, 415 S.E.2d 782 (1992), where the Court of Appeals held that officers acted unreasonably when they stopped and frisked a defendant merely because he had been standing in an open area between two apartment buildings and then chose to walk in a direction away from the officers. Fleming, however, is distinguishable, in that the officers there had only a generalized suspicion. Additionally, that incident occurred in Greensboro, an urban area, shortly after midnight, while the incident here occurred in a rural area at 3:00 a.m. The "unusual hour" is an appropriate factor for a law enforcement officer to consider in formulating a reasonable suspicion. State v. Rinck, 303 N.C. 551, 560, 280 S.E.2d 912, 920 (1981).
The facts of this case are comparable to those in State v. Fox, 58 N.C.App. 692, 294 S.E.2d 410 (1982), aff'd per curiam, 307 N.C. 460, 298 S.E.2d 388 (1983). The court concluded that the officer there had a reasonable suspicion justifying a stop of a vehicle proceeding slowly on a dead-end street of locked businesses at 12:50 a.m. in an area with a high incidence of property crime. The defendant, who was driving, appeared the officer's gaze. Similarly, in State v. Tillet and State v. Smith, 50 N.C.App. 520, 274 S.E.2d 361, appeal dismissed, 302 N.C. 633, 280 S.E.2d 448 (1981), the court held that an investigatory stop was justified by a reasonable suspicion in that the officer there was aware of reports of "firelighting" deer in the area and he saw a car entering a heavily wooded, only seasonally occupied area at approximately 9:40 p.m.
Like the officers in Fox and Tillet, Officer Harbor had a reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify a stop of defendant's vehicle. All of the facts, and the reasonable inferences from those facts, known to the officer when he decided to make the investigatory stop, would lead a reasonably cautious law enforcement officer to suspect that criminal activity was afoot. Officer Harbor received a dispatch *71 from an official frequency stating that there was a "10-50" or suspicious vehicle behind the Virginia Carolina Well Drilling Company. A veteran officer requested his assistance. Officer Harbor then saw a vehicle driving with its lights off in the parking lot of a business which was normally closed at that hour. It was 3:00 a.m. in a rural area. We conclude that when these facts are considered as a whole and from the point of view of a reasonably cautious officer on the scene, the officer had a reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for a brief investigatory stop.
Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals with instructions to remand to the Superior Court, Rockingham County, for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.