Commonwealth v. Tiffany

926 A.2d 503
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided June 5, 2007·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinions

OPINION BY

STEVENS, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Keith Tiffany, appeals a judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County. We affirm.

¶ 2 On May 18, 2004, police found Appellant, who was 44 years old at the time, swimming naked in a quarry with three males, ages 19, 15 and 13. Appellant admitted that he had been taking nude photographs of the group, and police seized the camera. Following Appellant’s arrest, three search warrants were issued to permit the seizure and forensic analysis of a laptop computer and disks from Appellant’s truck, the forensic analysis of the camera seized at the scene, and the search of Appellant’s house.1

¶ 3 Appellant was subsequently charged with sexual abuse of children,2 possession of instruments of crime,3 indecent exposure,4 corruption of minors,5 defiant trespass,6 unlawful contact with minors,7 and open lewdness8. Prior to trial, Appellant filed an omnibus pre-trial motion, including a motion to suppress, alleging lack of probable cause to support the search warrants. Following a suppression hearing, the motion was denied, and a two-day bench trial followed.

¶ 4 On June 1, 2005, Appellant was convicted of 228 counts of sexual abuse of children, one count of possessing instruments. of crime, one count of open lewdness, two counts of corruption of minors, one count of defiant trespass, and two counts of unlawful contact with minors. He was subsequently sentenced on October 7, 2005, and filed this timely appeal on November 3, 2005.9 Appellant has complied with a court order to file a Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement of matters complained of on appeal.

¶ 5 Appellant raises five allegations of error on appeal. He first asserts that the trial court should have granted his suppression motion on the grounds that the affidavit of probable cause supporting the search warrants in question lacked sufficient facts and circumstances within the four corners of the application. Appellant’s brief at 11. We review this claim under the following principles.

It is well settled that the admissibility of evidence is solely within the discretion of [506] the trial court and will be reversed only if the trial court has abused its discretion. This Court has explained:
Our standard of review when addressing a challenge to a trial court’s denial of suppression is whether the factual findings are supported by the record and whether the legal conclusions drawn from these facts are correct. When reviewing the rulings of a suppression court, we must consider only the evidence of the prosecution and so much of the evidence for the defense as remains uncontradicted when read in the context of the record as a whole. Where the record supports the findings of the suppression court, we are bound by those facts and may-reverse only if the legal conclusions drawn therefrom are in error.

Commonwealth v. Messersmith, 860 A.2d 1078, 1094 (Pa.Super.2004) (citations omitted).

When reviewing whether a search warrant was sufficiently supported by probable cause, we employ the “totality of the circumstances” analysis of Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Commonwealth v. Gray, 509 Pa. 476, 503 A.2d 921 (1985) (adopting the “totality of circumstances” test in Pennsylvania). The “totality of the circumstances” test has been summarized as follows:
The task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, common sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the “veracity” and “basis of knowledge” of persons supplying hearsay information, that there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.
Gray, 503 A.2d at 925, quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 238-239, 103 S.Ct. at 2332.

Commonwealth v. Ceriani, 411 Pa.Super. 96, 600 A.2d 1282, 1283-1284 (1991). See also Pa.R.Crim.P. 203(B).10

¶ 6 At the time the “Applications for Search Warrant and Authorization” in question here were completed, Pennsylvania Rule of Criminal Procedure 206 required that:

Each application for a search warrant shall be supported by written affidavit(s) signed and sworn to or affirmed before an issuing authority, which affidavit(s) shall:
(1) state the name and department, agency, or address of the affiant;
(2) identify specifically the items or property to be searched for and seized;
(3) name or describe with particularity the person or place to be searched;
(4) identify the owner, occupant, or possessor of the place to be searched;
(5) specify or describe the crime which has been or is being committed;
(6) set forth specifically the facts and circumstances which form the basis for the affiant’s conclusion that there is probable cause to believe that the items or property identified are evidence or the fruit of a crime, or are contraband, or are or otherwise unlawfully possessed or subject to seizure, and that these items or property are located on the [507] particular person or at the particular place described.

Pa.R.Crim.P. 206, amended March 1, 2000, effective April 1, 2001.11

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Commonwealth v. Tiffany, 926 A.2d 503 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

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