ROGERS, C.J.
The principal issue in this case is whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the police possessed a reasonable and articulable suspicion to detain the defendant, Kyle Peterson. After the defendant's motion to suppress was denied, the defendant entered a conditional plea of nolo contendere, pursuant to General Statutes § 54-94a,
The trial court's findings and the record reveal the following undisputed facts and procedural background relevant to this appeal. "On March 10, 2010, officers of the New Britain Police Department were conducting surveillance [of] the residence of
"Approximately six months later, on September 29, 2010, the police arrested Eric Cedeno for the sale of marijuana. While in police custody, Cedeno told Officer Joseph Lopa that he regularly purchased marijuana from an individual named Kyle Peterson, whom Cedeno described as a twenty-five year old male who drove two different Jeep Cherokees. Lopa, on the basis of past investigations involving the defendant, corroborated that Cedeno was describing the defendant.
"On the basis of the information received from Ayala and Cedeno that the defendant was selling marijuana in large quantities, the police began conducting surveillance of the defendant's New Britain residence in early October, 2010. In the course of their surveillance, the police observed the defendant make a single trip to 33 Thorniley Street...." Id., at 361-62, 101 A.3d 337. During that trip, at 33 Thorniley Street, a three-story, multifamily residence in New Britain, the police observed the defendant "park in the driveway, enter the residence for approximately five minutes, and then leave." Id., at 362, 101 A.3d 337. Just before this observation, on October 7, 2010, "the police arrested Leonardo Soares, a registered confidential informant for the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, for the illegal possession of prescription drugs. Soares told the police that he had purchased marijuana from an unidentified male living on the third floor of 33 Thorniley Street." Id. Soares said that he had been inside the third floor apartment several times in the past and had witnessed several pounds of marijuana and a large quantity of cash. Id. "On the basis of this information, as well as information previously obtained from Ayala corroborating that the defendant's March, 2010 visit to Ayala's residence involved the sale of marijuana, the police believed that the defendant's October, 2010 visit to 33 Thorniley Street, insofar as the defendant quickly entered and exited the residence, was consistent with drug activity." Id.
The following week, "[o]n October 13, 2010, Lopa contacted Adrian Arocho, a registered confidential informant for the police who had previously provided reliable information, and requested that he make a controlled purchase of marijuana from the defendant. In addition to agreeing to make the controlled purchase, Arocho indicated that he was familiar with the defendant and knew that the defendant sells marijuana. Lopa provided Arocho with a telephone number that he received from Cedeno. With Lopa seated next to him and the speakerphone activated, Arocho called the number from his cell phone. When an individual answered his call, Arocho told the individual that he wanted to purchase marijuana but his usual supplier, Cedeno, did not have any. The individual responded that he had recently `set up' Cedeno and that he would call Arocho back. Lopa, who was familiar with the defendant's voice, confirmed that the individual to whom Arocho was speaking was
"On October 20, 2010, at approximately 1 p.m., Officer Michael Farrell was conducting surveillance of the defendant's residence when he observed the defendant depart the residence in his vehicle with a white, weighted plastic bag in his possession. Farrell contacted Sergeant Jerry Chrostowski via radio to inform him of his observations. Chrostowski, who was conducting patrol in an unmarked police vehicle, followed the defendant to Thorniley Street in New Britain. When Chrostowski turned on to Thorniley Street, he observed the defendant's vehicle enter the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street and come to a stop. At that point, Chrostowski observed the defendant, from his vehicle's driver's seat, begin speaking to an individual unknown to the police through his passenger side window.
"On the basis of the information obtained by the police prior to October 20, 2010, as well as Farrell's observation of the defendant carrying a white, `weighted' plastic bag out of his residence, Chrostowski `believed that [the defendant] was making a [marijuana] delivery to ... [33 Thorniley Street].' Chrostowski subsequently drove his vehicle into the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street, blocking in the defendant's vehicle from the rear. Chrostowski exited his vehicle, approached the passenger side of the defendant's vehicle, identified himself as a police officer, and instructed the defendant to turn off his engine. Lopa, who arrived at 33 Thorniley Street shortly after Chrostowski exited his vehicle, approached the driver's side of the defendant's vehicle, ordered the defendant to exit the vehicle, and conducted a patdown search of the defendant's person. After Lopa completed his patdown search, he handcuffed the defendant and ordered him to [stand by] the rear of the vehicle." Id., at 363-64, 101 A.3d 337. The trial court noted in its memorandum of decision that "Lopa, while still outside the defendant's vehicle, gazed into the rear of the vehicle through the open front driver's door and saw in plain view on the floor behind the front passenger's seat a ziplock bag sitting on top of a white plastic bag. The ziplock bag appeared to contain marijuana." (Footnote omitted.) Chrostowski then searched the defendant's vehicle and seized the plastic bag, which contained two ziplock bags. State v. Peterson, supra, 153 Conn.App. at 364, 101 A.3d 337. "Following a field test, the substance was confirmed to be marijuana and the police placed the defendant under arrest." Id.
"Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress evidence seized from his vehicle, claiming, inter alia, that the police did not possess a reasonable and articulable suspicion that he was engaged in or about to engage in criminal activity when Chrostowski entered the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street. Following a suppression hearing, in its memorandum of decision dated August 23, 2012, the trial court denied the defendant's motion to suppress. In its decision, the court stated: Armed with [the] information [from Ayala, Cedeno, Arocho, and Soares] when the police observed the defendant leave his residence with a weighted white bag and travel in his vehicle to 33 Thorniley Street on October 20, 2010, they had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the defendant of criminal activity; specifically the delivery of marijuana to 33 Thorniley Street. Accordingly, the police had an appropriate basis to stop the defendant, by blocking his vehicle, after he entered the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street and investigate further.
On appeal to the Appellate Court, the defendant argued, inter alia, that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress because the police lacked a reasonable and articulable suspicion that he was engaged in or about to engage in criminal activity when Chrostowski detained him in the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street.
The law governing investigatory detentions is also well settled. "Under the fourth amendment to the United States constitution and article first, §§ 7 and 9, of our state constitution, a police officer is permitted in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner to detain an individual for investigative purposes if the officer believes, based on a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the individual is engaged in criminal activity, even if there is no probable cause to make an arrest.... Reasonable and articulable suspicion is an objective standard that focuses not on the actual state of mind of the police officer, but on whether a reasonable person, having the information available to and known by the police, would have had that level of suspicion."
"[I]n justifying the particular intrusion the police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); State v. Lipscomb, supra, 258 Conn. at 75, 779 A.2d 88. "[A]n investigative stop can be appropriate even where the police have not observed a violation because a reasonable and articulable suspicion can arise from conduct that alone is not criminal.... In evaluating the validity of such a stop, courts must consider whether, in light of the totality of the circumstances, the police officer had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Lipscomb, supra, at 76, 779 A.2d 88. "This process allows officers to draw on their own experience and specialized training to make inferences from and deductions about the cumulative information available to them that might well elude an untrained person." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002); State v. Nash, 278 Conn. 620, 635, 899 A.2d 1 (2006) ("law enforcement officials are trained to cull
Consequently, "[w]e do not consider whether the defendant's conduct possibly was consistent with innocent activity but, rather, whether the rational inferences that can be derived from it reasonably suggest criminal activity to a police officer." State v. Madison, 116 Conn.App. 327, 336, 976 A.2d 15, cert. denied, 293 Conn. 929, 980 A.2d 916 (2009), citing State v. Lipscomb, supra, 258 Conn. at 75-76, 779 A.2d 88, and State v. Trine, 236 Conn. 216, 230-31, 673 A.2d 1098 (1996). "When reviewing the legality of a stop, a court must examine the specific information available to the police officer at the time of the initial intrusion and any rational inferences to be derived therefrom." State v. Lipscomb, supra, at 76, 779 A.2d 88.
On appeal, the defendant does not challenge the underlying factual findings for clear error. Accordingly, the only issue before this court is whether the trial court's conclusion that there was a reasonable and articulable suspicion for the defendant's detention was legally and logically correct.
The defendant's primary claims are that there is no evidence to suggest that the police observation that the plastic bag was weighted meant anything more than the "`opposite of empty'" and that the state entirely dismisses the temporal requirement that criminal activity must be "a foot." The Appellate Court majority agreed, and in support of its decision stated: "The record does not reveal any particularized basis upon which Chrostowski could have associated the defendant's apparently innocuous conduct in the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street on that day with drug activity.... Thus, we fail to perceive what specific and individualized factors, if any, led Chrostowski to conclude that the plastic bag in the defendant's vehicle contained marijuana. Indeed, absent any observations of conduct consistent with drug activity, or specific and individualized information suggesting that the defendant's mere presence at 33 Thorniley Street with a plastic bag in his possession gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that he was there to effectuate a drug transaction, Chrostowski not only did not, but could not have known what, if anything, the defendant was doing there on October 20, 2010, aside from talking to someone." (Emphasis in original.) State v. Peterson, supra, 153 Conn.App. at 373-74, 101 A.3d 337.
