Gregory Mark Robinson was charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine and one count of possession of hydrocodone. After Robinson waived his right to a jury trial and stipulated to the facts, the trial judge found him guilty on both charges. As his sole ground on appeal, Robinson asserts that the trial court erred in denying his Motion to Suppress. In reviewing a trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress, this Court defers to the trial court’s findings of disputed facts but reviews de novo the court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts. Petty v. State , 283 Ga. 268, 269 658 SE2d 599 2008; State v. Nash , 279 Ga. 646, 648 619 SE2d 684 2005. Here the record shows that on February 23, 2007, Officer E. P. Garrett of the Cobb County Police Department responded to a report of a fight between two brothers at a mobile home park. Christopher Brown, one of the brothers involved in the fight, left the scene before police arrived. Garrett was familiar with Brown and knew that he liked to hang out at a pond in back of the trailer park. Brown was not there when police investigated, but Garrett saw a 1995 Toyota Camry, with two people inside, parked next to the pond. The officers approached the car, thinking the occupants might be waiting to meet Brown. Robinson was in the driver’s seat and Kimberly Reeves was in the passenger seat. Police later determined that the car belonged to Reeves’s boss. Garrett asked them if they had seen Brown and explained why they were looking for him. Reeves said that she was Brown’s cousin and that Robinson and she had been at the trailer when the fight occurred, but they left to avoid the commotion.
Garrett said that while talking with Reeves, he noticed that she “was extremely fidgety, was stuttering when she talked,” and “wouldn’t make eye contact” with any of the officers. Reeves’s behavior led Garrett to believe that she was under the influence of drugs because he did not smell alcohol on her breath. Garrett based his opinion on his “mandate” training regarding how to look for signs that people may be under the influence, and four years of experience in the field, dealing with more than fifty drug cases. He stated that there was “a big difference” between people who are nervous strictly because they are dealing with police and people “who are high on some type of drug and/or alcohol. It’s very distinguishable.” Although he could not explain the difference “without you being out there and seeing the different types of people,” he said that he could tell from the way Reeves was acting, i. e., she “wouldn’t make eye contact with us at all, wouldn’t look at us, very fidgety, nervous as if she was on some type of drug or alcohol.”
