In this DUI prosecution, the State appeals from the trial court’s grant of Seth Weston Curles’s motion to suppress his statements to police and the results of field sobriety, breathalyzer, and blood alcohol tests. We reverse, for reasons that follow. In reviewing a trial court’s decision on a motion to suppress which in effect precludes the prosecution of a criminal defendant, our responsibility is to ensure that there was a substantial basis for the decision. To that end, we will not disturb a trial court’s factual findings if there is any evidence to support them and, in reviewing that evidence, we defer to the trial court’s judgment on issues of witness credibility and the weight to be afforded the evidence presented. We review de novo, however, the trial court’s application of the law to undisputed facts.1 So viewed, the record shows that on February 22, 2008, Officer Dan Robertson responded to a call from a concerned citizen regarding a suspected DUI offense. The citizen followed the suspect, who was driving an SUV, to a residence, and Robertson arrived soon thereafter, at approximately 5:30 a.m. According to the citizen, a white, teenaged male backed the SUV into the mailbox next door before parking in the driveway and then “staggering” into the front door of the residence. Officer Robertson examined the SUV and observed a broken taillight lens. Robertson then found a portion of a taillight lens on the mailbox next door and a larger piece of lens at the base of the mailbox. The officer also ran the license plate of the SUV and confirmed that the vehicle was registered to an owner at the residence where it was parked. Officer Robertson testified that he and at least one other officer approached the house and knocked on the door. A woman answered, and because it was raining, the officers asked for permission to enter the house, and the woman agreed. The police briefly told her about the SUV, and she indicated that her son drove it. The officers asked to speak to her son, and she stated that he was asleep and agreed to get him. Curles, who was dressed in street clothes, appeared and walked downstairs to where the officers were waiting in the foyer. According to Robertson, Curles “had glassy, bloodshot eyes and the odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.”
The police told Curles and his mother that a citizen had followed the SUV to the residence and observed a teenaged male enter the house.2 Robertson asked Curles what he had been doing, and Curles replied that he was sleeping. Robertson then asked Curles whether he would be willing to accompany the police outside, and Curles agreed. Robertson showed Curles the broken taillight on the SUV and the lens pieces near the mailbox next door. Curles then told Robertson that he thought “I just hit the bushes,” and Robertson arrested him at the scene.
