Opinion ID: 78335
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Veracity of the Informant

Text: Parker maintains that his attorneys should have established that much of the information provided by the female confidential informant was available to anyone acquainted with him. He claims that his attorneys should have addressed the inconsistencies between May's affidavit and his testimony regarding the basis for the informant's information. In March 1988, May executed an affidavit in support of a warrant to search a residence where he believed he would to find the VCR stolen from the Sennetts' residence. In the affidavit, May related that an unidentified person (the Source) provided information that was not publicly available regarding Dorlene's murder, named the persons involved, and described a VCR stolen from the Sennetts' residence. May said that the Source claimed that `the preacher' had paid Fifteen Thousand Dollars ($15,000) to have his wife killed. Exh. Vol. 13 at 2423. May explained that some of the information was corroborated by another unidentified person and by investigators who confirmed the location and description of the identified residences of the named individuals. May recounted that the Source said that the provided information was based on personal observation and overhear[d] conversations involving one or more of the individuals named. Id. at 2428. Parker's attorney moved to suppress Parker's statement, and argued that the police lacked probable cause for the arrest. At the suppression hearing, May testified that he obtained information regarding the crime from an anonymous informant on 28 March 1988. The informant provided: (1) the names of three individuals; (2) their roles in the murder; (3) their addresses and descriptions of their residences; (4) a description of their vehicles; and (5) the location as of 18 or 19 March 1988, and identifying information regarding the VCR stolen from the Sennett home. May testified that the informant had advised that she had personally seen the VCR at Smith's residence. May explained that the information was verified by other investigators who confirmed the locations and descriptions of the named individuals' residences, the connection between the three named individuals, and the information regarding their vehicles. The investigators verified that John Forrest Parker existed, that he had a criminal record, and that he lived at 2613 Huntsville Road, Apartment B, Florence, Alabama. They also verified the information regarding his car, his physical description, his girlfriend, and his relationship with the other named individuals. Although a search warrant was issued regarding the VCR, no arrest warrants were to be issued until it was executed. Law enforcement teams were dispatched to each suspect's residence and instructed to do nothing else until further notice. The information regarding the VCR was then verified. During the post-conviction hearing, May explained the inconsistencies in his affidavit and testimony. May explained that the informant obtained her information by being a friend of [Smith's] family and confirmed that, in the search warrant affidavit, he had indicated that her information was based on her personal observations or the conversations involving the named individuals that she had overheard. Exh. PC Vol. 15 at 1031-34. Although he agreed that reliability is ... important, when asked why the basis of the informant's information was not shown anywhere in his notes, May responded that, [a]t that ... time[,] what she was telling me about who was involved in the murder was more important to me than how she was getting the information. Id. at 1033-35. May was questioned as to whether his affidavit was correct as to the amount of money paid for the murder, and responded that the information regarding the $15,000 was never corroborated or revealed by the investigation. May was also asked about his contact with a second anonymous informant. The second informant identified himself as calling for a girl who knew all this but did not want to get involved and corroborated some of the information provided by the Source. Id. at 1038. The second informant also identified Smith as a black male and said that he knew that the note found in Charles Sennett's pocket after his death read I didn't kill my wife. I hired someone to. Id. at 1038-39. May responded that the Smith involved in the case was white and that Sennett's note did not say that he had not killed his wife or hired someone else to kill her. The information provided by the informant established her basis of knowledge, reliability, and veracity. She provided numerous details about the crime, the defendants' actions after the crime, and the property taken during the crime. Her information was corroborated by independent law enforcement investigations and her basis of knowledge was enhanced when the VCR was located where she indicated. Even though some of the information was publicly available, the informant's disclosure of it and law enforcement's confirmation of it supported the informant's credibility. Her credibility, however, was firmly established by her knowledge of the stolen VCR and the non-publicly disclosed details that connect Parker and his co-defendants to the crime. See Parker I, 587 So.2d at 1088; Williams v. State, 565 So.2d 1233, 1234-36 (Ala.Crim.App.1990). Under a totality of the circumstances review, the informant was a credible source for information regarding the crime and provided the police with information that Parker was involved in the murder-for-hire scheme that led to Dorlene's death. They knew that the VCR stolen from the Sennetts' home was located in one of the named suspects' homes. Thus, they had sufficient probable cause to believe that one of the named suspects had committed the murder. In Williams, the court found that the details of the informant's tip as corroborated [were] sufficient both in number and specificity to establish [her] credibility. 565 So.2d at 1236. It also found that the details indicating that she had either personally observed the facts or learned them from a crime participant supported an inference that she had an adequate basis of knowledge. Id. It noted that, although the publicly-available information was entitled to little weight, the VCR information was significant and the cumulative effect of all information gathered met the standard of probable cause. Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). On the issue of ineffective assistance, the state appellate court held that in light of the fact that the informant described in ... detail the VCR stolen during the murder and accurately stated where it could be found, the additional information [that Parker argued his attorneys should have introduced] was not likely to affect the trial court's finding and that, therefore, Parker failed to demonstrate prejudice. Exh. Vol. Tab 61 at 2. Parker's arguments fail. The accuracy as to the amount of money paid for the murder did not enter into the probable cause determination which was based on the totality of the confidential informant's verified information. The fact of her personal observation of the information was proven when the VCR was found where the informant said that she had seen it. The district court correctly found that the state court's determination was a reasonable application of Strickland.