1. Search and Seizure--warrantless search of vehicle--motion to suppress drugs--informant tip
The trial court did not err in a trafficking in cocaine case by denying defendant's motion to suppress the
drugs obtained by the police when they conducted a warrantless search of defendant's vehicle based on an
informant's tip, because: (1) the police were able to verify that defendant was the alleged perpetrator and
establish probable cause to justify the warrantless stop and search of defendant's vehicle based on the
informant's description of the vehicle, description of defendant, and provision of the location and approximate
time of the alleged activity; (2) the informant was a reliable informant and his information was reasonably
corroborated by other matters within the officer's knowledge; and (3) the informant gave the police sufficient
information to establish probable cause for the eventual warrantless arrest of defendant.
2. Criminal Law--motion for continuance--locating police informant
The trial court did not err in a trafficking in cocaine case by denying defendant's motions for a
continuance to locate and subpoena the police informant at trial, because: (1) the evidence does not fully
establish that defendant made any real effort to identify or locate the informant during the nine months between
defendant's arrest and trial; and (2) the evidence shows the informant should have been easily identified or
located by defendant considering that defendant knew the informant to be a well-known drug dealer in his
father's community, defendant returned several of the informant's pages on the night of defendant's arrest, and
defendant went to the informant's house after meeting him at a store.
3. Constituional Law_-pretrial motion--identity of confidential informant
The trial court did not err in a trafficking in cocaine case by denying defendant's pretrial motion to
reveal the identity of the confidential informant when that motion was made, because: (1) a defendant who
requests that the identity of a confidential informant be revealed must make a sufficient showing that the
particular circumstances of his case mandate such disclosure; (2) defendant's guilt was established through other
evidence and not by the informant, especially considering that the informant did not testify at trial; and (3) when
the informant was identified at the end of the trial, defendant was not surprised since he had essentially stated in
his motion to suppress that he believed that the individual was one of two likely candidates to have been an
agent of the state.
4. Criminal Law--entrapment--matter of law
The trial court did not err in a trafficking in cocaine case by failing to find that defendant was entrapped
as a matter of law because when viewed in its entirety, the evidence does not demonstrate inducement as a
matter of law, but rather a predisposition and opportunity to commit the offense in question.
Judge McGEE concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Attorney General Roy A. Cooper, III, by Special Deputy Attorney General
R. Marcus Lodge, for the State.
James M. Bell for defendant-appellant.
HUNTER, Judge.
Douglas Earl Collins (defendant) appeals his conviction for
trafficking in cocaine. For the reasons stated herein, we hold there was no
error.
The State's evidence at trial tended to show the following: Officer C.
A. Kimball (Officer Kimball), of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
Department, arrested Calvin Cunningham (Cunningham) for drug offenses on 6
October 2000. While in custody, Cunningham was informed by Officer Kimball
that Cunningham could help his case by assisting the police catch other
individuals involved in illegal drug activities. Consequently, Cunningham
provided Officer Kimball with detailed information regarding seven drug
houses and drug markets in Charlotte; information the officer was able to
corroborate.
Thereafter, Cunningham proceeded to make various telephone calls from a
police cell phone over a one-hour period in an effort to create drug
activity. Following these calls, Cunningham informed Officer Kimball that he
had scheduled a meeting at the Fast Fare on the corner of Eastway and The
Plaza with a black man, in his thirties, named Doug who would be driving a
late 1980's model, white, four-door Cadillac Brougham with spoke or wire
hubcaps. Cunningham also told Officer Kimball that the man would have a
large amount of cocaine in the Cadillac and the approximate time the vehicle
would arrive at the Fast Fare. Although Officer Kimball had no prior
experience with Cunningham as an informant, he was familiar with Cunningham
from an arrest several months earlier.
Based on Cunningham's information, the police set up surveillance of the
Fast Fare. As Cunningham stood by a phone at the Fast Fare, a black male,
later identified as defendant, drove up in a white, four-door Cadillac.
Cunningham got in defendant's Cadillac, and defendant drove to a house
several blocks away. Cunningham entered the house alone, came back out, and
told defendant to drive around the corner. As defendant drove away, he wasstopped by the police. Officer Kimball and another officer immediately
conducted a search of defendant's vehicle and found two baggies of cocaine
under the driver's seat totaling approximately fifty-five grams in weight.
Defendant was arrested and taken to a law enforcement center where, after
waiving his Miranda rights, he gave a statement to the police.
Defendant told police in his statement and later testified at trial
that, although he was employed, he needed extra money. Defendant said he
only knew the first names of two known drug dealers in his father's
community, Kevin (later identified as Calvin Cunningham) and Otis. Prior
to 6 October 2000, defendant said he had asked Cunningham for money and had
also given Cunningham his pager number in case Cunningham had some work for
him. Defendant testified that he was only interested in doing non-drug-
related work such as cutting grass. Shortly thereafter, Cunningham paged
defendant and offered to pay him to deliver a package, but at that time
defendant told Cunningham he did not want to be involved in any drug-related
activities.
