Court Opinion

ID: 9578306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:43:54.304915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:30.355558
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting. These three appeals arise out of the trial court’s overruling the defendants’ motions to suppress certain evidence. Each of the motions to suppress attacks the search warrant issued March 5, 1971, which described the premises to be searched as 1570 South Lumpkin Street, a two-story stucco single-family dwelling located in the City of Athens, Clarke County, Georgia, in the custody or control of two John Does, a/k/a "Paul” and "Franklin.” The warrant was issued upon the affidavit of Officer R. R. Michael and authorized a search for marijuana, hashish, lysergic acid diethalymide, commonly known as LSD.
*850It is contended that while the house is described as a single-family dwelling, the evidence adduced on the motion to suppress showed that it was actually divided into four separate living quarters. It is argued that the description in the search warrant was inadequate and that the warrant was a general one because it allowed the officers to search the entire dwelling. In this case there is nothing to show that the dwelling in question resembled an apartment building or a multiple-family area. Instead, there was proof that showed the officers investigated the status of the dwelling prior to the search and discovered nothing; that they first learned of the multiple occupancy characteristics of the dwelling after they entered it. In my opinion this case is similar on its facts to those in the recent case of Jones v. State, 126 Ga. App. 841.
For the reasons stated in my dissent in Jones, I likewise dissent from the judgment of reversal in these three appeals.