Beckam v. Commonwealth

284 S.W.3d 547, 2009 Ky. App. LEXIS 57, 2009 WL 1097985
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 24, 2009
Docket2008-CA-000277-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 284 S.W.3d 547 (Beckam v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beckam v. Commonwealth, 284 S.W.3d 547, 2009 Ky. App. LEXIS 57, 2009 WL 1097985 (Ky. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

OPINION

VANMETER, Judge.

Stephon D. Beckam appeals from the Meade Circuit Court’s judgment sentencing him to a total of twelve months’ imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of several drug-related offenses. Beckam argues that the trial court erred by failing to suppress evidence found at his home pursuant to the execution of a search warrant. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Ray Cottrell, Jr., the manager of Ray’s Ford, contacted police in January 2007, concerning “suspicious conduct” by Beck-am, who had rented several vehicles from Ray’s Ford since December 2006. Cottrell told Kentucky State Police Trooper Ezra Stout that Beckam first rented a Ford Fusion. When the car was returned a week later, it had been driven more than 2,000 miles, it contained a large amount of alleged drug residue, its back seat had been removed and damaged, and the spare tire had been removed. Next, Beckam rented a Ford Freestar van that, when returned two days later, had been driven 290 miles and contained a large amount of alleged drug residue. Although the car [549]*549had already been cleaned, the officer field tested the material in the van and obtained positive results for marijuana. The officer also took from Cottrell an electronic scale which had been retrieved from one of the rented vehicles.2 At the time the officer interviewed Cottrell, Beckam was in possession of a third rental car from Ray’s Ford, a Ford Taurus.

Officer Stout’s subsequent investigation revealed that Beckam and his wife had prior criminal records for possession and/or trafficking of controlled substances, possession of drug paraphernalia, and various other offenses. The officer also determined that the address Beckam listed on his rental car agreements was the same as the address listed on his driver’s license record.

Asserting the foregoing, Officer Stout filed an affidavit for a search warrant for: Beckam’s residence at the aforementioned address, the physical appearance of which was described in great detail; the rented Ford Taurus; a black SUV titled to Beck-am’s wife; and Beckam and his wife’s persons. A search warrant was granted and executed, resulting in the seizure of many items from Beckam’s residence including a “set of black battery operated scales,” drug paraphernalia, and controlled substances.

After his indictment, Beckam moved to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the execution of the search warrant. As is relevant to this appeal, Beckam argued that Officer Stout’s affidavit did not provide a sufficient nexus for authorizing a warrant to search his residence. The trial court denied Beckam’s suppression motion, and the matter proceeded to trial, where a jury found Beckam guilty of second-degree possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana. The trial court sentenced Beckam to a total of twelve months’ imprisonment, and this appeal followed.

Beckam argues that the trial court erred by failing to suppress the fruits of the search of his residence. We disagree.

An affidavit supporting a search warrant must “ ‘reasonably describe the property or premises to be searched and state sufficient facts to establish probable cause for the search of the property or premises.’ Guth v. Commonwealth, 29 S.W.3d 809, 811 (Ky.App.2000) (emphasis added) (quoting Coker v. Commonwealth, 811 S.W.2d 8, 9 (Ky.App.1991)). The test for probable cause is whether, under the totality of the circumstances, a fair probability exists that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. Moore v. Commonwealth, 159 S.W.3d 325, 329 (Ky.2005). When reviewing the issuance of a search warrant, we must give great deference to the warrant-issuing judge’s findings of probable cause and must not reverse unless the court arbitrarily exercised its discretion. Id.

We note that hearsay information may “be the basis of probable cause to search and there is no need for a specific showing of a named informant’s reliability.” Commomvealth v. Hubble, 730 S.W.2d 532, 534 (Ky.App.1987). The “issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, common-sense decision ... given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the ‘veracity and the ‘basis of knowledge’ of persons supplying hearsay information[.]” Beemer v. Commonwealth, 665 S.W.2d 912, 914 (Ky.1984) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)).

[550]*550In United States v. McClellan, 165 F.3d 535, 546 (7th Cir.1999), the DEA Agent attested in the affidavit supporting the search warrant for McClellan’s residence

that she received information from her source of information that McClellan “was preparing to transport approximately 600 pounds of marijuana from Tucson, AZ to Pittsburgh, PA,” and that he had been “arrested in possession of 210 pounds of marijuana at the Budget Inn located in Daleville, Indiana.” Agent Lucio also related [a co-defendant’s] statements that “she had seen Ottis [sic] McClellan back-up his pick-up truck to a storage facility, located at the residence on Summit and unload bundles of marijuana into the storage facility” and “that, in the past, she had delivered monetary proceeds ... from the sale of the narcotics to Ottis [sic] McClellan’s residence, located at 2760 E. Summit, Tucson, AZ.”

The court held that- based upon this evidence, the magistrate was justified in inferring that McClellan was engaged in marijuana trafficking. Further, “ ‘in issuing a search warrant, a magistrate is entitled to draw reasonable inferences about where the evidence is likely to be kept, based on the nature of the evidence and the type of offense, and that in the case of drug dealers evidence is likely to be found where the dealers live.’ Id. (emphasis added) (quoting United States v. Reddrick, 90 F.3d 1276, 1281 (7th Cir.1996)). Several additional federal circuits have reached similar results. See United States v. Mig-gins, 302 F.3d 384, 393-94 (6th Cir.2002) (discussing cases from First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits). We see the principle as one essentially of common sense, Beemer, 665 S.W.2d at 914, and adopt it as our own.

Here, the conditions of the two rental cars permitted the inference that Beekam might be involved in drug trafficking. Further, the principle recognized in the federal circuit court decisions discussed above permitted the inference that evidence of Beckam’s drug trafficking might be found at his home. Accordingly, we cannot hold that the trial court erred by denying Beckam’s suppression motion.

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Beckam v. Commonwealth
284 S.W.3d 547 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
284 S.W.3d 547, 2009 Ky. App. LEXIS 57, 2009 WL 1097985, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beckam-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-2009.