State v. Turner

── State v. Turner ── Court: Court of Appeals of Kansas Date: June 05, 2026 Category: General NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION No. 128,371 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee, v. DARRIN L. TURNER JR., Appellant. MEMORANDUM OPINION Appeal from Sedgwick District Court; SETH L. RUNDLE, judge. Submitted without oral argument. Opinion filed June 5, 2026. Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded with directions. Dylan J. Pryor, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant. Lance J. Gillett, assistant district attorney, Marc Bennett, district attorney, and Kris W. Kobach, attorney general, for appellee. Before GARDNER, P.J., MALONE and ATCHESON, JJ. PER CURIAM: Darrin L. Turner Jr. appeals his convictions and sentence after a jury found him guilty of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving a vehicle without the tag assigned to it. He argues the district court improperly denied his request to suppress evidence found during a search of his vehicle. He also challenges the district court's imposition of attorney fees. We remand for a corrected fee assessment but find no other error, so we affirm Turner's convictions. 1  FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND At around midnight on July 21, 2020, a Sedgwick County Sheriff's Deputy, Justin Mixon, initiated a traffic stop of a silver Dodge Durango. After running the vehicle's license plate through his in-car system, Mixon determined that the tag was assigned to a different vehicle, a Ford Taurus. The Durango pulled into a QuikTrip parking lot, and Mixon approached the driver's side. Turner was in the driver's seat, and his fiancée was in the passenger seat. Mixon saw a digital scale on Turner's lap, which he suspected was used for selling drugs. When Mixon asked about the scale, Turner told him that he used it to weigh chemicals for his job, fixing water heaters, and that he had just left a service call. Mixon asked Turner to step out of the Durango to talk to him about the scale. Once outside, Mixon told Turner that he was not trying to get him in trouble but did not believe his story about the scale. He asked Turner if he could open the scale, which Turner agreed to. Turner retrieved the scale from the Durango and opened it up to let Mixon see in it. Mixon noticed a white crystalized substance inside, which he believed was methamphetamine residue. Turner then closed the scale and left it inside the Durango. Soon after that, Mixon handcuffed Turner, put him inside his patrol car, then searched the Durango and found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia inside. He then returned to his patrol car and told Turner he was under arrest. After Mixon gave Turner Miranda warnings, Turner admitted that the drugs found in the Durango belonged to him. The State charged Turner with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving a vehicle without the tag assigned to it. 2  Motion to Suppress The week before trial, Turner moved to suppress the evidence found in Mixon's search—the drugs and drug paraphernalia found in his Durango and his incriminating statements. Mixon testified at the suppression hearing on the morning of jury selection. He identified Turner as the person he had pulled over. Mixon described Turner on that day as "overly nervous, waving his hands around, using a lot of filler words like 'um,' [and] sweating profusely." Mixon explained that he asked Turner about the tag that was assigned to another car. Turner said that he