The flaw in the Appellate Court majority's analysis as to whether the police had a reasonable and articulable suspicion is that it focuses only on the defendant's activities on October 20, 2010, and fails to take into account all of the specific information available to the police on that date and the rational inferences that could be drawn from such information. See State v. Lipscomb, supra, 258 Conn. at 76, 779 A.2d 88 ("a court must consider if, relying on the whole picture, the detaining officers had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity"). Moreover, "[w]e do not consider whether the defendant's conduct possibly was consistent with innocent activity...." State v. Madison, supra, 116 Conn.App. at 336, 976 A.2d 15.
In the present case, the defendant was known to police because they had corroborated the claim by Ayala, another marijuana trafficker, that he had purchased $4000 of marijuana on March 10, 2010, from the defendant at Ayala's home because they had stopped the defendant that day and found that precise amount of cash in his possession. Additionally, another informant had recently identified the defendant
Against this factual background, the issue "is not whether the particular conduct is innocent or guilty, but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 10, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989). Although the defendant was still parked in the driveway of 33 Thorniley Street when the police detained him, based on the totality of the information available to the police that he was an admitted marijuana trafficker, carrying a weighted plastic bag,
The defendant's contention that there were no particularized facts that would indicate any ongoing crime at 33 Thorniley Street is not supported by the record or the trial court's findings. While it is well settled that an individual's mere presence at a location known for criminal activity is not sufficient, without more, to support a reasonable suspicion; Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 52, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979); State v. Scully, 195 Conn. 668, 678-79 n. 15, 490 A.2d 984 (1985); the individual's presence in such a location can be a relevant articulable fact in the Terry reasonable suspicion calculus. State v. Nash, supra, 278 Conn. at 634, 899 A.2d 1; State v. Moreland, 23 Conn.App. 495, 497, 582 A.2d 212 (1990). The record in this case, however, demonstrates that the defendant was not stopped just because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He also was not stopped merely because he was known to have sold drugs in the past. Rather, the trial court specifically found, relying on Soares' information,
Finally, the Appellate Court majority in reaching its decision relied heavily on a lack of overt drug activity on October 20, 2010. See id. Although the temporal element, or contemporaneous observation, is an important factor in determining reasonable and articulable suspicion; id., at 375, 101 A.3d 337 (and cases cited therein); it is not the only factor that can lead to a determination that criminal activity was afoot. See State v. Groomes, 232 Conn. 455, 467-68, 656 A.2d 646 (1995) ("police may detain an individual for investigative purposes if there is a reasonable and articulable
"In conducting our review, we recognize that the trial court is given great deference in its fact-finding function because it is in the unique [position] to view the evidence presented in a totality of circumstances, i.e., including its observations of the demeanor and conduct of the witnesses and parties, which is not fully reflected in the cold, printed record which is available to us." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 74, 779 A.2d 88. While the line can be close between a good hunch and a reasonable and articulable suspicion, in the present case, the trial court's findings regarding the information the police possessed before the stop allowed a rational inference to be drawn that the defendant was at 33 Thorniley Street to deliver drugs. The trial court's conclusions were therefore legally and logically consistent with the facts and, under the totality of the circumstances, we agree that the police possessed a reasonable and articulable suspicion to detain the defendant.
The defendant claims in the alternative that, even assuming the police had the authority to detain him, the police exceeded the permissible scope of a Terry stop when they directed him to exit his vehicle, which afforded the police a plain view of the marijuana located in his vehicle. This claim is meritless. As the trial
The defendant attempts to counter this logic by claiming that the trial court misapplied Mimms and Dukes because those cases are limited to stops for motor vehicle offenses committed by drivers and this was a Terry stop. He argues that in the Terry stop context, the police must have a reasonable and articulable suspicion that an individual is armed and dangerous in order to frisk the individual. "[W]e agree with the defendant that the police must have a reasonable and articulable suspicion that a suspect is armed and dangerous before they may commence a protective patdown search during an investigative stop." State v. Nash, supra, 278 Conn. at 633, 899 A.2d 1. The trial court, however, found that it was reasonable to suspect that the defendant was armed.
The judgment of the Appellate Court is reversed and the case is remanded to that court with direction to render judgment affirming the judgment of the trial court.
In this opinion the other justices concurred.