Following a jury trial, Marvin Taylor was convicted of burglary and giving police a false name. He argues on appeal that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress physical and testimonial evidence stemming from the stop of a vehicle in which he was riding as a passenger, which he asserts was unconstitutional. Because we find that the officer had reasonable articulable suspicion to stop the vehicle, we affirm. While the trial court’s findings as to disputed facts in a ruling on a motion to suppress will be reviewed to determine whether the ruling was clearly erroneous, where the evidence is uncontroverted and no question regarding the credibility of witnesses is presented, the trial court’s application of the law to undisputed facts is subject to de novo appellate review. Lucas v. State , 284 Ga. App. 450 644 SE2d 302 2007. The evidence presented at the motion to suppress hearing showed that on January 3, 2003 at approximately 5:20 a.m., police responded to a report of a burglary in an apartment complex. While investigating the scene, the officer observed that the perpetrators had used a large rock to break a glass door in the back of the apartment. He further noticed muddy shoe prints on the apartment floor, as well as a shoe print in the mud immediately outside of the back door. As the officer was examining the shoe print located on the outside of the apartment, he observed a vehicle occupied by two males turn off of the street running adjacent to the apartment complex onto a service road. There were no other persons or vehicles driving in the area. The vehicle drove along the service road, which ran between the burglarized apartment and the loading dock of a closed business, and continued to an unpaved gravel trail leading to a muddy, rutted area where construction equipment was kept. The vehicle passed within 30 feet of the officer, and the officer testified that when the occupants noticed him, they looked surprised —like “deer in headlights.” The driver then accelerated up a hill on the unpaved trail toward the construction area, turned the vehicle around and quickly drove back down the hill.
The officer requested backup and stopped the vehicle. After Taylor, the passenger in the vehicle, gave the officer three false names, the officer requested that he exit the car. The officer noticed a backpack on the front floorboard that had been identified as one of the items taken from the apartment and, after the men denied ownership and consented to its search, the officer found that it contained electronic equipment that had also been taken from the apartment.
