Following a bench trial, the Superior Court of Henry County found Carlos Hall guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of possession of marijuana, OCGA § 16-13-30 j; and obstructing or hindering a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of his official duties, OCGA § 16-10-24 a. Hall appeals, contending the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress marijuana that was seized during a consent search of a car in which he was a passenger. In alternative arguments, Hall contends that the arresting officer lacked a valid basis for initiating the traffic stop; that the driver’s consent to search was the product of an unreasonably prolonged detention; and that his objection to the search counteracted the driver’s consent. For the reasons explained below, we affirm. On appeal from a ruling on a motion to suppress, we must construe the evidence most favorably to affirming the trial court’s factual findings and judgment. We accept the trial court’s factual and credibility determinations unless they are clearly erroneous, and the factual findings will be upheld if they are supported by any evidence. The trial court’s application of the law to undisputed facts, however, is subject to a de novo standard of review. Citation and punctuation omitted. Peterson v. State, 294 Ga. App. 128, 129 1 668 SE2d 544 2008. At the hearing on Hall’s motion to suppress, the trial court received the following evidence. On July 22, 2008, an officer, who was monitoring southbound traffic on I-75 in Henry County, observed a 2008 Dodge Caliber hatchback traveling at between 60 and 70 mph and following another vehicle at a distance of less than half of a car length. The officer stopped the Caliber for following too closely, a violation of OCGA § 40-6-49. Mark Turner was driving, and Hall was his only passenger. Hall handed the officer a rental agreement for the Caliber, which showed that Kamara Awes rented the car in Florida with a planned return date of July 15, 2008.
As the officer began handling the traffic violation, he had difficulty hearing Turner’s responses, because Turner talked under his breath and because of noise from passing traffic. The officer asked Turner to step out of the car and then asked about his route that day. Approximately four minutes after the beginning of the traffic stop, the officer radioed his dispatcher to verify Turner’s license. While the officer waited for a report on the status check, he asked Hall his name and date of birth. Approximately eight minutes after the beginning of the stop, the officer asked Turner for his consent to search the car. Turner gave his consent, and the officer asked Turner and Hall to sit on the guardrail in front of the Caliber while he performed the search. During his search of the back seat, the officer smelled the odor of raw marijuana. The officer raised the back hatch and opened a box that was in the cargo area behind the back seat. He found ten pounds of marijuana that was packaged as a “brick” and encased in plastic. The report on the officer’s status check of Turner’s driver’s license came in about thirteen minutes after the beginning of the stop, about four minutes after the officer began searching the Caliber, and about one minute before he found the marijuana.
