Court Opinion

ID: 9579306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:53:38.826038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:26.319693
License: Public Domain

MORRIS, Chief Judge.
Defendant argues that the court erred by permitting Officer Bryant to testify at the pretrial hearing on defendant’s motion to suppress that he “expressed an articulated basis” for stopping defendant, and that it was error to deny defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the stop and detention.
The following exchange took place on recross examination of Officer Bryant:
I did not arrest the defendant solely because of his appearance, that was not my sole basis. I took into consideration all of the things that I observed with respect to the defendant and the car he was in.
Q. It would be fair to say that based upon everything you observed about him you had a reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in some illegal activity at that time?
Mr. BRAGG: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled. Well, that’s calling for a conclusion, though.
*694Q. You have expressed an articulated basis for your suspicions here today?
Mr. BRAGG: Objection.
The Court: Overruled.
A. Yes, sir.
MR. BRAGG: Move to strike the answer.
THE COURT: Overruled. Any other questions?
Defendant contends that the witness should not have been allowed to express his opinion regarding whether he had articulated his suspicions in view of the mandate of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed. 2d 889 (1968), that an officer “must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts,” id. at 906, warrant an investigatory stop, on the grounds that a non-expert may not testify as to a question of law. Though it is not apparent to us that the officer’s answer was any more than a statement that he had articulated the facts known to him preceding his stop of the green Chevrolet, we hold that any error that may have occurred in the admission of this testimony was nonprejudicial. Even assuming that the evidence was improperly admitted, we find nothing to rebut the presumption that incompetent evidence was disregarded by the trial judge. See State v. Davis, 290 N.C. 511, 227 S.E. 2d 97 (1976). Moreover, it is clear from the record that the court understood the legal prohibition against conclusory testimony from nonexperts. This assignment of error is overruled.
Defendant maintains by his second assignment that he was stopped and detained by Officer Bryant in violation of his constitutional rights and that the court erred by refusing to order that all evidence obtained as a result of the intrusion be suppressed.
A police officer is authorized to stop a person without probable cause to arrest him if he observes unusual conduct making him reasonably suspicious that criminal activity may be afoot, and can point to specific facts that warrant the suspicion. Terry v. Ohio, supra. Our examination of the judge’s findings of fact, which are based on the evidence and are thus conclusive, satisfies us *695that Officer Bryant acted within the confines of the Fourth Amendment in making the investigatory stop of defendant’s vehicle. Defendant was driving slowly down a dead-end street of locked businesses previously fraught with property crime. One of the businesses had been broken into, Officer Bryant believed, that very night. The stop occurred at a very early morning hour. Defendant was dressed shabbily but drove a “real nice” 1981 Chevrolet. He did not stop to ask directions, or otherwise communicate with the officer, though he drove within two feet of Officer Bryant, and appeared to avoid his gaze. We upheld the investigatory stop of a vehicle in State v. Tillett 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), on facts less compelling, perhaps, than these. There, an automobile travelling a dirt road was seen entering a heavily wooded, occasionally unoccupied area at about 9:40 p.m. The officer was aware of reports of “firelighting” deer in the area. He stopped the vehicle when it emerged from the area. We held it not unreasonable to believe the occupants of the vehicle were engaged in some sort of criminal activity. We hold in the case at bar, as we did in Tillett, that the facts “together with the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, when viewed through the eyes of an experienced police officer, . . . justify the reasonable suspicion” that defendant “might be engaged in or connected with criminal activity.” Id. at 524, 274 S.E. 2d at 364. The assignment of error is, therefore, overruled, and the order allowing the introduction of evidence acquired pursuant to the investigatory stop is
Affirmed.
Judge Martin concurs.
Judge BECTON dissents.