Summary 2009 WY 149

Summary of Decision issued December 9, 2009

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court

Case Name: Leyva v. State

Citation: 2009 WY 149

Docket Number: S-09-0034

Appeal from the District Court of Converse County, Honorable John C. Brooks, Judge

Representing Appellant (Defendant): Diane M. Lozano, Wyoming State Public Defender; Tina N. Kerin, Appellate Counsel; Wyoming Public Defender Program

Representing Appellee (Plaintiff): Bruce A. Salzburg, Wyoming Attorney General; Terry L. Armitage, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Paul S. Rehurek, Senior Assistant Attorney General

Date of Decision: December 9, 2009

Appellant entered a conditional plea of no contest to one count of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver, reserving the right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress. Appellant maintains the evidence should have been suppressed because no reasonable suspicion existed to detain him for a dog sniff of his vehicle following the conclusion of a traffic stop.

Issues: Whether the trial court erred in denying Appellant's motion to suppress evidence obtained from the detention of Appellant and search of Appellant's car.

Holdings: Initially, Appellant's challenge to the district court's suppression ruling is premised on both Article 1, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, the state constitutional argument presented by Appellant does not constitute the "precise, analytically sound approach" required for the Court to undertake an independent state constitutional analysis. Appellant's argument is disjointed and consists of little more than a recitation and summary of passages of prior decisions. The court will not consider an assertion, unsupported by any cogent analysis.

The law is well settled that a law enforcement officer may detain a motorist if the officer has an objectively reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in criminal activity. The existence of objectively reasonable suspicion of criminal activity is determined by evaluating the totality of the circumstances. The whole picture must be considered; common sense and ordinary human experience are to be employed, and deference is to be accorded a law enforcement officer's ability to distinguish between innocent and suspicious actions. In the present case, looking at the whole picture, along with rational inferences, the trooper possessed reasonable suspicion to detain Appellant. The factors supporting the trooper's reasonable suspicion included: Appellant's reluctance to pass the patrol car even though the trooper slowed his traveling speed to well below the posted speed limit; the strong odor of air freshener; the inability of Appellant and the passenger to provide the name of the uncle whose funeral they supposedly attended; the inconsistent answers provided by Appellant and his passenger concerning when they departed from Casper for the uncle's funeral, their dating history, and Appellant's place of residence; and Appellant's visible nervousness during the stop. Although any of these factors alone may not have justified the detention, in the aggregate they provided the trooper with an objectively reasonable basis for suspecting that criminal activity was afoot, thus warranting Appellant's further detention pending the arrival of the canine unit.

Accordingly, the detention did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and, consequently, the district court properly denied Appellant's motion to suppress.

Affirmed.

J. Golden delivered the opinion for the court.

Link to the case: http://bit.ly/8njJ6Q

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