ROVNER, Circuit Judge.
John A. Peters, III, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. He reserved his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence discovered during the search of a car in which he was a passenger. We affirm.
On April 5, 2011, Peters was a passenger in a maroon Toyota Scion on Interstate 70 in Indiana. The Scion was traveling behind a white GMC Denali and both cars displayed Ohio license plates. For reasons unrelated to this appeal, the cars aroused the suspicion of Officer Chris Borgman, a Greenfield police officer assigned to a multijurisdictional task force that patrolled Interstate 70 in Hancock and Marion Counties in Indiana. Officer Borgman decided to follow the Denali and he enlisted Deputy Nick Ernstes of the Hancock County Sheriff's Department to watch the Scion. Eventually, Officer Borgman decided to pull over the Denali, which was found to contain heroin and other evidence of drug trafficking. A passenger in the Denali, Aaron Holmes, later filed a motion to suppress the evidence found in that car. The district court discredited Officer Borgman's version of the events of that day as "too improbable" and "not established by a preponderance of the evidence," and granted Holmes' motion to suppress. We therefore do not rely on Officer Borgman's testimony in assessing Peters' claim and turn to Deputy Ernstes' account of the events.
After being alerted to the cars by Officer Borgman, Deputy Ernstes approached the Scion and noticed that it was approximately fifty to seventy-five feet behind the Denali. The Scion was traveling at approximately sixty to sixty-four miles per hour. The combination of the high speed and short distance allowed for less than two seconds' braking time between the vehicles, and Deputy Ernstes believed that the driver of the Scion, Cordell Adams, was violating an Indiana statute by following too closely. See Ind.Code § 9-21-8-14.
The deputy told Adams that he stopped the car because it was following too closely and Adams apologized. Adams denied that he was traveling with another vehicle, told the deputy that he had left his license at home, and said that he was driving only because his passenger, Peters, had become too tired. Deputy Ernstes then approached the passenger side of the vehicle to request identification and vehicle registration. When Peters lowered the window, Deputy Ernstes smelled burnt marijuana and saw small green particles that the deputy believed to be marijuana on Peters' clothing. Peters claimed that the particles came from a cigar, but a closer look confirmed the deputy's belief that the particles were marijuana. Contrary to Adams' claim that the Scion was not associated with any other vehicle, Peters told the deputy that they were traveling with the white Denali. Based on the marijuana smell, Deputy Ernstes decided to search the Scion. In response to questions, Peters told Deputy Ernstes that he had previously been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. For safety reasons, the deputy decided to handcuff Peters and pat him down. The deputy recovered a large amount of cash from Peters' pocket, totaling more than $2500. He then placed Peters in a patrol car and searched the Scion. He found a marijuana stem in the front passenger area, and again encountered a marijuana odor, this time in a sunglass storage compartment. The storage compartment cover was cracked and had screws that appeared not to be original factory equipment. The deputy also found a cordless drill in the car. The drill contained a sticky substance which was later found to match a substance found on the screws of a panel concealing a kilogram of heroin in the Denali.
Peters was then charged, along with Aaron Holmes, a passenger in the Denali, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846; and possession with intent to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Peters moved to suppress the evidence seized in the stop of the Scion.
On appeal, Peters contends that the district court clearly erred when it concluded that the stop of the Scion and
We begin with the stop of the Scion. The prosecution bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a warrantless stop is supported by probable cause. Garcia-Garcia, 633 F.3d at 612; United States v. Basinski, 226 F.3d 829, 833 (7th Cir.2000). When a police officer reasonably believes that a driver has committed even a minor traffic offense, probable cause supports the stop. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 819, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996); Garcia-Garcia, 633 F.3d at 612. We concluded in Muriel that, in assessing whether a vehicle is following another more closely than is reasonable and prudent under Indiana law, the "use of the `two-second rule' as a guide for reasonableness comports with Indiana law." Muriel, 418 F.3d at 724. The only question, then, is whether the court clearly erred when it credited Deputy Ernstes' testimony that there was less than two seconds' braking time between the Scion and the Denali. According to Peters, the deputy's testimony was too vague and conclusory regarding the distance between the two vehicles to satisfy the government's burden on a probable cause determination. In particular, Peters complains that the deputy did not explain how he measured the distance from the front bumper of the Scion to the rear bumper of the Denali. Nor did the deputy specify how he measured the speed of the two vehicles.
