Title: Hall v. State
Citation: 455 So. 2d 1303
Docket Number: 54909
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: August 29, 1984

455 So. 2d 1303 (1984) Gary L. HALL v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 54909. Supreme Court of Mississippi. August 29, 1984. Rehearing Denied October 3, 1984. W. Robert Lotz, Covington, Ky., Donald J. Steighner, Columbus, for appellant. Bill Allain, Atty. Gen., by Walter L. Turner, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. *1304 Before WALKER, P.J., and DAN M. LEE and SULLIVAN, JJ. WALKER, Presiding Justice, for the Court: This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Lowndes County, Mississippi wherein the appellant, Gary L. Hall, was convicted of possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver and was sentenced to a term of eighteen years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and fined $40,000.00. Aggrieved with the lower court's holding, appellant has perfected his appeal to this Court contending it was error to overrule his motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of his safety deposit box at the National Bank of Commerce in Columbus, Mississippi. On November 23, 1982 Officer Dowdle, Commander of the Columbus-Lowndes Narcotic Unit, received information through a reliable informant that a male person on November 16 was observed in the National Bank of Commerce acting very suspiciously. After renting a large safety deposit box this man secured a large black suitcase from his automobile, an Oldsmobile with Florida tags, returned to the Bank and presumably, while behind closed doors, emptied the contents of the suitcase into the deposit box. Dowdle contacted the bank president and learned that a box had been rented on November 16 by Raymond E. Eaves who listed his address as Post Office Box 1533 in Columbus, Mississippi. Officer Dowdle then went to the bank, and along with Bank officials approached the safety deposit box where he noticed a distinct acrid chemical type odor. It was later learned this address belonged to one Joseph Cook, owner of O.C. Electric Company. Mrs. Cook, who works for her husband's company, testified she did not know Raymond Eaves. From an investigation of various local motels, the register at the Best Western Motel in Columbus, Mississippi showed R.G. Evans was registered November 17 and the tag number on the registration came off of a Pontiac registered in Florida. Through police communications, it was discovered that Evans was an alias for Robert Glenn Hobson who was known to have dealt in drugs and explosives and at one time had been a patient in a mental hospital. With this information and concerned that the safety deposit box might possibly contain explosives, Dowdle obtained a search warrant on November 29 from Charles Younger, Justice Court Judge in District No. 5. Before the warrant was granted Dowdle was placed under oath and presented his affidavit of underlying facts and circumstances (see Appendix "A") as well as telling Younger orally of the reliability of his informant. A locksmith was called in to aid the officer in opening the safety deposit box. Inside the box the men found over 12,000 quaaludes. The appellant was arrested January 17, 1983 at the National Bank of Commerce carrying a large empty suitcase. On his person he had keys to a brown Oldsmobile and also a set of keys to a lock box located at another local bank. Appellant contends the attached affidavit did not establish probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant for his safety deposit box. We do not agree. Probable cause exists when the facts and circumstances within an officer's knowledge, or of which he has reasonable trustworthy information, are sufficient in themselves to justify a man of average caution in belief that a crime has been committed and that a particular individual has committed it. Holland v. State, 263 So. 2d 566 (Miss. 1972). It was not until Dowdle feared the safety deposit box contained explosives that he sought a search warrant. This suspicion was based on the information which was received from Florida concerning a man named Evans in conjunction with the odor of an acrid type chemical which Dowdle smelled near appellant's safety deposit box. *1305 The United States Supreme Court in Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S. Ct. 367, 92 L. Ed. 436 (1948) made it clear that probable cause may be established through the sense of smell stating: 92 L. Ed. 440. The learned Circuit Judge, Harvey Buck, found that under the totality of the circumstances the Justice Court Judge did have probable cause for issuance of the search warrant and rendered the following scholarly opinion explaining his ruling: In our opinion the trial judge was eminently correct in holding that under the totality of the circumstances that probable cause did exist for the issuance of a search warrant and that the evidence obtained pursuant thereto was admissible. The appellant also asserts that the warrant and