FOR PUBLICATION
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
TIMOTHY J. OCONNOR STEVE CARTER
OConnor & Auersch Attorney General of Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
MATTHEW D. FISHER
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
CHRISTOPHER MOULTRY, )
)
Appellant-Defendant, )
)
vs. ) No. 49A02-0304-CR-320
)
STATE OF INDIANA, )
)
Appellee-Plaintiff. )
APPEAL FROM THE MARION SUPERIOR COURT
The Honorable Michael S. Jensen, Magistrate
Cause No.49G20-0207-FA-193441
May 17, 2004
OPINION - FOR PUBLICATION
MAY, Judge
Christopher Moultry was charged with Count I, dealing in cocaine, a Class A
felony;
See footnote Count II, possession of cocaine, a Class C felony;See footnote Count III, possession
of cocaine and a firearm, a Class C felony;See footnote and Count IV, carrying
a handgun without a license, a Class A misdemeanor.See footnote He appeals the
denial of his motion to suppress evidence of cocaine and handguns found in
his car. Moultry asserts the evidence supporting the charges was obtained pursuant
to an investigatory stop conducted without the reasonable suspicion required by the Fourth
Amendment.
We affirm.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On July 9, 2002, Officer Shaughnessy of the Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) arrested
Kendre Harris on outstanding warrants. While being interrogated, Harris told Officer Shaughnessy
he had worked with men who were selling drugs around 9th and Delaware
Streets in Indianapolis.
Harris told Shaughnessy that one of the men named Chris was dealing drugs
out of his white Cadillac, which had silver rims. Harris also informed
Shaughnessy the men used two-way radios and employed runners (Tr. at 54) to
go to an apartment to obtain drugs and deliver them.
Two days after Harris arrest, Shaughnessy saw a white Cadillac with silver rims
fitting the description Harris had given him with the license plate number 97R1934.
Shaughnessy ran the license plate number and found the car was registered
to Moultry. The officer also discovered Moultry had drug-related prior offenses.
The following day, July 12, 2002, Officer Brian SwingleSee footnote of the IPD received
a dispatch relaying an anonymous report of drug dealing by the occupants of
a white Cadillac with silver rims with license plate number 97R1934. According to
the caller, the car was traveling up and down 9th Street near Delaware
Street about every fifteen minutes. Officer Swingle found the white Cadillac, pulled
behind it, and radioed to dispatch he had found the car.
Officer Shaughnessy heard Officer Swingles radio call and told Officer Swingle he had
enough information to stop the occupants of the Cadillac. Officer Swingle activated
his emergency lights and pulled the vehicle over at a nearby gas station.
In the Cadillac, Officer Swingle saw three men, one of whom was
Moultry, the driver. Officer Swingle asked Moultry to exit the vehicle.
After Officer Shaughnessy and other officers arrived, the other two men were removed
from the vehicle.
Moultry allowed the officers to search the ashtray of his car where officers
noticed marijuana seeds and residue. The officers also noticed in plain view
on the drivers seat a piece of plastic associated with narcotics. The
officers searched Moultry and found $800 and crack cocaine in his front pocket.
The officers continued to search the vehicle and discovered cocaine and handguns.
The State charged Moultry with three felonies and one misdemeanor. On January
8, 2003, Moultry filed a motion to suppress any evidence discovered after the
initial traffic stop. The trial court denied his motion. Moultry subsequently
requested that denial of the motion be certified for interlocutory appeal and the
trial court granted that request. We accepted jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal.
DISCUSSION AND DECISION
At issue in this case is an investigatory stop. The Fourth Amendment
to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by the Government,
and its safeguards extend to brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles that
fall short of traditional arrest.
United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266,
273 (2002). However, a police officer may briefly detain a person for
investigatory purposes without a warrant or probable cause if, based upon specific and
articulable facts together with rational inferences from those facts, the official intrusion is
reasonably warranted and the officer has a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity may
be afoot. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22 (1968).
Reasonable suspicion is a somewhat abstract concept, not readily reduced to a neat
set of legal rules. Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 274. When making
a reasonable suspicion determination, reviewing courts examine the totality of the circumstances of
the case to see whether the detaining officer had a particularized and objective
basis for suspecting legal wrongdoing. Id. at 273. The reasonable suspicion
requirement is met where the facts known to the officer at the moment
of the stop, together with the reasonable inferences arising from such facts, would
cause an ordinarily prudent person to believe criminal activity has occurred or is
about to occur. Francis v. State, 764 N.E.2d 641, 644 (Ind. Ct.
