Donny Lynn Sprouse Jr. may claim to work as a house painter, but according to an arresting officer, the 44-year-old Scottsville resident is one of southern Albemarle County’s most prolific stimulant dealers, a man drug users claim to have seen possessing, in the officer’s words, "scary amounts of methamphetamine."
And despite being recently found with nearly 358 grams of methamphetamine inside a box of dog biscuits, Sprouse walked free last month after a judge ruled the warrantless search and seizure of his property unconstitutional.
"I’m going to dismiss the charges based on the motion to suppress," said judge Matthew Quatrara near the close of a nearly hourlong evidentiary hearing last week in Albemarle County General District Court.
Dressed in a checked shirt and closed cropped hair, the smiling Sprouse left the courtroom without comment after the June 26 hearing.
Scottsville police officer Brad Wood took the stand to explain what transpired Feb. 28 when he was running stationary radar along state Route 20. Wood testified that Sprouse’s vehicle came into town via the James River bridge from Buckingham County.
Having previously been dispatched to several calls for service to the Sprouse residence and asserting that Sprouse is a top dealer in methamphetamine, Wood said he knew Sprouse’s vehicle, a white Toyota sedan with some front-end damage.
"I just recognized it," said Wood.
Judges in Central Virginia might also recognize Sprouse, as he has prior convictions for drug possession, drug racketeering, grand larceny, forgery, credit card fraud and assault and battery.
Wood testified he knew that Sprouse had an outstanding arrest warrant, so he decided to follow the sedan as it made a right turn on Main Street and parked at the GoCo Food Mart gas station. By the time the officer arrived, Wood said, the driver was entering the convenience store.
"He didn’t waste any time getting out of the car and into the store," said Wood who watched as a large screen in the courtroom replayed much of their interaction captured by a dashboard camera and body-worn camera.
"Why’d you stop me?" Sprouse can be heard asking the officer in the video footage.
"You’re a wanted person," the officer replies.
While Sprouse initially denied driving the vehicle, the officer said he knew better.
"You were driving," Wood asserts in the video.
"I do not consent to search my vehicle," Sprouse can be heard saying.
"This is a traffic stop," says the officer. "Your reachable area in the vehicle I can search. I don’t need consent."
The officer told Sprouse he was being detained and then seized 357.64 grams of methamphetamine from inside a box of Milk-Bone dog biscuits, plus another 7.17 grams inside the center console, plus a pipe and two digital scales. Sprouse was charged with drug possession and drug distribution. Under state law, a conviction on that much methamphetamine could bring a conviction of five years to life in prison with a five-year mandatory minimum.
After the videos played, the judge expressed doubt that the search was directly related to the traffic stop for the outstanding arrest warrant, a requirement to find probable cause to conduct a warrantless search.
"I think I can get to probable cause," argued prosecutor Armin Zijerdi.
While the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution typically protects people from warrantless searches, a 1925 U.S. Supreme Court ruling court carved out an exemption in a drug case of a liquid variety. In Carroll v. United States, a Prohibition-era bootlegger learned the hard way that police could make warrantless searches of vehicles because the mobility of a car tends to allow someone trading illegal substances to move the car and its evidence before a warrant can be obtained.
In the Sprouse case, the prosecutor said that Sprouse’s rapid exit from the vehicle, his denial of being the driver and his outstanding warrant justified a search "in the moment."
But defense attorney Cameron Perales of the public defender’s office disagreed.
"This is not a traffic stop," argued Perales. "He’s arrested inside a building. The vehicle was unlawfully searched."
The judge saw it the defense’s way.
"Get a search warrant, and we’ll all live happily ever after," said Quatrara near the close of the hearing. "You’re free to go, Mr. Sprouse."
Source: www.dailyprogress.com