The State appeals from the trial court’s grant of Dennis Alan Jones’s motion to suppress. The trial court correctly found that the officer lacked a reasonable, articulable suspicion to seize a firearm in Jones’s vehicle. We therefore affirm. We must follow three principles when reviewing a trial court’s order concerning a motion to suppress evidence:First, the judge sits as the trier of facts. The trial judge hears the evidence, and his findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support it. Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Third, the reviewing court must construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment.Citations and punctuation omitted. State v. Hester , 268 Ga. App. 501, 502 602 SE2d 271 2004. So viewed, the evidence shows that a City of Cedartown police officer stopped Jones’s vehicle because its tag light was out. The officer later added on cross-examination that he observed Jones weaving, but he acknowledged that once he spoke with Jones he concluded he was not under the influence.1 The officer asked for and received Jones’s license, but he did not check it immediately because he saw a hunting rifle in the cab of Jones’s pickup truck. Instead, for that reason, he asked Jones to step out of the vehicle.
Although the officer testified that Jones consented to a pat-down of his person, Jones testified that the officer did not ask permission but simply began to pat him down. The officer acknowledged that he found nothing in the pat-down search. The officer then told Jones he “had to look at the gun.” Jones, feeling that he did not have “any choice at that point,” told the officer, “Do what you’ve got to do.” Although he did not need to do so to reach the firearm, the officer entered the truck and moved some clothes partially covering the rifle, exposing the contraband that forms the basis of Jones’s motion to suppress.
