Wiggins v. State

Gobeil, Judge.

Following a bench trial, John Parker Wiggins was convicted of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. On appeal from the judgment of conviction, Wiggins asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because undisputed facts show that, absent a warrant, the responding sheriff's deputy had no reasonable or articulable suspicion on which to enter the backyard of a *818residence where Wiggins was arrested.1 We agree and reverse.

In reviewing a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, the appellate court must follow three principles:

First, when a motion…