affidavit failed to describe the items to be seized with the required particularity. We find no merit to appellant's contention as the term "explosives" is definite in and of itself. Once in the lockbox, the officers could seize any contraband within plain view. See Prueitt v. State, 261 So. 2d 119 (Miss. 1972). Finally, the appellant asserts that the action of the bank president by voluntarily relinquishing confidential information from the bank records at the request of the police constituted an illegal search and seizure. This assignment was not preserved in the trial court and is now procedurally barred from being raised the first time on appeal. See Isonhood v. State, 274 So. 2d 685 (Miss. 1973). For the above stated reasons, the conviction and sentence are affirmed. AFFIRMED. ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and BOWLING, HAWKINS, DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ., concur. PATTERSON, C.J., not participating. C.I. Informant on November 23, 1982 stated that he was in the vault of the National Bank of Commerce, Main Bank in Columbus, Mississippi on Main Street where he saw a suspicious acting individual asking the attendant for a large lockbox. Suspect stated he wanted the largest box they had. Informant said the attendant waited on him and was in the process of showing him this lockbox when the suspect disappeared. Informant followed the suspect and observed him go into a brown Cutlass Oldsmobile with a Dade County, Florida tag. He further observed him retrieve a large suitcase from this automobile and take the bag inside, upstairs in the bank. Informant said the suspect took from three to five minutes behind closed doors taking it out of the suitcase and putting it in the box. Informant said that the suspect put the suitcase back into the same automobile and left in a hurry. Suspect seemed very nervous, appeared in a hurry, coming and going; spoke abruptly to the attendant. Informant observed this on the 16th of November, 1982. Upon receiving this information from my informant, I contacted the Bank President to verify this information. The information related to me by the Bank President verified the informant's statement. I further obtained the name and address of the person driving the car and renting the box to be on Raymond E. Eaves, whose address was given as P.O. Box 1533, Columbus, MS. I checked with the United States Post Office and P.O. Box 1533 is rented to O.C. Electric Company in the name of Joseph S. Cook, P.O. Box 1533, Columbus, Mississippi. I contacted Joseph S. Cook and asked him did he know any Raymond Eaves or Carrie Eaves; he said he did not know either individual and I asked him what his P.O. Box # was and he said P.O. Box 1533 and I further asked had he authorized anyone else to use his box number and he said he did not. He later learned that M.C. Edwards was present in the National Bank of Commerce Bank on November 16, 1982 and was alerted by my C.I. to observe this same suspect and I have interviewed Mr. Edwards who stated and verified that this individual did get in a Dade County car. Mr. Edwards further stated that he spoke to this individual when he entered the bank and I asked him did he speak back and he said "yes". He said he could identify him if he saw him again. This investigator *1309 personally checked the hotel and motel reservations in the Columbus, Mississippi area and discovered, at random, that on November 17, 1982 at the Best Western Motel in Columbus, Mississippi that an R.G. Evans, given his address as 2083 Linton, Delray, Florida, listing the make of his automobile as a Firebird, liscense #NMM878 he stayed one night in Room 201 in the Best Western Motel, Columbus, MS. This investigator contacted Dade County Sheriff's Office Division Officer Jack Curtain. I talked to him on November 24, 1982. Deputy Curtain said he did checked land records, automobile registration and nothing came up in the name of Raymond E. Eaves or Carrie Eaves. I talked to him again on November 29, 1982 and he told me that R.J. Eaves[1] is an alias. His real name is Robert Glen Hobson. Curtain stated that Hobson is a white male, D.O.B. is January 16, 1936 from Durham, North Carolina tatoos on both arms. Curtain stated that this subject's F.B.I.'s # is 759-048A. Hobson has been arrested numerous times in several states on various charges: such as multiple counts of Auto Theft, Grand Larceny, Forgery, Breaking and Entering, Possession of Explosives, and was a patient in Norfolk, Virginia in the General Hospital. A check determined that he was hospitalized as a mental patient. This investigator went to the National Bank of Commerce Safety Deposit Vault and physically observed this Box 1254 and noticed a distinct acrid, chemical type smell eminating from this box and not from surrounding boxes. The Bank Officer indicated that this smell was not a normal smell. [1] Supreme Court Footnote: The "Eaves" appearing on the fourteenth line from the bottom was a typographical error and should read "Evans."