Opinion ID: 2054614
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Validity of the Warrant Absent Reference to the Safe

Text: The affidavit attached to the application for the search warrant, for both 4548 and 4626 Marble Hall Road, was made by Officer Harlee who, in the introductory paragraphs, attested to his extensive experience and expertise in the detection and investigation of controlled dangerous substance offenses. As petitioner conceded Officer Harlee's expertise below, we need not recount those assertions. Harlee stated that, while surveilling 4548, which he knew to be Covell's mother's home, he observed Covell enter the home and then saw five men go to that location, stay for short periods of time, and then leave. Covell then left in his car but returned moments later. Harlee then saw two other men go to 4548, stay a few minutes, and leave. After a short period of time, Covell met with petitioner, whom Harlee had seen on two previous occasions park his car a block away and walk to and enter 4626. Petitioner, he said, had acted suspiciously on both occasions by looking around to see if anyone was following him. Covell and petitioner then met either two or three other men at the corner, where Harlee observed a hand-to-hand exchange between petitioner and one of the men. Based on his experience, Harlee expressed the belief that those activities indicated narcotics transactions at both 4548 and 4626 Marble Hall Road. Harlee continued that Covell and petitioner then got into a 1987 Chevrolet and attempted to leave the area but were stopped. He recounted that recovered from Covell was a large sum of money; recovered from petitioner was a large sum of money and a large quantity of marijuana. The affidavit then notes the securing of petitioner's home, While securing 4626 Marble Hall Road a safe was observed in the upstairs bedroom in plain view. Your affiant believes based on his expertise and training that a large amount of money and drugs are being kept in the safe. Also from his experience, Harlee stated that he knew drug traffickers often maintain large amounts of money at their residence in order to finance their operations, as well as drugs, paraphernalia, weapons, and various books, records, and other documents relating to the ordering, transportation, and distribution of controlled dangerous substances. Harlee stated that a check of Baltimore City Police Department records revealed some involvement by petitioner, during 1992 and 1993, in four controlled dangerous substance violations, in addition to charges for murder, reckless endangerment, arson, and two handgun violations. It was on this information, for our purposes, that the warrant rested. [3] With the possible exception of due process, there is probably no two word term in American law that has produced as much confusing commentary as probable cause, largely because it has such a roving context. As a predicate for the issuance of a search warrant, it simply means a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 548 (1983); McDonald v. State, 347 Md. 452, 467, 701 A.2d 675, 682 (1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1151, 118 S.Ct. 1173, 140 L.Ed.2d 182 (1998). In making that judgment, the issuing court and any reviewing court looks at all of the relevant information lawfully included in the application and its attachments. Here, petitioner views the evidence bearing on probable cause as simply his going in and out of his house, looking around, talking to some neighbors on the corner, and eventually having been found in possession of some marijuana. That is far too sterile an assessment of the evidence, however. Going in and out of one's own house and looking around, even in a suspicious manner, does not, of itself, give rise to probable cause, and no one in this case has ever claimed otherwise. Petitioner overlooks entirely the incriminating venture observed by Officer Harlee at the end of the block, where both he and Covell were observed in hand-to-hand transactions that Harlee reasonably concluded, under the circumstances, were drug sales, and the cumulative import of that transaction, petitioner's possession of a quantity of marijuana and money immediately afterward, and the fact that he was in and out of his house immediately prior to engaging in the drug sale. The ultimate issue in this regard is one of nexus: could a neutral magistratethe issuing judgereasonably infer from these observations that drugs and other evidence of controlled dangerous substance violations was likely to be found in petitioner's home? We dealt with aspects of this issue in Mills v. State, 278 Md. 262, 363 A.2d 491(1976) and State v. Ward, 350 Md. 372, 712 A.2d 534 (1998), both involving the search of a house for weapons, rather than for drugs. Mills was accused of kidnapping two women and raping and robbing one of them, offenses that he carried out by threatening the victims with a large hunting knife that the victims were able to describe in some detail. When he was arrested on a public street the day after the offenses were committed, Mills did not have the knife in his possession, and the police, believing that the knife would likely be in his home, obtained a warrant to search his house for the weapon. The weapon was found, Mills was convicted, and, on appeal, he contested the validity of the warrant, claiming that the affidavit, based almost entirely on the fact that the weapon described by the victims was not in his possession when he was arrested, failed to establish probable cause to believe that the weapon would be found in his home. Citing a number of Federal and State decisions, we concluded that a reasonable inference could be drawn from the facts that a specifically described weapon was used and that Mills was not in possession of it when captured the next day, that it likely might be found in his house, and we therefore sustained the warrant. Citing Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 270-71, 80 S.Ct. 725, 736, 4 L.Ed.2d 697, 708 (1960), we confirmed that, [a]lthough in a particular case it may not be easy to determine when an affidavit demonstrates... probable cause, the resolution of doubtful or marginal cases in this area should be largely determined by the preference to be accorded to warrants. Mills, supra, 278 Md. at 280, 363 A.2d at 501. Ward, supra, was to the same effect. Two days after Alfred Stewart was shot and killed on a public street, Ward, identified as the killer by some anonymous callers, was arrested, and, along with his car, was taken to the police station for questioning. He was unarmed at the time. After questioning, he was released, but his car was impounded because of expired license tags. Following a further positive identification, the police obtained warrants to search Ward's car and home, and from the car, incriminating evidence was recovered. The attack on the warrant for the residence centered on the reasonableness of the police expectation that the murder weapon would likely be found there. [4] From the facts that Ward had several past handgun violations and that the witnesses who first called had, out of fear, refused to identify themselves, we held that a neutral magistrate could reasonably conclude that Ward was a person likely to possess a handgun and would not likely dispose of it. From the further facts that Ward did not have such a weapon on him when he was first arrested within 48 hours after the murder and that one was not seen in his car, we held that a neutral magistrate could also reasonably infer that the weapon could be found either in his home or secreted in his car. Relying on Mills and a number of out-of-State cases, we determined that the case was one of those doubtful or marginal cases spoken of in Jones and United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), that`should be largely determined by the preference to be accorded to warrants.'  