Connecticut Criminal Lawyer Blog

The owner of a building in Hartford had a standing complaint with police to investigate unauthorized activity on his property. On January 28, 2006, officers responded to information received about narcotics activity occurring on the property. They saw a van in the driveway with the engine running and the lights off. They blocked the driveway with their cruiser and approached. The driver, Cameron Mounds, acted nervously and made furtive movements with his hand toward his waist. He did not respond to questions about why he was there. He failed to comply with repeated requests to show his hands.

Mounds refused to get out of the van and began flailing his arms as the officers arrested him for interfering with an officer and criminal trespass in the third degree. The officers found ten small bags filled with a white rock like substance in his waistband and $605 in small bills. He moved to suppress the items seized asserting that the evidence was obtained as a result of an illegal warrantless arrest and that the subsquent warrantless search of his person and automobile lacked probable cause.

The trial court denied the motion and Mounds was convicted. The appellate court affirmed. The trial court properly denied the motion to suppress. The defendant's challenge to a factual determination lacked merit. The trial court was free to credit the officer's testimony that he could see the building's signs. Under the facts, the trial court properly determined that the officers had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the defendant was trespassing when they blocked the driveway.

They were justified in proceeding with an investigatory stop of the vehicle. Because there was probable cause to arrest the defendant for interfering with an officer, the search incident to the arrest was valid. The defendant waived his claim that the state used peremptory challenges to strike two African-American venire persons in a discriminatory manner in violation of the 1986 United States Supreme Court case of Batson v. Kentucky by failing to contest the trial court's acceptance of the prosecutor's explanations.

State v. Mounds
Connecticut Appellate Court
AC 28126