Defendant also testified that on the night of 6 October 2000, Cunningham
paged him four or five times. When defendant returned the pages, Cunningham
urged him to deliver a package if he wanted to make extra money. Defendant
then spoke with Otis who told him that Cunningham had called and expressed
defendant's desire to make some money. Otis offered defendant fifty dollars
to deliver a Crown Royal bag to Cunningham and collect $2,000.00 from
Cunningham. Defendant testified that after Otis assured him that the bag
contained powder and not crack, Otis put the bag under a seat of the
Cadillac. Defendant then drove to the Fast Fare to meet Cunningham.
After defendant picked up Cunningham, Cunningham put the Crown Royal bag
in his pants and asked defendant to drive to Cunningham's house so that he
could get the money for defendant. Defendant testified that Cunningham told
him to drive around the corner while he was in the house. When defendant
drove away, he was stopped and arrested. Defendant testified that he did notknow that there were two baggies of cocaine in his Cadillac when the police
stopped him. Defendant thought the cocaine was in the Crown Royal bag that
Cunningham had put in his pants.
On 27 November 2000, defendant filed a motion to suppress based on a
lack of probable cause to stop and search defendant's vehicle. An affidavit
in support of the motion was filed on 8 December 2000. Defendant alleged in
the motion and affidavit that he believed Otis or [Cunningham was an] agent
of the state that entrapped him in this criminal enterprise, with the sole
purpose of setting him up for arrest. The trial court ultimately denied
defendant's motion. In a second motion, defendant sought to compel the
identity of the confidential informant. The trial court also denied that
motion, concluding that the State only had to provide defendant with anything
it knew that would help defendant learn the whereabouts and last names of
Kevin (Cunningham) and Otis. Thus, the State told defendant Cunningham's
full name and last known address. The State had no information about Otis.
Prior to trial, defendant twice moved for a continuance in order to
subpoena Cunningham for trial. The court denied defendant's motion on both
occasions, stating that since defendant's arrest, there had been ample time
for him to find out what the last name of the local dope dealer was[.]
Nevertheless, the State was ordered to pay for a private investigator to
serve a subpoena on Cunningham. The investigator's attempts were
unsuccessful.
At the close of the evidence, defendant was permitted to recall Officer
Kimball to determine the identity of the State's confidential informant.
Defendant learned Cunningham was the informant; however, Officer Kimball
reiterated that the police were unable to locate Otis.
The trial court instructed the jury on the defense of entrapment. That
defense was rejected, and the jury convicted defendant of trafficking in
cocaine. Defendant was sentenced to a term of thirty-five months to forty-
two months imprisonment. Defendant appeals.
I concur in the majority's conclusion that defendant was not entrapped
as a matter of law. However, I respectfully dissent from the majority's
conclusion that there was probable cause to conduct the warrantless stop and
search of defendant's vehicle based on an informant's tip. As correctly
stated by the majority, in the case of an informant's tip, probable cause is
determined by a "'totality-of-the circumstances'" test, using a "'balanced
assessment of the relative weights of all the various indicia of reliability
(and unreliability) attending an informant's tip.'" State v. Chadwick, 149
N.C. App. 200, 203, 560 S.E.2d 207, 209, disc. review denied, 355 N.C. 752,
565 S.E.2d 672 (2002) (citations omitted). A court must review the facts and
circumstances of each case to determine whether, under the totality of the
circumstances, there was probable cause to make a warrantless stop and
search. Id. In the present case, under the totality of the circumstances,
probable cause did not exist. In the present case, I take a different view of some of the facts as
well as the cases the majority cites in support of its holding. I believe
the present case can be distinguished from both Chadwick and State v.
Earhart, 134 N.C. App. 130, 516 S.E.2d 883 (1999). The informant in the
present case was certainly known to the police and was, in fact, in their
custody. However, the informant was known to the police as a criminal
defendant, not as an informant, since he had no track record of providing
information to the police, and therefore no history of reliability. The fact
that the informant gave Officer Kimball general information about drug houses
and markets, that Officer Kimball knew was correct from his experience as a
law enforcement officer, does not overcome this significant deficiency. The
factor of being an informant on previous occasions serves the purpose of
showing that the informant was reliable in the past, establishing a track
record of reliability. The statements given by the informant to Officer
Kimball concerning drug activity in Charlotte, even if about specific drug
markets and the like, were merely statements showing the informant's
knowledge of the drug trade in Charlotte; they were not prior tips the police
acted upon, which could establish a track record of reliability as an
informant. See Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203, 560 S.E.2d at 209 ("[a] known
informant's information may establish probable cause based on a reliable
track record"). Statements made in a relatively contemporaneous manner with
the tip acted upon, which simply show knowledge of the drug trade in the area
do not convert an informant who has never provided prior reliable tips in the
past, into an informant with a reliable history. See id.
