Lead Opinion
The State appeals from the trial court’s grant of Jack Hughes’s motion to suppress the results of a blood test, contending that the trial court erred in concluding that the arresting officers lacked probable cause to request the blood test under the implied consent statute. For the following reasons, we reverse.
Upon review of a trial court’s grant or denial of a motion to suppress, we apply the clearly erroneous standard where the evidence is in dispute or the credibility of a witness is challenged, and
[the trial court’s] findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be*430 disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support it. Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Third, the reviewing court must construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment.
(Citation and footnote omitted.) Miller v. State,
Here, the evidence adduced at the hearing on the motion to suppress shows that, on the morning of June 27, 2011, officers from the Columbus Police Department were dispatched to a motor vehicle accident. Hughes, then 17 years old, had driven through a red light and struck another driver before ultimately hitting a utility pole. The airbag in Hughes’s vehicle had deployed during the accident, filling the cabin of his pickup truck with a white powder. The driver of the other vehicle died as a result of injuries sustained in the collision.
After the accident, one of the first responding officers, Officer Allen, saw Hughes standing off to the side of his vehicle and made contact with Hughes to determine if he was okay. Hughes said that he was okay, and he told Officer Allen that he believed he had fallen asleep while driving. Officer Allen observed that Hughes was unsteady on his feet, that his eyes were red and glassy with dilated pupils, and that he was slow and evasive in his responses to questioning.
Shortly thereafter, Corporal T. R. Greene arrived at the scene and took over the investigation. While speaking with Hughes, Corporal Greene also observed that Hughes was slow to answer questions, that he was unsteady on his feet, and that he seemed to have trouble staying awake. Hughes stated that he had had a long day before the accident, which started out with an early morning practice and a baseball game that ended at 11:00 a.m., followed by work from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Hughes further stated that he took a short nap after work and then went to a party with friends from about 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., then slept in his vehicle from about 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.
At this point, Corporal Greene did not believe that Hughes was under the influence, and Hughes was not asked to perform any field sobriety tests. Corporal Greene arrested Hughes for a red-light violation and homicide by vehicle. However, after providing Miranda
Hughes filed a motion to suppress the results of the blood test, arguing that the officers lacked probable cause to believe that he was driving under the influence of drugs. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the only witnesses who testified were the officers who responded to the scene of the accident and interacted with Hughes. Following the presentation of evidence, the trial court granted Hughes’s motion to suppress, finding that the officers did not have probable cause to invoke the implied consent statute.
On appeal, the State contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion. We agree.
In determining whether the evidence is sufficient to invoke the implied consent statute, the relevant inquiry is whether an officer had “reasonable grounds” to believe that a defendant had been driving a motor vehicle in violation of OCGA § 40-6-391. See OCGA § 40-5-55 (a). “[W]here the facts relevant to a suppression motion are undisputed, the proper standard of review on appeal is de novo, not clearly erroneous.” (Footnote omitted.) Underwood, supra.
In State v. Gray,
Here, the fact that Hughes had drugs in his possession was not the only credible evidence that he may have been driving while impaired. The undisputed evidence also showed that Hughes was incapable of driving his vehicle safely and that he exhibited manifestations consistent with being impaired. The fact that drugs were found in his possession put into context his disjointed demeanor, and the combination of these facts provided the officers with a reasonable basis for believing that Hughes was driving under the influence. Although the officers did not perform any field sobriety testing, based upon the totality of the circumstances the officers reasonably believed that drugs may have been involved, and they asked Hughes to submit to a blood test.
Although the trial judge, as the trier of fact on the motion to suppress, was not obligated to believe the officers’ uncontradicted testimony regarding their observations of Hughes’s demeanor and appearance,
The proper inquiry is whether the investigating officers, in light of all the facts and circumstances confronting them on the scene at that time, had a reasonable and objective basis for suspecting that Hughes was under the influence of a drug that contributed to the collision. See Preston, supra at 97, n. 13. The fact that there may be other explanations for Hughes’s unusual behavior and manifestations does not establish that the officers’ beliefs were unreasonable or that they lacked credibility. It is well settled that
[t]he facts necessary to establish probable cause for arrest are much less than those required to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial; the test merely requires a probability — less than a certainty but more than a mere suspicion or possibility. Further, probable cause need not be defined in relation to any one particular element, but may exist because of the totality of circumstances surrounding a transaction.
(Punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Armour v. State,
Here, the undisputed evidence shows that the officers had a reasonable and objective basis for believing that Hughes had been driving in violation of OCGA § 40-6-391. Hughes ran a red light and struck another vehicle, killing the other driver. He exhibited several signs of impairment, was wholly unaware of the collision that he had caused, had slept in his vehicle for a while after leaving a party where alcohol had been served, and, most importantly, had drugs in his possession. See Martin v. State,
Under the totality of the circumstances, when viewed objectively from the standpoint of the officers at the time, we find that the facts were sufficient to give the officers probable cause upon which to request a blood test under the implied consent statute, regardless of whether a jury might later disagree with their suspicions as to why the collision occurred. See, e.g., Brown, supra,
Judgment reversed.
Notes
The fact that Hughes was driving and caused a wreck leading to a fatality was not in dispute on the motion to suppress.
Miranda v. Arizona,
Hughes did not challenge the authority of the search incident to arrest.
See Brown v. State,
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because the majority has failed to apply the proper standard of review. In this case, after hearing all of the evidence and assessing the credibility of the police officers who testified at the suppression hearing, the court ruled that the officers lacked probable cause to believe Hughes was driving under the influence of drugs. In reversing the trial court’s conclusion, the majority ignores well-established rules of appellate review andimproperly substitutes its judgment for that of the trial court.