The district court's fact-findings were adequately supported by the record. At the suppression hearing, Deputy Ernstes testified that he was driving behind the cars when he noticed that the Denali slowed its speed and the Scion moved closer to the back of the Denali. He was then asked how close the Scion came to the Denali as the two traveled in tandem on the interstate. He replied:
R. 280, Tr. at 156. When asked how he determined a safe following distance, Deputy Ernstes testified that he used the two-second rule described in the "Indiana Driver's Manual." That manual provides a table of distances that a vehicle travels in one second at particular speeds. For example, the deputy testified that a vehicle traveling fifty-five miles per hour would traverse 80.7 feet in one second, and a vehicle traveling sixtyfive miles per hour would cover 95.3 feet in one second. R. 280, Tr. at 158-59. Under the two-second rule, a car traveling fiftyfive miles per hour should therefore allow approximately 160 feet of braking distance; a car traveling sixty-five miles per hour should stay approximately 190 feet behind any vehicle in front of it. Thus, even using the slowest speed that Deputy Ernstes described (sixty miles per hour) and the longest distance he observed between the cars (seventy-five feet), the Scion was following the Denali
As for the adequacy of Deputy Ernstes' estimates of the distance between the vehicles and the speed of the Scion, the deputy testified that he had been a police officer for fifteen years with significant training and experience in traffic enforcement, among other things. R. 280, Tr. at 149-52. The district court found Deputy Ernstes to be credible and credited his testimony. We must therefore defer to those findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. Garcia-Garcia, 633 F.3d at 614. See also United States v. Jones, 614 F.3d 423, 425-26 (7th Cir.2010) (a factfinder's choice between two permissible views of the evidence cannot be clearly erroneous). Under Federal Rule of Evidence 701, a witness who is not testifying as an expert may offer testimony in the form of an opinion if the testimony is rationally based on the witness's perception, helpful to clearly understanding the witness's testimony or determining a fact in issue, and is not based on scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge within the scope of Rule 702. Judging the speed of a vehicle or a distance between two vehicles based on an individual's perception is the quintessential kind of evidence contemplated by Rule 701. United States v. Conn, 297 F.3d 548, 554 n. 2 (7th Cir.2002). Perhaps the deputy could have confirmed his estimate of the car's speed with radar. Or he could have compared the speed of the Scion to the speed of his own vehicle as he followed the Scion. He could have counted "one Mississippi, two Mississippi" to judge the distance between the Scion and the Denali. Perhaps he did all of those things but neither the government nor the defendant asked him to explain how he determined the car's speed and trailing distance, and the defendant did not object to this testimony as lacking foundation.
In addition to the stop itself, Peters objected to the subsequent search of the vehicle. He contends that the deputy's testimony that he smelled marijuana was not credible. The deputy found only a few particles of marijuana, he complains, which was not consistent with the deputy's claim that there was a strong smell of burnt marijuana when Peters rolled down his window. He also objects that the officer did not collect any of the marijuana particles for testing and did not summon a near-by police dog that was trained to sniff for drugs, facts which he claims undercut the deputy's credibility.
On a motion to suppress, we review the district court's credibility determinations for clear error. United States v. Brown, 664 F.3d 1115, 1117 (7th Cir.2011). "A factual finding is clearly erroneous only if, after considering all the evidence, we cannot avoid or ignore a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made." Brown, 664 F.3d at 1117-18. See also United States v. Krieger, 628 F.3d 857, 869 (7th Cir.2010) (factual finding regarding demeanor and credibility cannot be overturned unless the witness was incredible as a matter of law). None of Peters' arguments lead us to believe that the court erred in crediting Deputy Ernstes. The deputy's testimony that he smelled burnt marijuana was corroborated, not contradicted, by his statement that he found marijuana particles on Peters' clothing. Peters was not charged with marijuana possession and so there was no need for the deputy to collect the few crumbs that he observed on Peters' clothing. Given that the smell was of burnt marijuana, there was nothing unusual about the fact that only a few crumbs remained in the car. And there was no need for the deputy to employ a dog specially trained to ferret out subtle odors of illicit drugs when the deputy was "hit by an overwhelming smell of marijuana" when the window descended. R. 280, Tr. at 175. We have held that a police officer "who smells marijuana coming from a car has probable cause to search that car." United States v. Franklin, 547 F.3d 726, 733 (7th Cir. 2008). The judgment of the district court is therefore
AFFIRMED.