Opinion ID: 1606283
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress the search warrant and its fruits.

Text: ¶ 11. In Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), the United States Supreme Court established a totality-of-the-circumstances test for determining whether probable cause exists for the issuance of a search warrant. This Court adopted the Gates totality-of-the-circumstances test in Lee v. State, 435 So.2d 674, 676 (Miss.1983). In Gates, the Supreme Court stated: The task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, commonsense 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. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a substantial basis for ... [concluding] that probable cause existed. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238-39, 103 S.Ct. 2317. As aptly stated by the Court of Appeals, probable cause exists when the facts and circumstances within an officer's knowledge are sufficient to justify a man of average caution in the belief that a crime has been committed and that a particular individual committed it. State v. Woods, 866 So.2d 422, 426 (Miss.2003) (quoting Strode v. State, 231 So.2d 779, 782 (Miss. 1970)). In Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), the United States Supreme Court reviewed the question of whether a criminal defendant has the right, under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, to challenge the truthfulness of factual statements made in an affidavit for a search warrant. In finding that the Constitution affords a defendant the right to such a challenge, the Supreme Court stated: [W]e hold that, where the defendant makes a substantial preliminary showing that a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, was included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit, and if the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable cause, the Fourth Amendment requires that a hearing be held at the defendant's request. In the event that at the hearing the allegation of perjury or reckless disregard is established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, and, with the affidavit's false material set to one side, the affidavit's remaining content is insufficient to establish probable cause, the search warrant must be voided and the fruits of the search excluded to the same extent as if the probable cause was lacking on the face of the affidavit. Franks, 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674. ¶ 12. As to the proper standard of review, this Court has stated: In reviewing a magistrate's finding of probable cause, this Court does not make a de novo determination of probable cause, but only determines if there was a substantial basis for the magistrate's determination of probable cause. Smith v. State, 504 So.2d 1194, 1196 (Miss.1987). Petti v. State, 666 So.2d 754, 757-58 (Miss. 1995). ¶ 13. The Court of Appeals found that in the past was the false information contained in the affidavit before the magistrate. Furthermore, when given two possible interpretations of in the past, the first being that Investigator Spooner intended the judge to believe that he had received credible information from this CI in the course of past cases, the second being that Investigator Spooner was referring to the controlled buy which occurred prior to giving the affidavit, the Court of Appeals found the first interpretation to be more reasonable. Roach, 7 So.3d at 939-40, 2007 Miss.App. LEXIS 538, at -18, ¶¶ 15-16. ¶ 14. The State, in support of its counter-argument that a substantial basis existed for a determination of probable cause, submits that the controlled buy on the previous day served as corroboration of Investigator Spooner's statements made in his affidavit despite not having been in the statement of facts before the magistrate. Essentially, the State argues that the omission of information relating to the controlled buy on the previous day from the affidavit did not make Investigator Spooner's characterization of the CI's prior reliability any less truthful. According to the State, Investigator Spooner just as easily could have been referring to the January 22 controlled buy when he stated that the CI had given him reliable information in the past. Such was the contention of Judge Myers in his dissent. Investigator Bullock received information (from a CI previously known to Investigator Bullock) that the CI had witnessed the possession and distribution of drugs at Roach's residence. Investigator Bullock relayed the information to Investigator Spooner. Working in conjunction, the two officers arranged a controlled buy with this particular CI that resulted in the CI purchasing what was conclusively determined to be cocaine. This controlled buy served to corroborate the CI's previous statement. This corroboration occurred prior to Investigator Spooner presenting his affidavit to Judge Parker for the issuance of the warrant. We thus respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeals when it states that in the past could not have referenced an event occurring only one day prior to the issuance of the warrant. ¶ 15. Further, the Court of Appeals majority stated that, had Investigator Spooner disclosed the controlled buy in his affidavit, there would have been a substantial basis for probable cause. The Court of Appeals majority flatly rejected Investigator Spooner's testimony that he was protecting the identity of the CI when he elected not to include that information in the facts attached to the affidavit. Moreover, the majority clearly favored Investigator Bullock's testimony that Investigator Spooner had his first contact with this CI on January 22, over that of Investigator Spooner that he had had contact with this CI on several occasions. ¶ 16. The Court of Appeals relied heavily on Pipkins v. State, 592 So.2d 947 (Miss. 1991) in reaching this conclusion. The analogous facts in Pipkins and today's case relied upon by the Court of Appeals are that the CIs in both cases were described by the officers as having provided reliable information to them in the past, when both officers had worked with the informants personally only on one occasion. However, Pipkins is easily distinguished from today's case. In Pipkins, no information was provided to the law enforcement agent that led to the confiscation of narcotics prior to the agent giving a sworn statement that he previously had received credible information from this particular CI. Id. at 951-952. In Pipkins, there was no controlled buy or any other independent, investigatory corroboration of the CI's statements, as there was in this case. Id. at 952. Therefore, the agent in Pipkins could not possibly have been referring to any prior corroboration of the CI for the purpose of establishing reliability. However, in today's case, Investigator Spooner received information that Roach was in possession of cocaine, which was corroborated with a controlled buy. This all occurred prior to Investigator Spooner providing his underlying facts and circumstances attesting to the reliability of the CI. ¶ 17. Prior to Pipkins, this Court, in Bevill v. State, 556 So.2d 699 (Miss.1990) ( reversed on other grounds ), upheld the validity of a search warrant even where there were errors in the underlying facts. In Bevill this Court stated: It is true that subsequent events proved [the officer] erred in some of the statements set forth in the underlying facts, e.g. that the hair in the victim's hands was the same color as Bevill's, the similarity of Bevill's tennis shoes' footprints and the footprint at the scene, and bloodstain on the tennis shoes. Even so, at the suppression hearing [the officer] was cross-examined at great length by Bevill's attorney, and there was no showing that [the officer] intentionally misrepresented those facts, or made them in reckless disregard for the truth. Moreover, the remaining underlying facts clearly constituted probable cause for the issuance of the search warrants. Id. at 713. We find similarities with Bevill in the present case in that there is no showing that Investigator Spooner intentionally misrepresented facts or made them in reckless disregard for the truth. Investigator Spooner described the CI as reliable in the past because he knew him to be a reliable CI used by the department on occasion. Furthermore, he was able independently to corroborate the CI's reliability when the controlled buy resulted in Roach selling cocaine to the CI. We do not equate Investigator Spooner's omission of the fact that there was a controlled buy the day before as a reckless disregard for the truth, given that Investigator Spooner testified he was protecting the identity of the CI. ¶ 18. In sum, we find the Court of Appeals erred in reversing the trial court's judgment of conviction and sentence on this issue. Because the Court of Appeals understandably did not address certain assignments of error on appeal inasmuch as it reversed and remanded on this issue, we now proceed to discuss the remaining issues not previously discussed on appeal. [7]