The Supreme Court of Georgia has recently reiterated the three fundamental principles that must be followed when reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress. See Brown v. State,
First, when a motion to suppress is heard by the trial judge, that judge sits as the trier of facts. The trial judge hears the evidence, and his findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support them. Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Third, the reviewing court must construe*435 the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment. These principles apply equally whether the trial court ruled in favor of the State or the defendant.
(Citation and punctuation omitted; emphasis supplied.) Id. at 803 (3) (b) (2). In Brown, the Supreme Court overturned this Court’s decision in State v. Brown,
Clearly, judges on this Court may have decided the case differently had they been sitting as the trier of fact at the suppression hearing. Appellate review, however, requires a different approach. As discussed in more detail below, this case presents issues of credibility and conflicting evidence as to the cause of the alleged indicia of impairment. As a result, a clearly erroneous standard applies. See Miller v. State,
None of the officers who testified at the [suppression] hearing performed any field sobriety tests to determine if Defendant was impaired by drugs or alcohol, and it appears as if no other officer did so.
There was no indication that either vehicle contained evidence of the recent ingestion of any intoxicants. The officers testified that during their investigation, Defendant told them he must have fallen asleep before the accident. The officers stated that Defendant did appear to be “trying to fall asleep;” had glassy eyes with some redness; and may have been unsteady on his feet.
*436 After arresting Defendant for homicide by vehicle in the second degree and running a red light, two of the officers searched his clothing and found some tightly packaged pills, which they could not immediately identify. At that point one of the officers read the implied consent warning to Defendant. This same officer testified that he did not have any reason to read the implied consent warning prior to discovering the pills.
This Court has carefully reviewed the testimony of each of the three police officers who testified at the motion [to suppress] hearing, and recognizing this case is very fact specific, finds, based on the totality of the circumstances, the police did not have probable cause to invoke the implied consent statute following the arrest and search of Defendant on June 27, 2011. This Court is cognizant of the fact that the officers testified that Defendant Hughes had glassy eyes with some redness and may have been unsteady on his feet. However, the decision not to conduct any field sobriety tests or otherwise investigate a possible DUI charge prior to the discovery of the pills supports a finding that the officers did not suspect that Defendant was driving under the influence of any intoxicant beforehand. Additionally, there was no evidence of any drugs or alcohol in Defendant’s system when the officers read the implied consent warning. Merely finding these drugs, without any evidence of recent consumption, may furnish an officer with a hunch or suspicion, but not probable cause that withstands constitutional scrutiny. If the mere presence of alcohol inside a person’s body does not furnish probable cause for a DUI arrest as held by the appellate courts of this State, the mere presence of drugs in Defendant’s pockets must also fall short. Accordingly, this Court finds that Defendant’s manifestations were consistent with the after-effects of an automobile collision where an airbag deployed and concludes that these manifestations did not provide the officers with probable cause to invoke the implied consent statute.
(Emphasis supplied.)
Reading the entire order, as we must, and in consideration of the trial court’s statements at the suppression hearing, it cannot seriously be contended that the trial court, as the trier of fact, accepted all of the officers’ testimony. Specifically, although the trial court noted that the officers collectively testified that Hughes appeared to be
Despite the trial court’s order showing that it questioned the officers’ testimony, the majority incorrectly concludes that there were no disputed issues of fact or issues of credibility because the trial court did not make an explicit credibility determination. Such explicit findings are not required, however. See, e.g., Miller, supra,
Applying the proper standard of review, and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, the evidence supports the trial court’s conclusion that the police officers lacked probable cause to believe that Hughes was driving under the influence. Notably, evidence shows that Hughes was sleep-deprived, and he specifically told officers that he had fallen asleep at the wheel before striking the other driver. Corporal Greene testified that Hughes appeared to be falling asleep after the accident. Additionally, Corporal Greene testified that the substantial force with which airbags deploy and hit a driver may have caused Hughes to become unsteady on his feet. Officer Allen and Corporal Greene both testified that the white powder released upon airbag deployment could have affected or
Although the State and the majority cite to evidence that Hughes exhibited several indicators of impairment, these factors do not demand a finding of impairment. See State v. Damato,
The trial court could have drawn an inference that Hughes was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Presented with the officers’ testimony and evaluating their credibility, however, the trial court declined to make this inference.
The principles of appellate review applicable to these motions were set forth to ensure that, in difficult cases such as this one, the trial court’s resolution of these issues would be given deference, as only the trial court actually sees the witnesses and hears their testimony.
Miller, supra,
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Barnes and Presiding Judge Doyle join in this dissent.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
While I fully join Judge Miller’s dissent, I write separately to further emphasize the deferential standard of review that we must apply in this case. In the context of a trial court’s grant or denial of a motion to suppress, if “the underlying facts support conflicting inferences as to whether the defendant was an impaired driver, we apply a clearly erroneous standard of review and defer to the trial court’s finding on the issue.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) State v. Encinas,
Here, the underlying facts clearly would have supported an inference by the trial court that Hughes was impaired by illegal drugs when he caused the automobile accident, and thus would have supported the denial of the motion to suppress. Indeed, members of this Court might very well have drawn such an inference if we had been sitting as the trier of fact at the suppression hearing. Nevertheless, the underlying facts also support a competing inference that Hughes was not impaired by illegal drugs when he caused the automobile accident, as the trial court found in this case. Under these circumstances, where conflicting inferences as to whether Hughes
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Doyle joins in this dissent.