Bobby Gene Kelly was charged by accusation with two counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act by possessing methamphetamine, OCGA § 16-13-30 a, and one count of giving a false name to a law enforcement officer, OCGA § 16-10-25. He filed a motion to suppress evidence illegally obtained, which was denied. Kelly then pled guilty to giving a false name, and a bench trial was held on the other two counts on stipulated facts. The trial court found Kelly guilty of both counts. Kelly’s motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals, raising as error only the denial of his motion to suppress. We affirm. The evidence presented at the hearing on the motion to suppress showed that a Gwinnett County police sergeant initiated a traffic stop of the car Kelly was driving. The car, with three occupants, pulled into a hotel parking lot. The officer testified that even before he stopped his police car, he observed Kelly exit the car he was driving. Kelly was “fidgeting around,” and when the officer asked him for his driver’s license he kept “fidgeting” and “fumbling through papers,” saying he could not find his insurance card and did not have his license. Kelly “popped” the trunk and then asked the officer if he could look in the trunk for his insurance card. The officer agreed, and Kelly sifted through some papers in the trunk and found a checkbook with the name of Derek Nalley.1 Kelly told the officer: “This is me, Derek Nalley.” Kelly told the officer he was headed to Wal-Mart to buy a tire, and needed to see a friend in room 211 of the hotel to get some money.
The officer found this story unusual because it was 4:00 a.m. He began checking the information Kelly had given him, and the physical description on record “on the computer” did not match Kelly. He went to room 211 and knocked, but no one answered, there were no lights or sounds, and it did not appear that anyone was present. He then questioned Kelly’s two passengers separately. They both appeared nervous and “fidgety” and their eyes were glazed, which led the officer to believe they were under the influence of some drug. One of the passengers, Richardson, indicated that he had been staying occasionally in room 211 and had the keys to the room. He gave to consent to search, but the key would not open the door.
