Opinion ID: 1998034
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Probable cause underlying the search warrant

Text: First, Williams attacks the magistrate's determination that probable cause existed to issue the warrant. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 26 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights require that no search warrant shall issue without probable cause. State v. Lee, 330 Md. 320, 326, 624 A.2d 492, 494-95 (1993). Probable cause means a `fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.' Lee, 330 Md. at 326, 624 A.2d at 495 (citation omitted). Appellate review of a magistrate's probable cause determination is limited to whether the magistrate had `a substantial basis for ... conclud[ing] that a search would uncover evidence of wrongdoing....' Potts v. State, 300 Md. 567, 571, 479 A.2d 1335, 1337 (1984) (citation omitted). Williams argues that the probable cause determination for the search warrants was invalid because the warrants authorized the police to seize clothing, including boots and or shoes and hooded jackets, sweat shirts and coats, even though the clothing worn by the perpetrator of the crime was unknown at the time. We find no merit in this contention. The full description of the items to be seized under the warrants authorized the police to seize [a]ny and all boots and or shoes, eyeglasses, bandannas, hooded jackets, sweat shirts and coats. There was a more than adequate basis in the affidavit for the magistrate to include these items in the warrant. The affidavit described photographs taken by bank security cameras at the time cash was withdrawn from ATM machines using the bank cards belonging to Gilbert and Trias. One photograph, which was attached to the affidavit as an exhibit, showed a man wearing a bandanna, glasses and some type of jacket or coat making the ATM withdrawal. We conclude that the magistrate had a substantial basis from which to find that the items of clothing listed could have linked Williams to the crimes.