Opinion ID: 1793795
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: particularity of warrant

Text: Edmonson argues that the February 4, 1998, search warrant did not identify the place to be searched with sufficient particularity because it did not contain the correct street address. However, an error in the street address of the place to be searched is not per se fatal to the validity of the warrant. State v. Groves, 239 Neb. 660, 477 N.W.2d 789 (1991). The test to determine the sufficiency of a search warrant's description is whether the place to be searched is described with sufficient particularity so as to enable the executing officer to find and identify the location with reasonable effort and whether there is any reasonable possibility that another site might mistakenly be searched. Id. In making this determination, an appellate court considers whether (1) the address provided by the warrant, although incorrect, still describes the same piece of property; (2) the property intended to be searched is adjacent to that described in the search warrant and both are under the control of the defendant; (3) the incorrect address describes a place not in existence; (4) the other parts of the description which are correct limit the property to be searched to one place; and (5) the place which was intended to be searched had previously been under surveillance or was being surveilled while the warrant was obtained. Id. In the instant case, the property intended to be searched, 2616 Burdette Street, was adjacent to the property described in the search warrant, 2622 Burdette Street. In addition, 2622 Burdette Street was a vacant lot, eliminating any possibility that 2622 Burdette Street might be mistakenly searched. The warrant described 2622 Burdette Street as a mainlevel unit, in which access is made through the south and north main-level doors, contained within a white and yellow multifamily dwelling with an enclosed white porch and no numbers posted on the residence. This is an accurate description of 2616 Burdette Street, except for the fact that 2616 Burdette Street was actually numbered. However, those numbers were not visible from the street, and thus, the officers did not see them until they executed the warrant. More importantly, no other house on the block matched the description of the house in the warrant. We conclude that Edmonson failed to prove that 2616 Burdette Street could have been confused with 2622 Burdette Street or any other house or lot in the area described by the warrant. This assignment of error is without merit.