Following a bench trial, Wesley Thomas appeals his conviction for obstruction of an officer,1 possession of methamphetamine,2 bringing contraband to a jail,3 and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime,4 contending that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse. On appeal from a denial of a motion to suppress, this court must construe the evidence most favorably to uphold the ruling of the trial court.5 Furthermore, the trial court’s application of law to undisputed facts is subject to de novo review.6
The facts of this case, as stipulated by the parties prior to the bench trial, are as follows: A car was stolen on February 25, 2008. The suspect, Timmy Morris, abandoned the car on that same date at a residence on Penland Road in Walton County, Georgia. Morris was believed to be hiding in the woods near Penland Road. Captain Mike Pause responded to the location to search for Morris. Pause was in an unmarked police vehicle. While searching for Morris, Pause saw Thomas driving his truck slowly on Penland Road looking into the wood lines as if looking for someone. Thomas would drive very slowly and almost come to a stop and then proceed further, still looking in the woods, and pause again. Pause was behind Thomas at this time. Pause ran the car tag of Thomas and it revealed he lived in a neighborhood near Morris. Pause passed Thomas and went around the corner. The deputy immediately turned around and came back towards Thomas. Thomas was stopped in the road when Pause rounded the corner and approached him. Pause got out of his car and walked to Thomas’s truck. Thomas had his cellphone in his hand as if he were about to use it. Pause ordered Thomas to give him his cellphone , and when Thomas did not do so, Pause took the phone from him. Pause examined the phone and scrolled through the phone numbers and saw Timothy Morris’s phone number in the cell list of phone numbers. Pause asked Thomas what he was looking for and Thomas told him pulp wooders. Pause had not seen any pulp wooders in the area that date and was not familiar with that being an area for such activity.7 Pause asked Thomas if he was there for Timmy Morris and Thomas denied that. Pause told Thomas not to leave and went to get his camera to take photos of the truck and Thomas for future reference. Pause asked Thomas to get out of the truck so he could take the picture. This all happened in a few minutes. Thomas refused to do so. Pause placed Thomas under arrest for obstruction of an officer. When arresting Thomas and removing him from his truck, Pause and an assisting deputy observed a handgun sitting in the center console area. They seized the gun during Thomas’s arrest. Thomas was transported to the jail. Inside the jail, deputies found clear plastic material containing an off-white powdery substance in Thomas’s pocket. This substance was sent to the Division of Forensic Sciences at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and was analyzed. The substance did test positive for methamphetamine and the net weight of the sample tested was less than one gram. Thomas had not informed any law enforcement officer of the presence of the drug prior to crossing the guard lines established at the Walton County jail. The trial court denied Thomas’s motion to suppress and convicted him on all four counts after a bench trial. On appeal, Thomas asserts that he was unlawfully detained, and thus, the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the illegally seized evidence. We agree.
