APPEAL FROM THE CRAWFORD COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT. NO. 17CR-2013-438. HONORABLE MICHAEL MEDLOCK, JUDGE.
AFFIRMED.
Candice Settle, for appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att'y Gen., by: Christian S. Harris, Ass't Att'y Gen., and Trae Norton, Law Student Admitted to Practice Pursuant to Rule XV of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of the Supreme Court under the supervision of Darnisa Evans Johnson, for appellee.
RITA W. GRUBER, Judge. KINARD and BROWN, JJ., agree.
OPINION
Page 700
RITA W. GRUBER, Judge
Janet Tankersley brings this appeal from her conditional guilty plea to first-offense driving while intoxicated.[1] She contends that the circuit court erred in denying her pretrial motion to suppress evidence of her intoxication because an informant's uncorroborated tip about Tankersley's illegal behavior was not sufficiently reliable to give the arresting officer reasonable suspicion to pull her over. She argues that the officer did not have reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop under our rules of criminal procedure. We find no error, and we affirm the conviction.
When reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress evidence, we conduct a de novo review based on the totality of the circumstances, recognizing the trial court's superior
Page 701
opportunity to determine witnesses' credibility and reversing the findings of historical fact only when they are clearly erroneous. Batchelor v. State, 2014 Ark.App. 682, 450 S.W.3d 245.
At 3:54 p.m. on November 11, 2012, an Arkansas State Police dispatcher took a call from a motorist traveling west on Interstate 40 near Fort Smith, who said that a silver Toyota pickup in front of him was repeatedly " riding the rumble strip." The dispatcher logged in the call as a possible DWI. The motorist told the dispatcher his name--Barry Gray--and phone number, said that he was driving a black Jeep, and reported the Toyota's tag number.
Gray stayed on the phone with dispatch and followed the pickup on the interstate until a state patrolman made contact with it.
Gray testified at the hearing on the motion to suppress, explaining that he made the phone call after ...