The State charged Melvin V. Venzen by accusation with possessing less than one ounce of marijuana in violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. Venzen filed a motion to suppress the marijuana seized by police, asserting that he “was approached, questioned, and unlawfully detained and arrested.” The trial court granted his motion, and the State appeals. Because the evidence was properly seized both as a result of exigent circumstances and as fruits of a search incident to Venzen’s arrest, we reverse. The police officers who arrested Venzen were the only witnesses at the hearing on the motion to suppress, and the trial court did not question their credibility or resolve any disputed issues of fact, but instead made its ruling on the basis of the application of law to undisputed facts. This controls our standard of review. 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. Citations omitted. Vansant v. State , 264 Ga. 319, 320 1 443 SE2d 474 1994. We therefore consider the evidence de novo.
On May 3, 2006, two officers from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department went to “4203 Hermes Place, apartment D-4,” to execute an arrest warrant for an individual named Delyno Theodore Brown. As the officers approached the unit’s door, they looked through a window six inches away from the door and saw a man, later identified as Venzen, seated on a couch rolling a marijuana cigarette. They also saw a bag of marijuana beside Venzen on the coffee table at the end of the couch.
