Court Opinion

ID: 9588415
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:34:17.407036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:57.757661
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
concurring specially. The objection to the admission of the affidavit and search warrant at the hearing on the motion to suppress was overruled. The warrant was therefore in evidence, and it was broad enough to cover all vehicles on the premises. The officers had probable cause to believe the defendant, whose arrest warrant was in process of preparation at the time and who was the one who had actually and inadvertently led the police officers to search the premises on which he was found, had come on the premises of his supplier for a purpose connected with the drug raid. He and his vehicle were properly searched. Willis v. State, 122 Ga. App. 455 (177 SE2d 487).
I disagree with the majority opinion insofar as it appears to *102justify any arrest prior to the search, or any search in the absence of the warrant. Three officers testified that Rockholt did nothing that night to justify an arrest prior to the search and the attendant discovery of pills on his person and in the car. The defendant was not attempting to escape; he stopped the car and got out when hailed. He had no pistol. A passenger had a pistol, unconcealed, but whether or not he had a license to carry it was never inquired into. No crime was being committed in the presence of the officers; the defendant was not attempting to escape, and his search without a warrant would have been illegal under Code § 27-301, which deals only with search at the time of arrest.