John Wesley BUTTS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Nаncy A. Daniels, Public Defender, and Phil Patterson, Asst. Public Defender, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Thomas Falkinburg and Amelia L. Beisner, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
ALLEN, Judge.
The appellant challenges his convictions and sentences for possession of cocaine, carrying a concealed firearm and trafficking in heroin. Because the trial court should have granted the appellant's motion to suppress, we reverse the convictions and sentences for possession of cocаine and trafficking in heroin. We affirm the conviction and sentence for carrying a concealed firearm because the aрpellant failed to object to the admission of the weapon at trial.
Deputy Robbins and Officer Scott were on duty in the early morning of January 3, 1993, when they received a call from police dispatch advising them of a tip from an anonymous informant that a black malе with a gray beard, wearing a black cap, gray pants, and black jacket was riding a bicycle at Grothe and Myrtle, and that he had a gun in the pocket of his jacket. They were further told that the man was possibly selling drugs. Shortly thereafter, the officers observed the appellant coming toward them on a bicycle, and after a brief chase, they detained him. The officers observed a gun in the appellant's pockets and seized it. A search of the appellant's person produced packets of heroin and cocainе.
Prior to trial, the appellant moved to suppress the pistol, heroin and cocaine, arguing *606 that the anonymous tip did not establish reasonable suspicion to justify his detention. Following a hearing, the trial court denied the motion, finding that the description of the appеllant and his location had been corroborated by the police, and that the appellant's initial flight from the officers and the presence of the gun in the appellant's pocket gave further indicia of the reliability of the information the officers had received.
At trial, the state moved to admit the pistol into evidence without objection by the appellant. When the state moved to admit the other contraband into evidence, the appellant made a timely objection based on his pre-trial motion to suppress.
An anonymous tip can provide the basis for an investigatory stop when the tip, as corroborated by independent police work, exhibits sufficient indicia of reliability to furnish police with a reasonable suspicion that the defendant is engaged in criminal activity. Alabama v. White,
First, "the tip itself offered nothing more than innocent details of identification that could have been provided by any pilgrim on the roadway." Robinson v. State,
Likewise, the officers' independent investigation added nothing to the reliability of the tip. Deputy Robbins conceded that they stopped the appellant solely based on the information in the tip and that they did not observе the appellant engaged in any illegal, or even suspicious, activity before stopping him. Simpkins v. State,
Because the admission of the hеroin and cocaine was properly objected to at trial, its erroneous admission requires reversal of the appellant's convictions for possession of cocaine and trafficking in heroin. However, the appellant failed to object to thе admission of the pistol at trial, and thus his claim challenging its admission was not preserved for review. See, e.g., Feller v. State,
Accordingly, we affirm the conviction and sentence for carrying a concealed weapon and reverse the convictions and sentences for possession оf cocaine and trafficking in heroin.
*607 WEBSTER, J., concurs.
LAWRENCE, J., concurs and dissents with written opinion.
LAWRENCE, Judge, concurring and dissenting.
I concur with the majority's decision only to the extent that it affirms Butts' conviction for carrying a conсealed firearm. I respectfully dissent from the majority holding which vacates Butts' judgments and sentences for trafficking in heroin and possession of cocaine, because the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in finding a valid search. My view is best expressed in a similar case, which found a valid search, by the concurring opinion of Justice England, joined by Justice Sundberg, wherein he said:
Reasonable men could possibly differ as tо whether the anonymous tip and surrounding circumstances bore sufficient indicia of reliability to justify Webb's "stop" in this case. The specificity of the information given is important, as are the time and space relationships between the tip and the stop.
Based on testimony at а suppression hearing, the trial judge thought the indicia were reliable and that, I submit, ought to end the matter in this case. The fact that appеllate judges think otherwise is irrelevant, for by no stretch of imagination can it be said the trial judge abused his discretion to evaluate the evidеnce and rule on the reliability of the tip.
State v. Webb,
I would affirm the judgments and sentences for trafficking in heroin and possession of cocaine because of the specificity of the information given, and the close temporal and spatial relationships between the tip and the stop.
