Court Opinion

ID: 9571818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:35:26.193448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:03.119995
License: Public Domain

BRETT, J.,
concurs in part and dissents in part.
APPENDIX
THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA,
Plaintiff,
-vs-
JOHN DOE,
Defendant.
IN THE NAME OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
To any Sheriff, Policeman or Law Enforcement Officer in the County of Tulsa, Oklahoma:
Probable cause having been shown on this date before me by Cpl. G.L. Isaacs for believing the following described property: certain controlled dangerous substances listed in the Schedules of the Controlled Dangerous Substance Act of the State of Oklahoma, to wit: Marijuana and Phency-clidine is now being kept, possessed and concealed by the above named defendant, or by other persons in whose possession he has placed it for the purpose of concealment, at or upon or within a certain vehicle and/or house, building or premises, the curtilage thereof and the appurtenances thereunto belonging, in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, described as follows: A single story, single-family residence located in the 2800 block of East 45th St. North. The residence is composed of white colored wood. The residence has a flat type roof. The front of the residence faces north. There is a concrete driveway extending south from East 45th St. North to an attached carport at the west end of the residence. This structure is the fourth structure east of North Delaware Avenue on the south side of East 45th St. North. The numbers “2818” appear west of the front door on the front of the residence. This residence is more commonly known as 2818 East 45th St. North, which is in the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma.
The affidavits being positive that the above described property is on the person, or in the place to be searched and therebe-ing a likelihood that said property above described will be destroyed, moved or concealed,
*659YOU ARE THEREFORE COMMANDED at any time of the day or night to make search of said person, vehicle and/or house, building and premises, the curtilage there of and the appurtenances thereunto belonging for the described property, and if found to seize the same and safely keep it, and bring it before me at the Tulsa County Courthouse in accordance with the subsequent order of the Court, and make return hereof within Ten days.
BRETT, Judge: concurs in part and dissents in part:
I concur in the reversal of the conviction for Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Drug but respectfully dissent to the affirmance of the conviction for Unlawful Possession of Marijuana. I disagree with my colleagues’ opinion that the fact that the vehicle did not belong to the occupant of the premises is insignificant. Indeed, this is the very fact that distinguishes the present case from Leslie v. State, 294 P.2d 854 (Okl.Cr.1956).
As in all cases wherein this Court has condoned the search of an automobile parked within the curtilage, the vehicle searched in Leslie was owned by the occupant of the house for which the search warrant was issued. My colleagues apparently think that Leslie is controlling in the case at bar because the only person who testified at trial, police officer Sam King, “thinks” that the officers did not know the car belonged to the defendant until after the search. This failure to determine which car, if any, belonged to the occupant of the house neither brings this case within the purview of Leslie nor justifies the search. The officers easily ascertained which person was the occupant of the house so that the search warrant could be served upon him. They could have just as easily ascertained the ownership of the several cars parked within the curtilage.
The authorities had no probable cause to believe that anyone present other than the occupant was violating the law. Nothing occurred after the police arrived to give them any reason to suspect the appellant of criminal activity or to believe contraband was concealed in his car. The law is well settled that a person’s mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search that person. Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1980). I would extend the application of Ybarra and hold that an automobile’s presence within the curtilage of a house described in a search warrant to search the house will not, without more, authorize a search of the automobile.
If the automobile belongs to the occupant of the house described in the warrant and is parked within the curtilage, the search is permissible under Leslie, 294 P.2d 854. But if the officers know or should know that the automobile does not belong to the occupant of the premises, the search is not based upon probable cause or anything more than guilt by association and is therefore impermissible. Appellant’s motion to suppress the evidence illegally obtained in the case at bar should have been granted.