Brandon Joseph Rolfe was found guilty of possession of cocaine and sentenced under the First Offender Act in a bench trial where he stipulated to the evidence supporting the verdict and preserved the right to appeal from the pre-trial denial of his motion to suppress evidence of the cocaine. For the following reasons, we find the trial court correctly denied the motion to suppress and affirm. Rolfe moved to suppress evidence that he possessed the cocaine claiming that, in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a police officer obtained the evidence when he stopped the car Rolfe was driving without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The Cobb County officer who made the stop testified at the motion hearing that he was on patrol in his marked police vehicle at 3:40 a.m. near a Home Depot store where there had been previous reports of thefts and break-ins. As he approached the store, which was closed for business at that hour, he saw a car exit the store’s parking lot onto a road which dead-ended near the store. The car passed by the officer’s approaching vehicle, and the officer turned around and followed the car on the road leading away from the store. The officer followed the car on the road as it passed by a Red Roof Inn, crossed an intersection, then made a U-turn and re-crossed the intersection and turned into the Red Roof Inn parking lot. At that point, the officer activated his blue lights and stopped the car.
At the stop, the officer detected the odor of alcohol emanating from the car and identified Rolfe as the driver of the car along with a male passenger. Rolfe, who appeared to have trouble speaking, told the officer that he and the passenger were just driving around and talking. The officer asked for and obtained Rolfe’s consent to search the car for alcohol, weapons, or drugs, and the officer found a bag of suspected cocaine under the front passenger seat of the car. When the officer asked Rolfe about the suspected cocaine, he noticed that Rolfe was trying to speak without opening his mouth. The officer asked Rolfe to open his mouth, and when Rolfe complied, the officer saw plastic bags in his mouth and asked him to spit out the bags. The officer testified that Rolfe spit out two plastic bags containing additional suspected cocaine. The officer arrested Rolfe and the passenger, read Rolfe the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U. S. 436 86 SC 1602, 16 LE2d 694 1966, and Rolfe waived his rights and stated that he had purchased three bags of cocaine in Atlanta.
