Tiffany Rowland was convicted of possession of cocaine1 following a bench trial. She appeals from the trial court’s order denying her motion to suppress. We affirm, for reasons that follow. When reviewing a trial court’s decision on a motion to suppress, this court’s responsibility is to ensure that there was a substantial basis for the decision. The evidence is construed most favorably to uphold the findings and judgment, and the trial court’s findings on disputed facts and credibility are adopted unless they are clearly erroneous. Further, since the trial court sits as the trier of fact, its findings are analogous to a jury verdict and will not be disturbed if there is any evidence to support them.2 Sergeant Robert Carson of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department testified at the suppression hearing that he responded to a single-car accident to assist another officer who was already at the scene. When Carson arrived, he observed a vehicle halfway on the roadway, partially obscured by a tree that was also partially blocking the roadway. According to Carson, the vehicle was heavily damaged and needed to be towed from the scene. The driver of the vehicle, Michael Duffy, had lacerations to his face and head and was examined by fire and EMS personnel at the scene. Rowland, who was the passenger in the vehicle, remained with Duffy. The first officer at the scene, Deputy Lewis, asked Duffy if he had a preference as to which wrecker service to use, and Duffy responded that he did not; Duffy did not indicate any preference for the destination for the vehicle. Therefore, the police contacted the wrecker service that was next on the county 911 rotation list. Carson ran the license plate and learned that the vehicle did not have insurance.3 Deputy Lewis told Sergeant Carson that he was “not quite sure who the owner of the vehicle was. He was getting a story that it was an ex-husband or possible current husband. . . .” Carson testified that he then, in accordance with the policy of the Sheriff’s Department, decided to enter the car “to find the paperwork as to the registration of the vehicle and for insurance information about the vehicle.” Carson looked in the glove compartment, where he found a fully loaded 17-round capacity nine-millimeter magazine. Either Rowland or Duffy stated that there was a gun that had been sold or given to someone else, but that the magazine did not go to that weapon. Carson continued to search the vehicle, looking for a gun because “it’s very uncommon to find a loaded magazine and not have a weapon to accompany it,” and also looking for registration and proof of insurance. Carson testified that with the vehicle being totaled and needing to be removed from the scene and the driver being possibly transported from the scene, we needed to make sure that the weapon would be secured and needed to be in our property room for the driver or passenger or legal owner. More importantly, the legal owner, for them to retain at a later date we wouldn’t want to leave it in the vehicle to be taken from the wrecker lot or wherever they tow it to. It would probably bounce out going down the road and be left on the side of the road or any other reason. We just don’t like to leave weapons out and about. Plus, for the purpose of the owner of the weapon they wouldn’t want their weapon to be just left out or to be lost. It could be a collector’s item, an heirloom, and so forth. So we needed to find it for several reasons. During his continued search, Carson found a Cross brand pen case in the center console. According to Carson, department policy required him to secure any valuable property found at accident scenes “to safeguard it for the owner of that property as well as for the deputies and the wrecker driver and the EMTs on the scene. . . .”4 Because he believed that Cross pens could be valuable, he opened the box to determine whether it contained a pen. Instead, Carson found a glass tube that was darkened in color, which he believed to be consistent with the ingestion of crack cocaine. When Deputy Lewis asked Rowland and Duffy about the pipe, Duffy denied any knowledge, and Rowland responded, “That’s mine. . . . It’s a crack pipe.” Rowland was permitted to accompany Duffy to the hospital in the ambulance. Deputy Lewis questioned Rowland further at the hospital, where he then arrested her and charged her with possession of cocaine.
Rowland moved to suppress the cocaine, arguing that the evidence was the result of an illegal search. Following a hearing, the trial court denied the motion, concluding in its written order that “the discovery of the contraband was pursuant to police caretaking functions for traffic accidents as outlined in the Sheriff Office’s Standard Operating Procedures.” After a bench trial, the court found Rowland guilty and sentenced her under the First Offender Act.
