Eaddy v. Mississippi
Annotate this CaseA caller informed Claiborne County Sheriff's deputies that Wendell Barnes was in Port Gibson driving a car with Texas plates. Officers knew Barnes had three warrants against him. They happened upon a vehicle matching the caller's description and initiated an investigatory stop. A deputy searched and arrested the driver, Defendant Terrance Eaddy, for possession of cocaine and weapons. Defendant moved to suppress evidence of the drugs and gun discovered in the search. At the suppression hearing, on cross-examination of the arresting deputy, defense counsel pointed out that the deputy's report contained a different version of events that took place at the time of Defendant's arrest than his testimony. In ruling on Defendant's motion, the court recognized the deputy's report differed from his testimony, but that "an arrest report does not represent the officer's entire description of the arrest." Accordingly, the court denied Defendant's motion to suppress. A jury convicted Defendant of the charges against him. On appeal to the Supreme Court, Defendant argued that the trial court should have suppressed the evidence presented at trial. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the deputies did not have reasonable grounds to justify the investigatory stop and subsequent search and seizure of evidence from Defendant. Accordingly, the Court vacated Defendant's conviction.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.