Antonio Winn v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, 2023-CA-0518

Antonio Winn appealed the denial of a motion to suppress evidence following a conditional guilty plea in the Fayette Circuit Court, Kentucky.
During a patrol, Officer D’Aniello observed Winn’s vehicle make a brief stop at a house linked to drug activity, then commit several traffic violations (including going the wrong way down a one-way street and speeding).
The officer stopped the car, found the driver's story incoherent, observed heightened nervousness in both occupants, and noted discrepancies in identification information.
D’Aniello requested a K-9 unit, which alerted to drugs, leading to a struggle, the discovery of a firearm, and Winn’s arrest on related charges.
Winn argued the stop was unlawfully extended for a K-9 search and raised questions about the reliability of the dog’s alert, which he did not preserve for appeal.
The trial court denied the suppression motion; Winn was sentenced to 10 years. The appellate court was asked to review challenges to both the extension of the stop and the K-9 search.

Issue	Plaintiff’s Argument	Defendant’s Argument	Held
Extension of the traffic stop for K-9	Stop was improperly prolonged	Officer had reasonable suspicion for extension	Reasonable suspicion existed; no unlawful delay
Reliability/sufficiency of K-9 alert	No evidence K-9 alert was reliable	Issue not preserved for appeal; no record to review	Not properly preserved; court declined review

Commonwealth v. Clayborne, 635 S.W.3d 818 (Ky. 2021) (setting standards for reviewing suppression rulings and defining the scope of a permissible traffic stop and when it is impermissibly extended)
Commonwealth v. Conner, 636 S.W.3d 464 (Ky. 2021) (discussing prolonging stops for criminal investigations and the need for reasonable suspicion)
Baltimore v. Commonwealth, 119 S.W.3d 532 (Ky. App. 2003) (explaining the relatively low threshold for reasonable, articulable suspicion)
Moberly v. Commonwealth, 551 S.W.3d 26 (Ky. 2018) (discussing factors like nervousness and high crime areas in reasonable suspicion analysis)
Navarette v. California, 572 U.S. 393 (2014) (Supreme Court precedent that reasonable suspicion need not rule out innocent conduct)