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Scott v. State

An inventory search of the defendant's vehicle before impoundment was reasonable where the owner and her companion were arrested and no one remained to safely remove the vehicle from an exit ramp.

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Following a stipulated bench trial in Walton County, Shelli Scott was convicted of possession of methamphetamine1 and possession of drug-related objects.2 She appeals, asserting that the trial court erred when it denied her motion to suppress evidence that was recovered during a search of her car. Scott contends that the search of her car was unlawful because police did not have probable cause to search the car for contraband, and she argues that the search cannot be justified as an inventory search because it was not necessary to impound her car. We see no error and affirm the judgment of conviction.

When we review the denial of a motion to suppress, we owe no deference to the way in which the court below resolved questions of law, Barrett v. State, 289 Ga. 197, 200 1 709 SE2d 816 2011, but we accept its findings about questions of fact and credibility unless clearly erroneous, and we view the evidence in the light most favorable to its findings and judgment. Culpepper v. State, 312 Ga. App. 115, 115-116 717 SE2d 698 2011. So viewed, the evidence in this case shows that a Monroe County police officer activated his lights to pull over Scott’s car, which Tomas Wright was driving, and in which Scott was a passenger, because it had a broken taillight. Wright, however, did not pull over immediately and instead turned onto a highway and then took an exit off the highway, where he finally stopped. Although Wright stopped the car on the shoulder of the exit ramp, it was parked close enough to the road that it would have impeded a large truck from exiting the highway.

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