Goodwin v. State
Goodwin v. State
Opinion
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 665
The appellant, Howard Thomas Goodwin, Jr., was convicted in 1996 of the felony offense of driving while under the influence of alcohol (D.U.I.), a violation of §§
The evidence presented by the state during a pretrial suppression hearing and at trial tended to establish that during the early morning hours of April 23, 1996, Florence police officers Johnny Williams and William Coleman were responding to a burglar alarm at a convenience store. A few blocks from the store, Officer Coleman saw a small, dark-colored car traveling away from the area of the convenience store. Coleman then radioed a "be on the lookout" ("BOLO") for this vehicle, but drove on to the convenience store.
That same morning, park ranger Tim Glover was patrolling a park near the convenience store. As he left the park, Glover heard the BOLO. Because of the early hour and the inclement weather, there was virtually no traffic on the road. Moments after Glover heard the BOLO, a car that fit the description broadcast in the BOLO, approached him from the opposite direction. Glover turned his patrol vehicle around and followed the car. Glover followed the car as it made a series of left and right turns until the driver of the car abruptly turned into the parking lot of a convenience store that was closed. When both doors of the car opened almost simultaneously, Glover suspected that the occupants were about to "bail out" and run, so he turned on his vehicle's blue lights and instructed the occupants to remain inside their car. He then radioed the officers at the scene of the burglary to notify them of his actions.
Moments later, Officers Williams and Coleman arrived at the parking lot. Glover approached the appellant, who had been driving. Glover asked the appellant and his passenger to get out of the car, and then asked the appellant for his driver's license. Glover not, iced a strong odor of alcohol on the appellant's breath, and he asked the appellant if he had had anything to drink. The appellant admitted that he had consumed five beers. The appellant's speech was slurred and his thought processes appeared to be impaired. Williams asked the appellant to perform several field sobriety tests. The appellant performed poorly in the field tests. In the opinion of both Glover and Williams, the appellant was not capable of safely operating a vehicle. The appellant was arrested and charged with D.U.I.
The appellant was taken to the police station, where two Intoxilyzer 5000 ("I-5000") tests were administered. The results of the two tests revealed the appellant's blood-alcohol level to be 0.24% and 0.23%, respectively.
The terms "reasonable suspicion" and "probable cause" are "commonsense, *Page 666
non-technical conceptions that deal with `"the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act."' Illinois v. Gates,
In Worthy v. State,
"In order to justify the brief investigatory detention of an individual, a police officer does not have to have probable cause to arrest the person for a crime. Terry,
392 U.S. at 27 ,88 S.Ct. at 1883 ; Spradley v. State,414 So.2d 170 ,173 (Ala.Cr.App. 1982). Although there is `no simple shorthand verbal formula which can adequately express the grounds for a Terry stop', 3 LaFave [Search and Seizure] at § 9.3, p. 40, 1985 Pocket Part, `the essence of all that has been written is that the totality of the circumstances — the whole picture — must be taken into account. Based upon that whole picture the detaining officers must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activty.' United States v. Cortez,449 U.S. 411 ,417-18 ,101 S.Ct. 690 ,695 ,66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981)."
473 So.2d at 636-37. See also S.W. v. State,
Martin v. State,"`Police officers may stop a vehicle for investigative purposes based on specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant suspicion of criminal conduct on the part of the occupants of the vehicle. The authority to stop a moving vehicle based upon less than probable cause derives from Terry v. Ohio,
392 U.S. 1 [88 S.Ct. 1868 ,20 L.Ed.2d 889 ] (1968), as applied by the Supreme Court to vehicles in Adams v. Willams,407 U.S. 143 [92 S.Ct. 1921 ,32 L.Ed.2d 612 ] (1972) (parked vehicle); U.S v. Brignoni-Ponce,422 U.S. 873 [95 S.Ct. 2574 ,45 L.Ed.2d 607 ] (1975) (moving vehicle); and U.S. v. Cortez,449 U.S. 411 [101 S.Ct. 690 ,66 L.Ed.2d 621 ] (1981).'"
Because an officer's reasonable suspicion to make a Terry stop must be based on specific and articulable facts, the trial court in determining whether there was reasonable suspicion must take into account the totality of the circumstances. Accordingly, the appellant's contention that the trial court erred in allowing testimony concerning the events before and after his stop falls short.1
Thus, we must determine whether the relevant facts surrounding the stop, together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warranted suspicion that the appellant was engaged in criminal conduct. In light of the circumstances surrounding the stop of the appellant's car, we believe that Glover had a sufficiently particularized and objective basis for suspecting that the appellant may have been involved in criminal activity. Given the pre-dawn hour; the proximity of the vehicle to the location of the burglary; and the facts that the appellant's car matched the BOLO description, that virtually no other cars were on the road, that the driver engaged in evasive maneuvers, and that the occupants' behavior once the vehicle was stopped was suspicious, Glover had a legitimate reason to believe that the occupants of the car could be involved in criminal activity. SeeScarbrough v. State,
In deciding whether the state presented sufficient evidence to support a conviction, this Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. Bayhi v. State,
The appellant was charged with violating §
In a D.U.I. prosecution under §
Accordingly, the trial court's denial of the appellant's motion for a judgment of acquittal was proper, and the jury's verdict was supported by the evidence. See Porter v. State,
Alternatively, the appellant contends that Alabama's implied consent statutes, §§
Section
"Any person who operates a motor vehicle upon the public highways of this state shall be deemed to have given his consent, subject to the provisions of this division, to a chemical test or tests of his blood, breath or urine for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his blood if lawfully arrested for any offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was driving a motor vehicle on the public highways of this state while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The test or tests shall be administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer having reasonable grounds to believe the person to have been driving a motor vehicle upon the public highways of this state while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The law enforcement agency by which such officer is employed shall designate which of the aforesaid tests shall be administered. Such person shall be told that his failure to submit to such a chemical test will result in the suspension of his privilege to operate a motor vehicle for a period of 90 days. . . ."
