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Pritchard v. State

The only evidence supporting the traffic stop was that the defendant's car was in front of a residence, which officers previously raided.

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Following a stipulated bench trial, Priscilla Pritchard was convicted of a single count of possession of methamphetamine. Pritchard now appeals from the trial court’s denial of her motion to suppress evidence seized by the police from her vehicle, arguing that the police had insufficient evidence to justify the traffic stop. We reverse, for reasons that follow. Where the evidence introduced at a suppression hearing is undisputed and there is no question regarding witness credibility, we review de novo the trial court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts.1

Here, the evidence shows that on January 29, 2006, Deputy Brent Morrison of the Newton County Sheriff’s Department answered a call from an unidentified individual “in reference to suspicious vehicles being in or around” a residence that had recently been identified by police as an alleged “drug house.”2 Deputy Morrison responded to the location, where the person who called in the tip flagged him down and told him that a Toyota truck and a Toyota Camry had just pulled out of the driveway of the residence at issue. Deputy Morrison observed the two described vehicles, and as he approached the Camry, which Pritchard was driving, it pulled into a driveway. Deputy Morrison continued to follow the truck and initiated a traffic stop because the truck was “loaded up with several items,” and it did not have operational tail lights. The officer did not observe the Camry violate any traffic rules.

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