Further, the facts that the informant gave the police in this case were
not as specific as the facts given by informants in the cases discussed
above. Information the informant gave to the police that could be and was
independently verified was that a black man in his thirties, driving a 1980's
model, white, four-door Cadillac with spoke wheels, would arrive at the Fast
Fare at the corner of Eastway and The Plaza at an approximate time. Theinformant only gave police defendant's first name, "Doug." The police did
not check the registration of the vehicle that arrived at the Fast Fare, nor
did they ask anyone other than the informant to confirm defendant's identity,
as the deputies did in Earhart. I agree with the majority that the police
need not verify the defendant's identity with someone else in every case, but
such verification can strengthen the reliability of the informant's tip in
the absence of other corroborating factors. The police in this case failed
to independently verify key information given by the informant before
stopping the vehicle. In addition, defendant's description of the man in the
Cadillac was vague, consisting only of the identifying features that he was
a black man in his thirties.
The case before us is further distinguishable from Earhart in that there
was only one informant's tip, as opposed to the multiple, corroborating tips
in Earhart. Earhart, 134 N.C. App. at 134, 516 S.E.2d at 886-87. Probable
cause can be established on the basis of information provided by a single
informant, see Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203-04, 560 S.E.2d at 210; however,
as shown in Earhart, when corroborating information is obtained from two
different sources, the reliability of the information is strengthened under
the totality of the circumstances test. See Earhart, 134 N.C. App. at 134,
516 S.E.2d at 886-87.
The present case is also distinguishable from Chadwick; the tip given by
the informant in the present case did not include any details of what
defendant would do once he arrived at the Fast Fare; the police did not
verify every detail "with minute particularity," such as the identity of
"Doug," nor did the police recognize defendant as the officer in Chadwick
did; and the informant in Chadwick had a history of proven reliability as an
informant, unlike the informant in this case, despite the majority's
conclusion to the contrary. Chadwick, 149 N.C. App. at 203-04, 560 S.E.2d at
210. The majority relies on State v. Martinez, 150 N.C. App. 364, 562 S.E.2d
914, appeal dismissed and disc. review denied, 356 N.C. 172, 568 S.E.2d 859
(2002); however, I find that case distinguishable from the present case as
well. In Martinez, the informant was a college student in his early twenties
who had been apprehended in his residence after police had searched his house
and discovered illegal drugs, contraband, and cash. Id. at 367, 562 S.E.2d
at 916. The informant "'was crying and . . . scared'" when he told the
police that from a conversation the informant had with his normal suppliers,
two Hispanic males, approximately an hour before the police arrived at the
informant's residence, the suppliers were already "en route" to deliver a
shipment of marijuana to his house and would "'come right to [the
informant's] door.'" Id. After receiving this information, an officer
overheard a conversation between the informant and the two suppliers, when
the suppliers called the informant and told him they would arrive in about
twenty minutes. Id. A car matching the description provided by the
informant, containing two Hispanic males, turned into the informant's
driveway and pulled right up to the front door of the informant's home. Id.
In Martinez, although the tip did not describe the two suppliers with
particular detail beyond the fact that they were two Hispanic males driving
a small, white, four-door automobile, two men matching the description given
by the informant pulled into the driveway of the informant's home and right
up to the front door of the residence. Id. The lack of a particularly
detailed description of the defendants in Martinez was balanced against the
fact that the defendants drove into the driveway of a private home, as
opposed to a convenience store, right up to the front door as predicted, and
that the investigating police officer overheard the conversation the
informant had with the defendants, confirming the transaction that had
already been set up even before the police arrived at the informant's home.
See id. at 369, 562 S.E.2d at 914. In considering the totality of the circumstances, I believe the single
informant's tip in the case before us was insufficient to allow the police to
conduct a warrantless stop and arrest of defendant. While no one factor is
necessarily conclusive, the failure to show sufficient past reliability of
the informant, the fact that the informant's tip did not provide specific
logistical details of the drug transaction, and the fact that the police did
not independently verify defendant's name using a license check or any other
method, compel this conclusion. I would hold that the trial court erred in
denying defendant's motion to suppress and would vacate and remand for a new
trial.
For the above reasons I respectfully dissent. Because defendant would
receive a new trial, I would not address defendant's second and third
assignments of error in light of the fact that the informant's identity was
revealed to defendant at the previous trial and would no longer be an issue;
and because defendant would have sufficient time to subpoena Cunningham prior
to a new trial.
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