(Emphasis added.)
Section
"Upon the trial of any civil, criminal or quasi-criminal action or proceeding arising out of acts alleged to have been committed by any, person while driving or in actual control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance, evidence of the amount of alcohol or controlled substance in a person's blood at the alleged time, as determined by a chemical analysis of the blood's, urine, breath or other bodily substance, shall be admissible."
(Emphasis added.)
To withstand a challenge of vagueness, a statute must: (1) give a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited, and, (2) provide explicit standards to those who apply the laws." Culbreath v. State,
A statute is accorded a presumption of constitutionality and a party attacking a statute has the burden of overcoming that presumption. See King v. State,
The appellant cites no authority in support of his claim that the implied consent statute must provide a time frame during which the chemical test must be administered, and our research has revealed no authority for this proposition.3 The appellant argues that a time frame is necessary because, he says, "if a person were driving on the highways while *Page 669
under the influence on Sunday, he could be stopped, arrested released and required to come back in on a Tuesday for a chemical test." (Appellant's brief at 15.) The appellant's argument is specious at best. Initially, we note that the implied consent statute itself, as set out in §
Accordingly, common sense reading of the plain language of the statute establishes that the implied consent statute is not unconstitutionally vague. Any other interpretation of the statutes would illogical. We are not persuaded by the appellant's constitutional challenge to the implied consent statute.
In any event, this Court has held that the intervening time "between the time of the stop and the time of the first test does not affect the admissibility of the results but rather goes to the weight to be accorded that evidence." Meininger v. State,
Our examination of the record reveals that the trial court's initial instructions to the jury defined the offense of D.U.I. as set out in subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) (driving while "there is 0.08 percent or more by weight of alcohol in his or her blood"and "driving under the influence of alcohol"). The court's charge then focused on what constituted driving while under the influence of alcohol, and stated:
"To convict, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt each of the following elements of driving under the influence: Number one, that the defendant was driving or [was] in actual physical control of a vehicle at the time, that the defendant was under the influence of alcohol at the time, and that the defendant was intoxicated to the extent that he was unable to drive his vehicle in a safe manner."
(R. 344-45.) The jury subsequently requested additional instructions on the offense of D.U.I. Because the original trial judge was unavailable when the supplemental instructions were requested, another circuit judge instructed the jury on the elements of the offense of D.U.I. The judge's instructions differed somewhat from the original instructions, and focused exclusively on the elements necessary to prove a violation of §
The trial court's oral charge to the jury cannot be viewed in hits and pieces, but must be viewed in its entirety. Jones v.State,
"In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. The standard of review is whether legal evidence was presented to the jury from which the jury could by fair inference find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Powell v.State,
During the suppression hearing, Ranger Glover testified that when he asked the appellant to produce his driver's license, the appellant stated that he did not have one because his license had been revoked. (R. 34.) However, at the appellant's trial, Glover testified as follows:
"Q.[Prosecutor:] And who was the driver of that automobile?
"A.[Glover:] Todd Goodwin.
"Q. Did he present you with a valid Alabama driver's license?
"A. No, ma'am.
"Q. Is it, in fact, revoked?
"A. Yes, ma'am.
"MR. HIVNER [defense counsel]: We object, Your Honor. That's hearsay.
"THE COURT: Sustained.
"Q. Did you ask him for a driver's license?
"A. Yes, ma'am.
"Q. What, if anything, did he say about his driver's license?
"A. He said he didn't have them with him.
"Q. Said he didn't have them with him?
"A. Yes. ma'am."
(R. 125-26.) State Trooper Kermit Robbins subsequently testified that if an individual had had three convictions for D.U.I. within the past five years, the law mandated that the individual's driver's license be revoked for a period of three years. Certified copies of the appellant's convictions were admitted *Page 671 into evidence, establishing that the appellant had had three D.U.I. convictions within the past five years; however, no evidence was introduced to show that the appellant's license had actually been revoked. The state presented no other evidence concerning the status of the appellant's driver's license at the time of his arrest. After the state rested its case, defense counsel made a motion for a judgment of acquittal arguing that the state had failed to prove by legal evidence — specifically, a certified copy of the appellant's driving record, as maintained by the Department of Public Safety — that the appellant's license had been revoked. (R. 254-55.) The trial court denied the appellant's motion for a judgment of acquittal and the trial continued.
"It is fundamental that in a criminal prosecution the burden is on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt each and every element of the offense charged." Hull v. State,
The appellant's argument is not that the state failed to prove a prima facie case, but that the state failed to prove its case by legal and admissible evidence. Although defense counsel's hearsay objection to Glover's response was sustained, there was no request that Glover's response be stricken or that curative instructions be given regarding his testimony. In Byrd v. State,
Accordingly, the trial court's denial of the appellant's motion for a judgment of acquittal was proper, and the jury's verdict was reasonably supported by the evidence. See Porter v. State,
"When the court imposes a sentence in excess of that authorized by statute, it exceeds its jurisdiction, and the sentence is consequently void." Ferguson v. State,
Because the original sentence for driving while his license was revoked is invalid, the trial court must resentence the appellant. *Page 672 Love v. State,
REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.*
LONG, P.J., and McMILLIAN, COBB, and BASCHAB, JJ., concur
Reference
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- Howard Thomas Goodwin, Jr. v. State.
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