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Tomlin v. State

Officer had a reasonable suspicion to stop defendant's car since another officer observed the passenger smoking and smelled marijuana when the passenger exhaled the smoke out of the window.

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A police officer may stop a motor vehicle to conduct a limited investigation if she has a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct.1 The smell of marijuana provides an officer with a reasonable suspicion that marijuana is present in a vehicle.2 Narcotics Special Agent Holmes was driving behind a truck driven by Scott Tomlin when she saw a passenger in the truck smoking and then blowing smoke that smelled like marijuana out the truck window. Having smelled marijuana, Agent Holmes called for another police unit to conduct an investigative stop of the vehicle. Another unit then stopped the truck and found marijuana in it. Was the investigatory stop of the vehicle legal We hold that it was legal because when Agent Holmes smelled marijuana coming from the truck she had a reasonable suspicion that the vehicle contained marijuana. We therefore affirm the trial court’s denial of Tomlin’s motion to suppress the drugs found in his truck and judgment of conviction based on that evidence.

On August 9, 1998, Clayton County Narcotics Special Agent S. Holmes was off-duty and driving in an unmarked vehicle in the city of Jonesboro. She was traveling behind a pickup truck that was being driven by a man later identified as Tomlin. There were two passengers in the truck. The passenger sitting next to the window was smoking what looked like a cigarette. Three different times Agent Holmes saw the passenger blow smoke from the cigarette out the truck window. Each time he exhaled the smoke, Agent Holmes smelled marijuana. Agent Holmes called on the radio for a marked police unit to stop the vehicle and investigate for suspected marijuana use.

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