Opinion ID: 1678274
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Validity of Search Warrant for Seizure of Gold Neck Chain.

Text: The final issue to be determined on this appeal concerns the validity of a search warrant issued on January 23, 1987, for the search of defendant's residence. This warrant involved a search different from the January 13 search which produced defendant's deck shoes. The January 23 warrant related to a later search which produced the gold neck chain found in defendant's brother's personal effects. Defendant asserts the January 23 warrant was issued without probable cause and under invalid procedures. The application for the January 23 warrant was initially presented to a district associate judge solely on the affidavit of police officer James Yopp. For purposes of showing the required nexus between the criminal activity, the place to be searched, and the things to be found, see State v. Seager, 341 N.W.2d 420, 427 (Iowa 1983), the factual assertions of the affidavit related entirely to hearsay statements of a confidential informant. These statements set forth certain admissions which the informant claims were made to him by the defendant during the time the informant and defendant were imprisoned in the Pottawattamie County jail. The subject of the admissions was defendant's statements that he had stabbed the victim and taken the gold chain. Because the district associate judge to whom the warrant application was presented was less than satisfied with these hearsay averments, he asked that the informant be brought before him for questioning under oath. The informant was produced. After questioning the informant under oath, the district associate judge issued the warrant. The judge noted the informant's name on the warrant application along with that of the original affiant as one of the persons upon whose sworn testimony the magistrate has relied to issue a warrant. [1] Defendant claims that the warrant was issued without probable cause because there is nothing in the affidavit to establish the reliability of the informant. Defendant also challenges the warrant based on the magistrate's failure to make a specific finding of informant credibility as required by Iowa Code section 808.3 (1987). Based on these premises, he asserts that evidence obtained by means of the warrant, including the gold chain, should not have been admitted at his trial. In response to these contentions, the State urges that our decision in State v. Weir, 414 N.W.2d 327, 331 (Iowa 1987), obviates the need for a section 808.3 credibility finding because the informant's identity was revealed in the warrant papers. In Weir, the informant's identity was supplied in the State's application for a warrant. In the present case, it was supplied by the magistrate's endorsement of the informant's name as a person supplying information. Because we find the two situations to be indistinguishable for purposes of applying section 808.3, we hold that here, as in Weir, no specific credibility finding was required. The application of the Weir holding does not completely answer defendant's challenge to the warrant, however. As we noted in Weir, the circumstances which obviate the need to comply with the specific credibility findings of section 808.3 do not relieve the State from establishing probable cause in some manner. Merely supplying the name of an informant will seldom have much bearing on this requirement. In the present case, the informant's hearsay statements were initially the only evidence offered to the magistrate for purposes of establishing probable cause. We believe the decision in Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 269, 80 S.Ct. 725, 735, 4 L.Ed.2d 697, 707 (1960), establishes the principle that an affidavit does not establish probable cause which merely states the affiant's belief that there is cause to search, without stating facts [known to the affiant] upon which that belief is based. A fortiori this is true of an affidavit which states only the belief of one not the affiant.... An affidavit is not to be deemed insufficient on that score, so long as a substantial basis for crediting the hearsay is presented. Id. Under the totality of circumstances test now applied in probable cause determinations, see Weir, 414 N.W.2d at 329-30, the reliability of hearsay statements by informants or others may not be essential if there is other nonhearsay evidence presented to the magistrate upon which to base a probable cause determination. If, however, hearsay statements provide the sole basis for the probable cause determination, some factual basis must be established for crediting the hearsay. On the present record, had the informant's information been supplied solely by hearsay affidavit, the only factual corroboration was officer Yopp's personal knowledge, given under oath, concerning the informant's access to defendant at the Pottawattamie County jail. This circumstance gives some support to the informant's claim to have been in a position to hear the admissions which he says were made to him. Whether this minimal corroboration is sufficient to satisfy the fourth amendment need not be determined in the present case, however, for reasons which we will next discuss. Our analysis of the requirement for corroboration of hearsay declarations used in probable cause determinations has been in response to certain of the arguments presented on this appeal. We now depart from that analysis, however, because we conclude that the informant evidence in the present case was not supplied as hearsay. The informant personally appeared before the magistrate and swore to the truth of the factual statements in officer Yopp's affidavit. Within the context of a criminal prosecution, a suspect's admission of guilt is not hearsay. See State v. Williams, 427 N.W.2d 469, 471 n. 1 (Iowa 1988). This is also true, we believe, with respect to pre-indictment warrant hearings conducted with regard to the investigation of a suspect. However, the informant's statements as to defendant's admissions, as originally presented to the magistrate in officer Yopp's affidavit, were hearsay. In that context, officer Yopp was the witness and the informant was the hearsay declarant. Notwithstanding the circumstances prior to that time, once the informant appeared before the magistrate and, under oath, adopted the statements attributed to him in the Yopp affidavit, those statements ceased to be hearsay; they became the sworn testimony of a witness with personal knowledge of the facts. The evidence of defendant's admissions, if found to be credible, was clearly sufficient to establish probable cause for issuance of the warrant. The magistrate was, we believe, entitled to judge the informant-witness's credibility under ordinary standards of witness demeanor. The fact that the warrant was issued indicates, quite conclusively, that the magistrate was satisfied with the witness's credibility. Defendant's challenge to the January 23 warrant must be rejected. The defendant contends that in reviewing the probable cause finding we may not consider any of the circumstances involving the informant's personal appearance before the magistrate. Consideration of such evidence is precluded, he asserts, by our decision in State v. Liesche, 228 N.W.2d 44, 48 (Iowa 1975), requiring that all evidence relied on in issuing a search warrant must be shown on the search warrant application or abstracted by the magistrate. We do not find that Liesche defeats the analysis contained in the preceding paragraph. The Liesche doctrine only precludes the supplying of new facts at a suppression hearing which were not abstracted by the magistrate or contained in the affidavits supporting the warrant application. In the present case, all of the facts relied upon by the magistrate were in the affidavit supplied with the warrant application. The act of listing the informant as an additional witness indicated quite clearly, we believe, that the informant had sworn to the truth of the statements attributed to him in officer Yopp's affidavit. The additional testimony taken from the magistrate at the suppression hearing only served to corroborate that which was already to be inferred from the record. Given these circumstances, we conclude that this procedure did not violate the Liesche restrictions. We have considered all arguments presented and find no basis for reversing the judgment of conviction. The judgment of the district court is affirmed. AFFIRMED.