Court Opinion

ID: 9850080
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:51:55.004581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:31.525549
License: Public Domain

*281THOMPSON, Justice,
dissenting.
In my view, the magistrate did not have a substantial basis to conclude that probable cause existed to search Milteer’s apartment. Simply put, probable cause requires a “fair probability’; it cannot rest upon “might have been” or “could still be.”
The application for the warrant was accompanied by the affidavit of Detective Mark Smith. At the time of the application, the magistrate was given no additional information, whether written or oral.
Detective Smith’s affidavit reads, in pertinent part, as follows:
On October 27, 2004 at 11:00 a.m. Ronnie Izis Davis ... was shot and killed outside his apartment located at 1 Cedar Run. ... Investigation revealed Ronnie Davis ... was being sought by three individuals on the night prior to the killing and the morning of the killing. A roommate of Ronnie Davis, identified as Kivon Carter . . . advised [that] the [men] looking for Ronnie Davis were Michael Hunter . .. who is a cousin of Kivon Carter and goes by the street name “Milz,” a black male who goes by the street name of “Spank Nitty,” [and a third unidentified individual] Kivon Carter stated Michael Hunter was irate and Kivon Carter gave his cell phone to Michael Hunter in order for Ronnie Davis to talk to Michael Hunter. .. . [W]hile Michael Hunter was talking to Ronnie Davis on the cell phone, he, Kivon Carter, went back inside the apartment and left Michael Hunter and the two men with Hunter outside the apartment. Kivon Carter advised several minutes later Carter heard a gunshot and went outside the apartment and found Ronnie Davis lying on the sidewalk in the breezeway.... The three men looking for Ronnie Davis fled the scene on foot. . . . Kivon Carter stated he believed the dispute between Michael Hunter, “Spank Nitty,” and Ronnie Davis was over a girl... identified as Davenda Jones. . . . Kivon Carter also stated Michael Hunter operates an illegal narcotics operation in the Dun-woody Place/Roswell Road area of North Fulton County.
Davenda Jones was interviewed and stated she had dated the victim but had broken up with him. Davenda Jones stated she had gone out with “Spank Nitty’ and that “Spank Nitty’ worked for “Milz” (Michael Hunter). . . .
Investigation has revealed Michael Hunter, a/k/a “Milz,” is the leader of a narcotics distribution ring centered in the Roswell Road and Dunwoody Place area of North Fulton County. The investigation has also revealed the victim, Ronnie Davis, sold marijuana as a street level dealer in the *282same area. It is believed the dispute between Michael Hunter and Ronnie Davis may stem from a turf war concerning who could sell narcotics in the area.
Investigation has revealed Michael Hunter has no recent job history, no vehicles registered to him, no home or apartment leased in his name, no utilities or cell phone listed in his name. Fulton County police are holding an active murder warrant for Michael Hunter.
Investigation has also revealed Chequana Milteer, who currently is listed at 2062-E Pernoshal Court in Dunwoody, DeKalb County, Georgia, has repeatedly had contact with Michael Hunter and Michael Hunter has been seen driving vehicles which are registered to Chequana Milteer. Investigation has also revealed community members in two separate apartments [in] which Milteer resided have identified pictures of Michael Hunter as an individual seen at the residence of Chequana Milteer. Chequana Milteer has also listed Michael Hunter as her employer on her current apartment application and shows previous residence which is the same a [sic] Michael Hunter in Gwinnett County.
It is believed Michael Hunter is utilizing the residence at 2062-E Pernoshal Court in DeKalb County as a safe house and the nucleus of a narcotics operation. It is also believed Chequana Milteer is acting in conjunction with Michael Hunter, enabling the harboring of the fugitive Michael Hunter, as well as the functioning of an illegal narcotics ring.
On 12-29-04 at 0100 hours, Michael Hunter was arrested at the Dunwoody Park Apartments in DeKalb County by the DeKalb County police. Police officers observed Michael Hunter driving a blue 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass ... which is registered to Chequana Milteer. Michael Hunter then exits the vehicle and a foot chase ensued. He then runs from the police toward Chequana Milteer’s address located at 2062-E Pernoshal Court. Michael Hunter was taken into custody after a physical altercation with the police officers.
At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Detective Smith testified that when he applied for the warrant he did not inform the issuing magistrate that Milteer’s apartment had been under surveillance for the previous six weeks, but that no police officer had seen Hunter during that entire time. Detective Smith also made it clear at the suppression hearing that Hunter had not been identified by the residents at Milteer’s current apartment complex; that the reference in his affidavit to “community members” who saw Hunter at Milteer’s *283apartments was to residents at Milteer’s previous apartments. Finally, with regard to Hunter’s arrest and attempt to flee “toward Chequana Milteer’s address,” Detective Smith acknowledged that the place where Hunter was apprehended is approximately one-half mile from Milteer’s apartment.
Decided May 14, 2007
Reconsideration denied July 13, 2007.
Our duty, in cases of this kind, is to determine if the magistrate had a substantial basis to conclude that probable cause existed to search the premises. Lemon v. State, 279 Ga. 618 (619 SE2d 613) (2005). Viewed under the totality of the circumstances, State v. Stephens, 252 Ga. 181, 182 (311 SE2d 823) (1984), and giving due consideration to the information which Detective Smith omitted from his affidavit, Redding v. State, 192 Ga. App. 87 (383 SE2d 640) (1989) (false statements should be deleted and omitted truthful statements included to determine if affidavit is sufficient to show probable cause), I must conclude that the affidavit failed to demonstrate probable cause to believe that the items sought would be found at Milteer’s apartment. That is because the affidavit is devoid of any facts showing a “fair probability” that Hunter used Milteer’s apartment as a residence or place of business at or near the time the crime occurred. Compare McClain v. State, 267 Ga. 378, 388 (11) (477 SE2d 814) (1996) (reasonable for officer to infer that defendant returned to his residence after early morning shooting) with State v. Brantley, 264 Ga. App. 152, 154 (589 SE2d 716) (2003) (State failed to show fair probability that items sought would be found at defendant’s brother’s residence). That Hunter drove Milteer’s vehicles, had no apparent home of his own, and may have lived with Milteer in the past, sheds no light on the question of whether Hunter used Milteer’s apartment as a hiding place for evidence of the crime. The fact remains that the affidavit fails to show that Hunter ever lived in or even stayed at Milteer’s apartment. Compare Porter v. State, 264 Ga. App. 526, 529 (2) (591 SE2d 436) (2003) (girlfriend’s residence was logical place to search for defendant because he had been staying in girlfriend’s residence and was “on the run”) with Tuten v. State, 156 Ga. App. 758, 760 (275 SE2d 796) (1980) (that contraband had to be “somewhere” does not provide probable cause to search defendant’s trailer in light of informant’s statement that defendant put contraband in another location) (Shulman, J., concurring).
I respectfully dissent. I am authorized to state that Justice Benham joins in this dissent.
*284Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Ay ana C. Curry, Bettieanne C. Hart, Assistant District Attorneys, Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, for appellant.
Larry D. Wolfe, Michael J. Antoniolli, for appellee.