Opinion ID: 2183683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Search Warrant Valid Evidence Properly Admitted

Text: Desmond's first argument is that the Superior Court erred in failing to suppress evidence the police seized with an allegedly invalid search warrant. Desmond offers two contentions to support this argument. First, he argues the Superior Court should have concluded the search warrant was invalid because Gloria Desmond, his wife, testified that the police left an unsigned, and therefore invalid, copy of the search warrant on the kitchen table after conducting their search. Second, he argues that no evidence was presented to establish the validity of the search warrant because the State did not introduce an Affidavit of Probable Cause at trial. We find both contentions without merit. First, the Delaware statutes governing searches and seizures require that a return on the original search warrant be made to a judicial officer after it has been executed. 11 Del.C. § 2307. The police had no duty, however, to leave a copy of the properly signed search warrant at Desmond's residence. See 11 Del.C. § 2301 et seq. The fact that the police left an unsigned copy of the search warrant at Desmond's home does not invalidate the search, nor does it establish that the search warrant, as originally issued, was unsigned. Second, the State was not required to introduce the Affidavit of Probable Cause for the search warrant during the trial proceedings in the Superior Court. The State had earlier introduced the original warrant, properly executed by a Justice of the Peace, along with the signed Affidavit of Probable Cause, at a pre-trial suppression hearing. Following the pre-trial hearing, the Superior Court determined the search warrant was valid. That ruling became the law of the case. There is no requirement that the State reintroduce the affidavit at trial. The Superior Court's decisions  that the warrant was valid and that evidence seized pursuant to the warrant was admissible  are affirmed.