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State v. Gooch

The trial court erred in finding that an officer had no authority to ask a passenger in a legitimately stopped car for consent to search his person.

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The State appeals from an order of the Gwinnett Superior Court granting Clayton Jewell Gooch’s motion to suppress drugs located during a consent search of his person. Because the trial court’s ruling was based on an erroneous application of law to the facts of this case, we reverse. The only evidence at the motion to suppress was adduced from the testimony of the two officers on the scene; Gooch did not testify or otherwise contest the officers’ testimony. “When reviewing a trial court’s order on a motion to suppress where the facts are undisputed, we apply a de novo standard of review to the trial court’s application of the law to the facts. Cit.”1

The evidence of record shows that five young men were traveling in a vehicle through Duluth on Highway 120 eastbound at approximately 4:00 a.m. The driver of the car was Bryan Cummings, and appellant Gooch was a passenger in the back seat. Corporal Hutchinson with the Duluth Police Department stopped the vehicle because it had a hand-written piece of paper stating “Tag Applied For” attached to the rear license plate area, instead of a statutorily authorized tag. Upon approaching the driver’s side of the car, Hutchinson immediately smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the vehicle in general and from driver Cummings in particular. Due to the number of passengers and the necessity of conducting a DUI investigation, Hutchinson called for back-up; Officer Lacow responded and maintained surveillance over the passengers while Hutchinson questioned Cummings.

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