Opinion ID: 433834
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Search of Camaro.

Text: 19
20 The government urges that Rose lacks standing to assert his Fourth Amendment claim regarding the search of the trunk of the Camaro because he had no legitimate expectation of privacy in it. Rose did not own the Camaro nor was he driving it at the time it was stopped. He has not asserted any ownership in the items seized from the trunk of the car. The district court, however, rejected the government's argument. The magistrate found that Rose's sister had given him permission to use the Camaro. Rose, who had keys to both the ignition and the trunk, drove the car as much as two or three times a week. Rose's use of the car on May 12, 1982 was permissive. Although he was seated as a passenger on that day, he had control over the car and had given Kathy Davis permission to drive. The district court's findings are not clearly erroneous and, on the basis of these findings, we affirm the district court in holding that Rose has standing to raise this claim. Compare United States v. Williams, 714 F.2d 777, 779 n. 1 (8th Cir.1983) (driver's permissive use of auto provided sufficient expectation of privacy in vehicle); United States v. Portillo, 633 F.2d 1313, 1317 (9th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 1043, 101 S.Ct. 1763, 68 L.Ed.2d 241 (1981) (driver who had both permission to use friend's automobile and keys to operate it had standing to contest search of trunk) with Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978) (mere automobile passengers who neither owned nor had permission to use automobile had no standing). 21
22 Rose challenges the sufficiency of the affidavit of Detective Darwin Dupree in support of the warrant to search the Camaro. According to Rose, the affidavit did not satisfy the requirements of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), because it did not set forth any basis for the magistrate to evaluate the informant's statement even though the probable cause determination depended on information provided to police by the informant. 23 The duty of this court under the standard reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Illinois v. Gates, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), is to ensure that the magistrate had a 'substantial basis for ... conclud[ing]' that probable cause existed. Id., --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 2332 at 548 (quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 271, 80 S.Ct. 725, 736, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960)). The task of the magistrate issuing the warrant was: 24 to make a practical, common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the 'veracity' and 'basis of knowledge' of persons supplying hearsay information, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. 25 Id. Gates does away with the excessively technical dissection of informants' tips under the two-pronged test derived from Aguilar and Spinelli. Id. --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 2329, at 545. See also In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 716 F.2d 493, 501 (8th Cir.1983); United States v. Ross, 713 F.2d 389, 393 (8th Cir.1983). 26 We are convinced that the state associate circuit judge had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed for the issuance of the search warrant. Applying the totality of circumstances analysis to this case, we believe that what the affidavit set forth concerning independent investigation by the police and the subsequent corroboration of the informant's predictions suffices for the practical, common-sense decision required by Gates. 27 According to the affidavit, Sergeant Kopp had relayed the information given by the informant. The informant stated that the Post Office Employees Credit Union would be robbed within a few days of May 7, 1982, that the robbery would be committed by Jack Rose and two other black males, that the robbers would use a stolen car in the commission of the robbery, and that the robbers would switch to a yellow Camaro driven by a black female. The affidavit revealed that police, acting on the tip, discovered that Jack Rose was known to operate a 1971 yellow Camaro bearing Missouri license plate number YPG-649. 28 The affidavit also stated that the credit union had been robbed on May 12, 1982 by three black males. They were seen leaving the area in a white Ford which subsequently was discovered abandoned near the credit union with the engine running. Radio broadcasts announced the robbery and the discovery of the abandoned Ford and requested that a yellow Camaro known to be operated by Jack Rose be stopped. Approximately a mile and a half from the credit union police stopped a yellow Camaro with Missouri license plate number YPG-649 driven by a black female with two black male passengers including Jack Rose. 29 Rose argues that the corroboration by actual events of the information provided by the informant could have resulted from the intelligent guesswork of an informant who knew Rose drove a yellow Camaro, who knew he lived with Kathy Davis, and who had heard underworld rumors about the robbery. Probable cause, however, does not require certainty of criminal activity, but only probability. The informant's statements were corroborated by police investigative work and by the details of the robbery. See Gates, supra; Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960); Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959) (arrest without warrant upheld on informant's statement that Draper was peddling narcotics, where police corroborated informant's description of Draper's appearance and where he would be on a given morning). 30