Court Opinion

ID: 9845900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:30:44.311102+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:25.443439
License: Public Domain

Deen, Chief Judge.
Robert Thomas Brown brings this appeal following his conviction for violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act alleging that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. Held:
The evidence in this case shows that appellant was found in possession of 1,650 pounds of marijuana in an airplane which he had flown into the Waycross-Ware County Airport. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, a deputy sheriff of Ware County testified that he was at the airport cleaning his own airplane when appellant landed a twin engine aircraft which seemed to fit the description of one that was the subject of a lookout by the U. S. Customs because it was suspected of carrying marijuana. The deputy testified that he observed the pilot’s suspicious behavior, prevented him from taking off, called the sheriffs department, went before a magistrate, executed an affidavit and obtained a search warrant for the aircraft. The contraband was discovered during the execution of the search warrant.
*831Under Code Ann. § 27-303 a warrant will issue upon a showing of facts "sufficient to show probable cause that a crime is being committed, or has been committed...” "The test of probable cause is whether it would justify a man of reasonable caution in believing that an offense has been or is being committed, and this requires merely a probability — less than a certainty but more than a mere suspicion or possibility. 68 AmJur2d 721, Searches and Seizures, § 68; see Strauss v. Stynchcombe, 224 Ga. 859, 865 (165 SE2d 302); McMahan v. State, 125 Ga. App. 491, 492 (188 SE2d 183). Not only what is stated in the affidavit for the warrant but also the totality of the sworn circumstances before the magistrate may be considered in establishing probable cause. Johnston v. State, 227 Ga. 387 (181 SE2d 42); Campbell v. State, 226 Ga. 883 (178 SE2d 257); Marshall v. State, 113 Ga. App. 143 (147 SE2d 666).” Butler v. State, 130 Ga. App. 469 (203 SE2d 558) (1973).
The affidavit stated: "Affiant has received information within the last 10 days from other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for a twin-engine, blue and white, aircraft hauling marijuana. Affiant personally observed the above described aircraft circling Way cross-Ware County Airport, refused to answer radio, landed, gave no name in purchasing gas in the amount of 320 gallons, paid cash, and when he observed affiant he acted very suspicious, jumped in aircraft, locked door, and also refused to talk with officer, and tried to taxi aircraft in violation of officer’s demands to stop, and did so only when officer started to shoot out the tire, and officer, the affiant herein observed that all windows were blacked out, and therefore affiant believes he has probable cause for a search warrant.”
As we must take the facts contained in the affidavit as true, Campbell v. State, supra, there was clearly probable cause based on the affidavit and the deputy’s testimony before the magistrate to believe that a crime had been committed. Therefore, we find that the magistrate did not abuse his discretion in issuing the warrant.

Judgment affirmed.

McMurray, P. J., Banke, Birdsong and Underwood, JJ., concur. Quillian, P. J., 
*832
Smith, Shulman and Carley, JJ., dissent.

Submitted July 3,1979
Decided September 19, 1979
Rehearing denied October 19, 1979.
Leon A. Wilson, II, for appellant.
Dewey Hayes, District Attorney, M. C. Pritchard, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.