Court Opinion

ID: 9564420
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:00:22.084758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:24.160645
License: Public Domain

McGEE, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the majority’s conclusion that defendant was not entrapped as a matter of law. However, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that there was probable cause to conduct the warrantless stop and search of defendant’s vehicle based on an informant’s tip. As correctly stated by the majority, in the case of an informant’s tip, probable cause is determined by a “ ‘totality-of-the circumstances’ ” test, using a “ ‘balanced assessment of the relative weights of all the various indicia of reliability (and unreliability) attending an informant’s tip.’” State v. Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. 200, 203, 560 S.E.2d 207, 209, disc. review denied, 355 N.C. 752, 565 S.E.2d 672 (2002) (citations omitted). A court must review the facts and circumstances of each case to determine whether, under the totality of the circumstances, there was probable cause to make a warrantless stop and search. Id. In the present case, under the totality of the circumstances, probable cause did not exist.
In the present case, I take a different view of some of the facts as well as the cases the majority cites in support of its holding. I believe the present case can be distinguished from both Chadwick and State v. Earhart, 134 N.C. App. 130, 516 S.E.2d 883 (1999). The informant in the present case was certainly known to the police and was, in fact, in their custody. However, the informant was known to the police as a criminal defendant, not as an informant, since he had no track record of providing information to the police, and therefore no history of reliability. The fact that the informant gave Officer Kimball general information about drug houses and markets, that Officer Kimball knew was correct from his experience as a law enforcement officer, does not overcome this significant deficiency. The factor of being an informant on previous occasions serves the purpose of showing that the informant was reliable in the past, establishing a track record of reliability. The statements given by the informant to Officer Kimball concerning drug activity in Charlotte, even if about specific drug markets and the like, were merely statements showing the informant’s knowledge of the drug trade in Charlotte; they were *323not prior tips the police acted upon, which could establish a track record of reliability as an informant. See Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203, 560 S.E.2d at 209 (“[a] known informant’s information may establish probable cause based on a reliable track record”). Statements made in a relatively contemporaneous manner with the tip acted upon, which simply show knowledge of the drug trade in the area do not convert an informant who has never provided prior reliable tips in the past, into an informant with a reliable history. See id.
Further, the facts that the informant gave the police in this case were not as specific as the facts given by informants in the cases discussed above. Information the informant gave to the police that could be and was independently verified was that a black man in his thirties, driving a 1980’s model, white, four-door Cadillac with spoke wheels, would arrive at the Fast Fare at the corner of Eastway and The Plaza at an approximate time. The informant only gave police defendant’s first name, “Doug.” The police did not check the registration of the vehicle that arrived at the Fast Fare, nor did they ask anyone other than the informant to confirm defendant’s identity, as the deputies did in Earhart. I agree with the majority that the police need not verify the defendant’s identity with someone else in every case, but such verification can strengthen the reliability of the informant’s tip in the absence of other corroborating factors. The police in this case failed to independently verify key information given by the informant before stopping the vehicle. In addition, defendant’s description of the man in the Cadillac was vague, consisting only of the identifying features that he was a black man in his thirties.
The case before us is further distinguishable from Earhart in that there was only one informant’s tip, as opposed to the multiple, corroborating tips in Earhart. Earhart, 134 N.C. App. at 134, 516 S.E.2d at 886-87. Probable cause can be established on the basis of information provided by a single informant, see Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203-04, 560 S.E.2d at 210; however, as shown in Earhart, when corroborating information is obtained from two different sources, the reliability of the information is strengthened under the totality of the circumstances test. See Earhart, 134 N.C. App. at 134, 516 S.E.2d at 886-87.
The present case is also distinguishable from Chadwick; the tip given by the informant in the present case did not include any details of what defendant would do once he arrived at the Fast Fare; the police did not verify every detail “with minute particularity,” such as the identity of “Doug,” nor did the police recognize defendant as the *324officer in Chadwick did; and the informant in Chadwick had a history of proven reliability as an informant, unlike the informant in this case, despite the majority’s conclusion to the contrary. Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203-04, 560 S.E.2d at 210.
The majority relies on State v. Martinez, 150 N.C. App. 364, 562 S.E.2d 914, appeal dismissed and disc. review denied, 356 N.C. 172, 568 S.E.2d 859 (2002); however, I find that case distinguishable from the present case as well. In Martinez, the informant was a college student in his early twenties who had been apprehended in his residence after police had searched his house and discovered illegal drugs, contraband, and cash. Id. at 367, 562 S.E.2d at 916. The informant “ ‘was crying and . . . scared’ ” when he told the police that from a conversation the informant had with his normal suppliers, two Hispanic males, approximately an hour before the police arrived at the informant’s residence, the suppliers were already “en route” to deliver a shipment of marijuana to his house and would “ ‘come right to [the informant’s] door.’ ” Id. After receiving this information, an officer overheard a conversation between the informant and the two suppliers, when the suppliers called the informant and told him they would arrive in about twenty minutes. Id. A car matching the description provided by the informant, containing two Hispanic males, turned into the informant’s driveway and pulled right up to the front door of the informant’s home. Id.
In Martinez, although the tip did-not describe the two suppliers with particular detail beyond the fact that they were two Hispanic males driving a small, white, four-door automobile, two men matching the description given by the informant pulled into the driveway of the informant’s home and right up to the front door of the residence. Id. The lack of a particularly detailed description of the defendants in Martinez was balanced against the fact that the defendants drove into the driveway of a private home, as opposed to a convenience store, right up to the front door as predicted, and that the investigating police officer overheard the conversation the informant had with the defendants, confirming the transaction that had already been set up even before the police arrived at the informant’s home. See id. at 369, 562 S.E.2d at 914.
In considering the totality of the circumstances, I believe the single informant’s tip in the case before us was insufficient to allow the police to conduct a warrantless stop and arrest of defendant. While no one factor is necessarily conclusive, the failure to show sufficient past reliability of the informant, the fact that the *325informant’s tip did not provide specific logistical details of the drug transaction, and the fact that the police did not independently verify defendant’s name using a license check or any other method, compel this conclusion. I would hold that the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress and would vacate and remand for a new trial.
For the above reasons I respectfully dissent. Because defendant would receive a new trial, I would not address defendant’s second and third assignments of error in light of the fact that the informant’s identity was revealed to defendant at the previous trial and would no longer be an issue; and because defendant would have sufficient time to subpoena Cunningham prior to a new trial.