App. 2002). We review the trial courts ultimate determination regarding reasonable suspicion
de novo. Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 275; Williams v. State, 745 N.E.2d
241, 244 (Ind. Ct. App. 2001).
Moultry asserts the officers who stopped his vehicle lacked reasonable suspicion for their
actions, and the evidence gained as a result of the unlawful seizure should,
therefore have been suppressed. (Br. of Appellant at 5.) Further, Moultry
contends the three sources of information relied on by the police to justify
the stop of his car taken individually or collectively could not have provided
the officers with reasonable suspicion to stop his vehicle. We disagree.
The police relied on 1) information provided to Officer Shaughnessy by Harris on
July 9, 2002; 2) information obtained by Officer Shaughnessy when he ran Moultrys
license plate and criminal history on July 11, 2002; and 3) the anonymous
911 call that was relayed by police dispatch to the officers in the
field on July 12, 2002.
We have previously held that an anonymous tip is not sufficient to permit
police to detain a citizen and subject him or her to an investigatory
stop absent independent indicia of reliability or officer-observed confirmation of the anonymous informants
prediction of the suspects future behavior. Washington v. State, 740 N.E.2d 1241,
1246 (Ind. Ct. App. 2000), trans. denied 753 N.E.2d 7 (Ind. 2001).
In Washington, an anonymous informant reported a possible drunk driver to the Lafayette
State Police Post. The informant, whose identity and reliability were unknown, advised
that the driver was in a black and white Cadillac with a particular
license plate number traveling southbound on Interstate 65. An off-duty police officer
received the call and stationed himself at the roadside. When the Cadillac
passed, the officer followed the car for approximately one-half mile and verified the
license number. Without observing any evidence of drunken or erratic driving, the
officer stopped the Cadillac. We held that the officer did not have
reasonable suspicion to stop the car.
Officer Shaughnessy first received specific information about Moultry from the informant Harris.
Harris informed Shaughnessy he worked with some individuals selling drugs around 9th and
Delaware Streets. Harris stated one of those individuals was named Chris and
that he drove a white Cadillac with silver rims.
Using the information Harris provided, Officer Shaughnessy, who saw Moultrys vehicle two days
after questioning Harris, ran the vehicles plate number. The plate was registered
to Moultry. Shaughnessy ran a criminal check on Moultry and found he
had drug-related prior offenses.
Subsequently, Officer Swingle received a radio dispatch relaying an anonymous report of drug
dealing. The anonymous tip gave specific information about a white Cadillac with
the license plate number registered to Moultry and stated the vehicle was on
9th Street and its occupants were dealing drugs. Officer Shaughnessy informed Swingle
that based on the information he obtained the day before, along with the
anonymous tip, he believed Swingle had sufficient evidence to stop Moultrys vehicle.
An investigative stop may be based upon the collective information known to the
law enforcement organization as a whole. See Kindred v. State, 524 N.E.2d
279, 292 (Ind. 1988) (probable cause should be determined on the basis of
the collective information known to the law enforcement organization as a whole and
not solely to the personal knowledge of the arresting officer).
When significant aspects of the anonymous informants prediction are verified, there is reason
to believe not only that the anonymous informant was honest, but also that
the anonymous informants information is sufficiently credible to justify an investigatory stop.
Lampkins v. State, 682 N.E.2d 1268, 1271 (Ind. 1997) (citing Alabama v. White
496 U.S. 325, 332 (1990)). The anonymous tip received on July 12,
2002, in conjunction with the information police obtained from Harris and the vehicle
registration and prior criminal record information on Moultry obtained by Officer Shaughnessy, provided
reasonable suspicion to support the stop of Moultrys vehicle. Based on the
totality of the circumstances of Moultrys stop, we find no error in the
trial courts denial of his motion to suppress evidence.
Affirmed.
BAKER, J., and NAJAM, J., concur.
Footnote:
Ind. Code § 35-48-4-1.
Footnote: Ind. Code § 35-48-4-6.
Footnote: Ind. Code § 35-48-4-6.
Footnote: Ind. Code § 35-47-2-1.
Footnote: The States brief refers to Officer Swingle as Ryan, rather than Brian.
However, Officer Swingle testified his first name is Brian with an I.
(Tr. at 4.) Accordingly we refer to the officer as Brian.