State v. Smiley
State v. Smiley
Opinion of the Court
Sperlin Smiley was accused of driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol to the extent it was less safe for him to drive, per se DUI, failure to maintain lane, and a seat belt violation. The trial court granted Smiley’s motion to suppress the results of his state-admin
The facts, as summarized in the trial court’s order, follow:
[Smiley] was stopped by Officer Gilmore of the Atlanta Police Department on January 26, 2006[,] for a traffic violation and subsequently arrested for DUI. [Smiley] consented to a [state-administered] test of his breath under the Georgia Implied Consent Law. An adequate breath sample was obtained by Officer Gilmore on Intoxilyzer 5000 s/n 68-010751.
Prior to trial, Smiley filed an amended motion to suppress/motion in limine, in which he requested production of “full information” from the state under OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (4), including the following items:
[(1)] all training materials utilized by the officer; [(2)] all training materials utilized by the Area Supervisor; [(3)] all training records for the Intox Operator in question; [(4)] all training records for the Area Supervisor in question; [(5)] copies of any studies, journal articles or other learned treatises relied upon by any experts called by the state on the Intox 5000 or utilized or referenced in training manuals utilized by operators or area supervisors; [(6)] all logs or other records maintained] for the Intox 5000 in question for the past two years; [(7)] all maintenance logs for the Intox 5000 for the last 2 years; [(8)] all calibration records and test results for the last two years; [(9)] the owner’s manual or operator’s instructions for the Intox 5000 in question provided by CMI, Inc. or other applicable manufacturer, any and all software information including source code, software version on the arrest date, date of software version installation, date this version of the software was tested and approved by the [Division] of Forensic [Sciences] of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; [(10)] and all maintenance, calibration, and test results stored in the software memory of the Intox 5000 as of the date of this motion.
After hearing argument of counsel, the trial court granted Smiley’s motion and directed the state to produce to Smiley the “full information” requested, including but not limited to the items detailed above. The trial court further warned that a hearing would
At a hearing on a motion to suppress, the trial judge sits as the trier of fact. And Georgia law has long held that the trier of fact may believe or disbelieve all or any part of the testimony of any witness. Thus, on appellate review of a*781 trial court’s order on a motion to suppress evidence, we never second-guess the trial court’s factual findings where they are based on testimonial evidence. We construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment and affirm unless the court has committed an error of law.5
“Further, we must assume, absent the availability to us of whatever material the court considered while hearing evidence on the motion, that the court properly exercised its judgment and discretion in [ruling on a] defendant’s motion to suppress.”
OCGA § 40-6-392 (a) (4) expanded previous discovery procedures which allowed discovery only of written scientific reports, and is consistent with the broad right of cross-examination embodied in OCGA § 24-9-64. Thus, as a general rule, a defendant now has the right to subpoena memos, notes, graphs, computer printouts, and other data relied upon by a state crime lab chemist in obtaining gas chromatography test results. A request directed to the state is also sufficient to require production of the information.8
While a defendant must show that the requested information is relevant, the state is not obligated to produce information that is not within its possession, custody or control.
We do not agree with [the defendant] that the penalty should necessarily be exclusion of the printout and any oral*782 testimony based on the test results, which were, in turn, based on the printout. On the other hand, exclusion of the printout, and the resulting test results and oral testimony, might be very appropriate upon a showing of bad faith, or upon a showing of a failure to obey an order requiring production.11
In this case, the record reflects that the state disobeyed a discovery order. Moreover, without a transcript of the motion hearing, we must presume that the trial court found evidence of bad faith on the part of the state in not producing the requested information. Accordingly, we are unable to conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in suppressing the results of the breath test.
Judgment affirmed.
287 Ga. App. 89 (651 SE2d 444) (2007).
Id. at 91 (1).
291 Ga. App. 873 (663 SE2d 265) (2008).
(Punctuation and footnotes omitted.) State v. Rowell, 299 Ga. App. 238, 238-239 (682 SE2d 343) (2009).
(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Rutledge v. State, 224 Ga. App. 666, 669 (2) (482 SE2d 403) (1997).
Supra.
(Punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Id. at 90-91 (1).
254 Ga. App. 555 (562 SE2d 841) (2002).
(Footnote omitted.) Id. at 558-559. Compare Rosas v. State, 276 Ga. App. 513, 518 (2) (624 SE2d 142) (2005), citing OCGA § 17-16-6 (sanctions for failure to comply with Criminal Procedure Discovery Act appropriate if both prejudice to the defendant and bad faith by the state are shown).
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially.
I am constrained to agree with the majority opinion not because I find the trial court rendered a correct ruling, but because the state failed to provide a proper record to enable this Court to review the trial court’s ruling.
As the majority points out, we must construe the record most favorably to uphold the trial court’s findings and judgments, and the applicable standard of review does not allow us to second-guess the trial court’s factual findings where they are based on testimonial evidence. This is especially true when the appellant’s assertion of error requires consideration of the evidence presented to the trial court. Here, each of the trial court’s orders recites that the trial court considered, inter alia, “evidence of the parties,” yet the appellant fails to file a transcript of the various hearings or attempt to reconstruct the proceedings in accordance with OCGA § 5-6-41 (g) and (i). When a transcript of the evidence is necessary, as it is here, and the appellant omits it from the record or fails to submit a statutorily authorized substitute, we must assume that the trial court properly exercised its judgment and discretion and that the evidence supported the trial court’s decision.
That being said, I would like to point out that there were errors in the trial court’s legal analysis. First, the trial court incorrectly
Second, it appears from the record that the trial court improperly shifted the burden of proof to the state in this case. We have previously found that before discovery will be ordered, the defendant must make a prima facie showing that the requested material is within the possession, custody, or control of the state.
It is important to note that the ruling in this case does not affect
See Rutledge v. State, 224 Ga. App. 666, 669 (2) (482 SE2d 403) (1997).
291 Ga. App. 873 (663 SE2d 265) (2008).
See Cornell v. State, 165 Ga. App. 594, 595 (2) (302 SE2d 133) (1983).
Young v. State, 146 Ga. App. 167, 168 (2) (245 SE2d 866) (1978); see also Shults v. State, 195 Ga. App. 525, 528 (2) (394 SE2d 573) (1990).
See Mathis v. State, 298 Ga. App. 817, 819 (2) (681 SE2d 179) (2009); Hills, supra.
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