Opinion ID: 433834
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of the Affidavit for the Search Warrant.

Text: 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