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Jabari Williamsv.The State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A14A0417
DecidedApril 30, 2014
Reporter327 Ga. App. 239, 758 S.E.2d 141
JudgesFirst Division: Chief Judge Phipps, Presiding Judge Ellington, and Judge McMillian; McMillian authored the opinion; Phipps and Ellington concurred
Tags
CriminalCriminal ProcedureFourth AmendmentSearch and SeizureEvidenceSufficiency of the EvidenceReversal
Case Summary

DeKalb County officers conducting drug surveillance stopped Jabari Williams’s vehicle after he briefly visited an apartment they suspected was used for drug sales. Officers had seen no transaction and had no information specific to Williams; they stopped people who entered and left the apartment. After the stop, officers reported smelling marijuana and searched Williams’s backpack, finding marijuana and a handgun. On interlocutory review, the Court of Appeals held that the stop lacked a particularized and objective basis to suspect Williams of criminal activity. A person’s brief visit to a suspected drug location, without individualized facts linking that person to wrongdoing, fit only a general pattern and did not justify a stop under the Fourth Amendment. The court reversed the denial of the motion to suppress and held that the backpack evidence should have been suppressed.

Opinion

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