After stipulating to the evidence, Michael James Cole was found guilty in a bench trial of trafficking methamphetamine.1 He does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, but claims the trial court erred by denying his pre-trial motion to suppress evidence of the methamphetamine and his motion seeking disclosure of the identity of a confidential informant who gave police information about the methamphetamine. For the following reasons, we find no error and affirm. 1. We find no error in the trial court’s denial of Cole’s motion to suppress evidence of the methamphetamine.
Cole claims that his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure was violated when police briefly detained him to investigate a suspicion that he was in possession of methamphetamine and then seized methamphetamine from his vehicle without a warrant. The record shows that a confidential informant, who had never before given information, told a Hall County police officer a member of the Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad that Cole would be delivering about two ounces of methamphetamine to the BP gas station on Friendship Road in Hall County. The informant also told the officer the time Cole would arrive at the station and described the vehicle he would be driving. Accompanied by the informant, police set up surveillance at the station and watched as the described vehicle arrived at the station at the predicted time. When Cole stopped and exited the vehicle, the informant identified Cole to police as the person who was delivering the methamphetamine. The officer then approached Cole, identified himself as a police officer, and asked Cole his name. Cole confirmed that he was the man named by the informant, and the officer told Cole that he had received information about drug activity at the station and asked Cole for consent to search his vehicle. When Cole refused to give consent, the officer looked inside the vehicle through a window, and saw what appeared to him to be methamphetamine in a clear plastic bag in plain view in the vehicle. At that point, the officer opened the vehicle door, seized the suspected bag of methamphetamine, and placed Cole under arrest.
