Opinion ID: 1805210
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The Mobile Housing Authority entered into a contract with the Mobile County Sheriff's Department pursuant to which the sheriff's department is permitted to enter housing areas governed by the housing authority at the request of the housing authority and performs such policing activities as rolling patrols, foot patrols, community policing, and safety checkpoints to establish some sort of police presence. Pursuant to that contract, the Mobile County Sheriff's Department entered the R.V. Taylor housing project in Mobile on the evening of May 10, 2001, to set up what they called a safety checkpoint at a major intersection in the housing community. The housing authority had made no particular request for a roadblock-type stop in this instance; a captain in the sheriff's department made the decision to set up the roadblock-type stop. The officers checked driver's licenses, automobile insurance documentation, and vehicle safety devices, e.g., seat belts, child restraints, etc., at the roadblock-type stop. They put in place seven marked sheriff's department vehicles at the intersection and stopped every vehicle that came through the intersection. They followed guidelines established by the sheriff's department while conducting the roadblock-type stop; those guidelines required that they perform no random searches and that the officers' activities be supervised by superior officers in the sheriff's department. An officer stopped Jackson's vehicle at the roadblock. The officer discovered marijuana and two rolls of cash on Jackson's person; a larger quantity of marijuana in the console between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat; hidden under the tire cover in the trunk of Jackson's vehicle was an Old Navy store shopping bag that contained more marijuana, scales, and numerous plastic sandwich bags. At trial, Jackson filed a motion to suppress the marijuana found on his person and in his vehicle on the basis that the roadblock-type stop was an unreasonable seizure that violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. [2] After his conviction for first-degree unlawful possession of marijuana, Jackson filed a motion for a new trial, which the trial court denied. The trial court sentenced Jackson, as a habitual offender, to 15 years in prison; that sentence was split, and Jackson was ordered to serve 3 years in prison and 5 years' supervised probation. In his appeal to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, Jackson argued that the trial court erred on the basis that the roadblock-style stop was an unreasonable seizure that violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed without an opinion. We affirm.