Ward, supra, 350 Md. at 389, 712 A.2d at 542 (quoting Ventresca, supra, 380 U.S. at 109, 85 S.Ct. at 746, 13 L.Ed.2d at 689). Mills and Ward approached the nexus issue in terms of pure deductive reasoning: a particular kind of weapon was used in the crime; there was evidence linking the defendant to the crime; the weapon was of a kind likely to be kept, and not disposed of, by the defendant; when arrested shortly after the crime, the defendant was not in direct possession of the weapon; ergo, it was likely to be found in a place accessible to himhis home or car. That same kind of deductive approach, based on reasonable factual assumptions, has been used by a number of courts in finding a nexus between observed or documented drug transactions and the likelihood that drugs or other evidence of drug law violations may be found in the defendant's car or home. The reasoning, supported by both experience and logic, is that, if a person is dealing in drugs, he or she is likely to have a stash of the product, along with records and other evidence incidental to the business, that those items have to be kept somewhere, that if not found on the person of the defendant, they are likely to be found in a place that is readily accessible to the defendant but not accessible to others, and that the defendant's home is such a place. Direct evidence that contraband exists in the home is not required for a search warrant; rather, probable cause may be inferred from the type of crime, the nature of the items sought, the opportunity for concealment, and reasonable inferences about where the defendant may hide the incriminating items. See, for example, United States v. Feliz, 182 F.3d 82 (1st Cir.1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1119, 120 S.Ct. 942, 145 L.Ed.2d 819 (2000); United States v. Cruz, 785 F.2d 399 (2d Cir.1986); United States v. Hodge, 246 F.3d 301 (3d Cir.2001); United States v. Williams, 974 F.2d 480 (4th Cir.1992); United States v. McClellan, 165 F.3d 535 (7th Cir.1999); United States v. Riedesel, 987 F.2d 1383 (8th Cir.1993); United States v. Terry, 911 F.2d 272 (9th Cir. 1990); United States v. Reyes, 798 F.2d 380 (10th Cir.1986) (but see United States v. Nolan, 199 F.3d 1180, 1184-85 (10th Cir.1999), sustaining warrant under United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984) rather than resolving probable cause issue); United States v. Thomas, 989 F.2d 1252 (D.C.Cir. 1993); Vallas, supra, 16 Conn.App. 245, 547 A.2d 903; State v. Conway, 711 P.2d 555 (Alaska App.1985). The thrust of those decisions was characterized by the court in Thomas, in a unanimous per curiam opinion by a panel that included now Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that observations of illegal activity occurring away from the suspect's residence, can support a finding of probable cause to issue a search warrant for the residence, if there is a reasonable basis to infer from the nature of the illegal activity observed, that relevant evidence will be found in the residence. Thomas, supra, 989 F.2d at 1255 (emphasis added). We stress the last clause of that pronouncement to make clear that the mere observation, documentation, or suspicion of a defendant's participation in criminal activity will not necessarily suffice, by itself, to establish probable cause that inculpatory evidence will be found in the home. See, for example, Yancey v. State, 345 Ark. 103, 44 S.W.3d 315, 321 (2001) (observation of defendants watering 18 marijuana plants in the woods five to six miles from their homes did not establish probable cause that inculpatory evidence would be found in their homes); United States v. Lalor, 996 F.2d 1578, 1582-83 (4th Cir.1993) (without evidence that drugs might be stored at defendant's residence or geographic distance between residence and drug transaction, probable cause to search residence was lacking); People v. Kazmierski, 25 P.3d 1207, 1212 (Colo.2001) (direct evidence of drug activity at location to be searched required where illegal activity consisted of the manufacture of drugs, a crime requiring a location); State v. Kahn, 555 N.W.2d 15,18 (Minn.Ct. App.1996) (refusing to permit possession of one ounce of cocaine to give rise to probable cause to search residence more than 75 miles away). There must be something more that, directly or by reasonable inference, will allow a neutral magistrate to determine that the contraband may be found in the home. We need not determine whether an isolated drug transaction, especially if it were to occur some considerable distance from the home, will suffice, because here there was additional evidence connecting the transaction to the home. The transaction observed by Officer Harlee occurred less than a block from petitioner's home. Petitioner, who had a history of controlled dangerous substance violations, was in and out of his house immediately prior to meeting his customer, was in confederation with Covell, another known drug violator (for whom the police already had search warrants), and was found with a quantity of marijuana and money on him even after the transaction. At the very least, this would fall within the realm of a marginal case in which, under Jones and Ventresca, deference must be given to the warrant. We hold that, even after excising any reference to the safe, the application sufficed to establish probable cause for the warrant and, because the incriminating evidence was properly discovered and seized pursuant to the warrant, it was not subject to suppression and was properly admitted. JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS VACATED; CASE REMANDED TO THAT COURT WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO AFFIRM THE JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE CITY; COSTS IN THIS COURT AND COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS TO BE PAID BY PETITIONER.