STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
ALDO RAY WILSON, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1992-03-27
No. 91-1343
BOOTH and WOLF, JJ., concur.
595 So. 2d 1106 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1992) Caution
Cited by 4 cases

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Synopsis

The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court's order suppressing evidence, ruling that a suspect's abandonment of a gun during a police chase was voluntary and not the result of an unlawful seizure, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in California v. Hodari D.


Holding

No, the gun was voluntarily abandoned. Under California v. Hodari D., a seizure does not occur until a suspect is physically apprehended, meaning the pursuit itself does not constitute a seizure. Therefore, the abandonment of the gun during the chase was voluntary, and the gun was lawfully recovered.


Headnotes

[1] A seizure under the Fourth Amendment does not occur until a suspect is physically apprehended, even if the suspect flees from a police officer's show of authority.

[2] Evidence discarded by a suspect during flight from a police officer is not the fruit of an unlawful seizure if the suspect is not apprehended until after the discard.

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Key Quotes

“In Hodari D,, a youth fled when he saw police approaching. An officer pursued him, during which the youth discarded a rock of cocaine. The trial court denied a motion to suppress the cocaine, and the California appellate court reversed. The Supreme Court agreed with the trial court. It held that, despite the state’s concession that the pursuit was not based on reasonable suspicion, the discarded cocaine was not the result of a “seizure” under the 4th Amendment.”

Summarizes the precedent set by California v. Hodari D. regarding pursuit and seizure.

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Facts & Procedural History

A police officer observed Aldo Ray Wilson holding a pouch in a high-drug-traffic area. When the officer approached, Wilson dropped the pouch and fled.…

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Opinion of the Court
JOANOS, Chief Judge.

JOANOS, Chief Judge.

The State of Florida has appealed an order of the trial court granting Aldo Ray Wilson’s motion to suppress. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Wilson was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, carrying a concealed firearm, obstructing a police officer, and possession of marijuana and cocaine. The charges were brought after a police officer, patrolling an area known for its drug traffic, observed Wilson and another person standing on the porch of a store. Wilson was holding a black, book-sized pouch into which the other person was peering, but the officer observed no exchange of objects or money, and could not see inside the pouch. When the officer exited his car, Wilson dropped the pouch and began running. The officer gave chase, during which he observed Wilson drop an object to the ground; the object was later found to be a loaded gun.

After Wilson was caught, officers transported him to the sheriff’s office for an interview. Wilson admitted that the gun was his, and the officers also discovered that he was a convicted felon. Wilson was arrested, and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, carrying a concealed firearm, and obstructing a police officer. He was searched pursuant to the arrest, and officers discovered cocaine and marijuana; two counts of possession were added to the charges against him.

Wilson thereafter moved to suppress the gun and the drugs, citing State v. Bartee, 568 So. 2d 523 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990) (defendant’s act of discarding drugs while being pursued by police officer during unlawful chase resulted from officer’s unlawful conduct, and thus abandonment of the drugs was involuntary and they were unlawfully seized). Wilson argued that the officer’s pursuit constituted a seizure, unlawful because the officer’s pre-chase observations were not sufficient to create a founded suspicion of criminal activity. Because the gun was abandoned during the unlawful “seizure,” the abandonment was involuntary under Bartee, and the gun should be suppressed, along with the drugs obtained as a result of the gun-based arrest.

The trial court agreed, classifying the chase as a seizure, which it found unlawful in that the officer’s observations were insufficient to create a founded suspicion of criminal activity. Finding that the gun was therefore involuntarily abandoned, and that the drugs were the tainted “fruits” of the seizure of the gun, the court ruled that all of the evidence should be suppressed. Eleven days later, the United States Su preme Court decided California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991).

In Hodari D,, a youth fled when he saw police approaching. An officer pursued him, during which the youth discarded a rock of cocaine. The trial court denied a motion to suppress the cocaine, and the California appellate court reversed. The Supreme Court agreed with the trial court. It held that, despite the state’s concession that the pursuit was not based on reasonable suspicion, the discarded cocaine was not the result of a “seizure” under the 4th Amendment. The Court explained that, assuming the pursuit constituted a show of authority enjoining the defendant to halt, he did not comply and was not seized until he was caught. Therefore, the drugs abandoned during the chase were not the fruit of a seizure, but were lawfully recovered by the police and should have been admitted. Hodari D., 499 U.S. at-, 111 S.Ct. at 1552, 113 L.Ed.2d at 699.

The State argues that the gun herein was not the fruit of an unlawful seizure as found by the trial court, in that, under Hodari, no seizure occurred until Wilson was caught, Wilson concedes this position, but argues that the suppression order should be affirmed as to the drugs, in that they were the fruits of an illegal arrest. That is, police did not know that Wilson was a convicted felon until after the stop, for which the trial court held there was no founded suspicion, and the evidence was insufficient to support the remaining two charges.

The clear basis for the suppression order entered herein was that Wilson involuntarily abandoned the gun during an unlawful seizure (the chase), and that it must therefore be suppressed along with its “fruits,” the drugs. However, under Hodari D., no seizure occurred until the officer caught Wilson. Therefore, Wilson must be held to have voluntarily abandoned the gun. It was thereafter lawfully recovered by the police and need not be suppressed on the grounds argued below. As for appellee’s argument that the order should nevertheless be affirmed as to the subsequent discovery of the drugs, the grounds he now posits were never argued to the trial court as a basis for suppression. We therefore decline to consider them.

The order of the trial court suppressing the evidence against Wilson is hereby reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings on the charges against him.

BOOTH and WOLF, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • D.E. v. State, 605 So. 2d 574 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992)
    …constitute the fruit of the stop of the respondent. California v. Hodari D., — U.S.-, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991); State v. Green, 601 So. 2d 617 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992); State v. Hollinger, 596 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992); State v. Wilson, 595 So. 2d 1106 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992); Wade v. State, 589 So. 2d 322 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991); Butler v. State, 579 So. 2d 890 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991) (no seizure where officers got out of their car and before they said anything, the defendant fled). Affirmed.…
  • State v. Jackson, 609 So. 2d 181 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992)
    …ulted in discovery of a handgun which was the subject of the motion to suppress. Based upon the above facts, we find this case indistinguishable from California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991), and State v. Wilson, 595 So. 2d 1106 (Fla. 1st DCA1992). Accordingly, we reverse the grant of suppression and remand this case for further proceedings. DANAHY, A.C.J., HALL, J., and ROBERTS, SUSAN W., Associate Judge, concur.…

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