Barnes, Presiding Judge. After arresting Tramain Rashade Alford, a police officer searched a backpack found on the floorboard of the vehicle in which Alford was a passenger and discovered illegal drugs. Alford was charged with possession of cocaine and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and he filed a motion to suppress all evidence recovered during the search. Alford contended, among other things, that the arresting officer did not have probable cause to detain him and that all evidence seized as a result of his unlawful detention should be excluded from evidence at trial. Following a hearing, the trial court granted the motion to suppress. The trial court pointed out that the officer testified that he arrested Alford for violating an open container ordinance, but the State failed to produce a certified copy of the ordinance at the hearing. Consequently, the trial court ruled that the ordinance could not serve as a basis for justifying Alford’s arrest and the subsequent search. The State now appeals, contending that the trial court erred in granting Alford’s motion to suppress. For the reasons discussed below, we vacate the judgment and remand with direction.On review of a motion to suppress, we apply these principles: First, the trial judge’s findings based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence to support them. Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly erroneous. Third, the reviewing court must construe the evidence most favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment. Fourth, we review questions of law de novo.
(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Reyes v. State, 334 Ga. App. 552, 552 (1) (780 SE2d 674) (2015). See Miller v. State, 288 Ga. 286, 286-288 (1) (702 SE2d 888) (2010). Guided by these principles, we turn to the transcript of the hearing on Alford’s motion to suppress. The transcript reflects that on the morning of June 26, 2014, two patrol officers with the Warner Robins Police Department were dispatched to a neighborhood where a city code enforcement officer had observed two men drinking alcohol in a vehicle parked in the road. According to one of the officers, when he approached the open driver’s side window of the parked vehicle, he smelled alcohol and burnt marijuana. The other officer testified that when he approached the open front passenger window, he saw two open beers and smelled burnt marijuana. Upon seeing the open beers, the officer on the passenger side asked who was drinking alcohol inside the vehicle, and Alford, who was in the front passenger seat, admitted that he had been drinking the beer next to him. At that point, the officer arrested Alford for violating the city’s open container ordinance. Both officers testified that they then searched the vehicle because of the odor of marijuana coming from it.During the search of the vehicle, the arresting officer found a backpack on the front passenger floorboard where Alford had rested his feet. The arresting officer asked Alford whether the backpack belonged to him. Alford answered in the affirmative and further responded that the cocaine and marijuana inside the backpack were his as well. The arresting officer opened the backpack and discovered a plastic bag of marijuana, a plastic bag of cocaine, and a small digital scale. The officers also found a “bunch of ash in the car,” but no “burnt roaches, blunts or anything like that.” Based on the drugs found during the search of the backpack, Alford was charged with possession of cocaine and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. He filed a motion to suppress all evidence seized during the search, contending, among other things, that the arresting officer did not have probable cause that he had committed an ordinance violation or other offense and that, as a result, the evidence subsequently seized by the officer was inadmissible at trial. The trial court thereafter conducted a hearing where the two patrol officers testified to events as set out above. After the State presented the officers’ testimony and rested, Alford argued, among other things, that because the State had failed to tender a certified copy of the open container ordinance, the ordinance could not serve as the basis for his arrest and the subsequent search of the backpack. The State did not seek to reopen the evidence to tender a certified copy of the ordinance, but instead argued that Alford’s arrest and the search nevertheless were justified because the officers had smelled marijuana. The trial court granted Alford’s motion to suppress. The court explained why it was excluding the drugs seized from the backpack: “According to the arresting officer, the basis for the arrest was a violation of the open container ordinance; however, at the hearing the State failed to produce a certified copy of that ordinance. Therefore, the ordinance may not serve as a basis for upholding the arrrest and subsequent search.”[1] This appeal by the State followed.1. The State first contends that Alford, as a passenger in the vehicle, lacked standing under the Fourth Amendment to challenge the search of the vehicle where his backpack was found, and that his motion to suppress should have been denied on that basis. We disagree.“[R]ights under the Fourth Amendment are personal, and in order to challenge the validity of a government search an individual must actually enjoy the reasonable expectation of privacy, that is, the individual must have standing. Thus, demonstrating standing is a threshold burden for suppression of the evidence.” (Citations omitted.) Hampton v. State, 295 Ga. 665, 669 (2) (763 SE2d 467) (2014). Alford met that burden with respect to the backpack that was searched by the officers. Irrespective of whether Alford had a privacy interest in the vehicle in which he was a passenger, he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the searched backpack, given that it was found on the passenger side floorboard and Alford told the officer that it belonged to him. As we have explained:It is apparent beyond doubt that society is prepared to accept as reasonable that both vehicle owners and their authorized passengers may carry bags and parcels with them into the automobile; it is further our view that society is prepared to recognize a right of privacy in the contents of those closed packages and bags, which legitimate passengers and vehicle owners carry with them into the vehicle at least to the extent of vesting the passenger or owner with lawful authority to assert a violation of Fourth Amendment rights due to an illegal search or seizure of those objects. (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Bowen v. State, 210 Ga. App. 348, 349 (1) (436 SE2d 76) (1993). Accordingly, Alford had standing to challenge the validity of the search of the backpack. See State v. Hall, 229 Ga. App. 194, 197 (2) (b) (493 SE2d 718) (1997) (passenger had standing to challenge search of bag containing his clothing that was seized from car trunk); Bowen, 210 Ga. App. at 349 (1) (passenger had standing to challenge search of her purse found in car); State v. Corley, 201 Ga. App. 320, 322-323 (411 SE2d 324) (1991) (physical precedent only) (passenger had standing to challenge search of closed drawstring bag found within his arm reach in car, where passenger claimed ownership of the bag and the contraband in it). Compare Keishian v. State, 202 Ga. App. 718, 719-720 (415 SE2d 324) (1992) (passenger did not have reasonable expectation of privacy in plastic bags of cocaine found on floor behind passenger seat, because mere assertion of ownership in seized contraband insufficient to confer standing).2. The State next contends that the motion to suppress filed by Alford did not provide sufficient notice to the State that he would challenge the State’s failure to produce a certified copy of the open container ordinance at the suppression hearing. Consequently, the State argues that Alford waived such a challenge and that the trial court thus erred in concluding that the State was required to tender a certified copy of the open container ordinance to establish the validity of Alford’s arrest based on that ordinance. Again, we disagree.“When a defendant files a motion seeking suppression of items allegedly seized unlawfully, OCGA § 17-5-30 (b) requires the defendant to state in the motion why the search and seizure were unlawful so as to afford notice of the legal issues which will be before the trial court.” (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Glenn v. State, 288 Ga. 462, 465 (2) (a) (704 SE2d 794) (2010).[2] In cases involving warrantless searches, the factual showing required by OCGA § 17-5-30 need not be made in great detail, because in such cases many of the necessary allegations are negative facts (e.g., the search was conducted without a warrant, the movant did not consent to the search) and conclusions based upon mixed questions of law and negative fact (e.g., the officer lacked probable cause to arrest or search). In such cases, motions to suppress are held sufficient if they put the state on notice as to the type of search involved (without warrant vs. with warrant), which witness to bring to the hearing on the motion, and the legal issues to be resolved at that hearing.
