Cordle v. State

435 So. 2d 902
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 18, 1983
DocketAO-40, AO-41, and AO-42
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 435 So. 2d 902 (Cordle v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cordle v. State, 435 So. 2d 902 (Fla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

435 So.2d 902 (1983)

Vaughn Beasley CORDLE, Van Beasley Cordle, Theodore Calvin Spears and Daniel Emerson Smith, Appellants,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

Nos. AO-40, AO-41, and AO-42.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

July 18, 1983.
Rehearing Denied August 17, 1983.

*904 Jean Laramore of Laramore & Aye, P.A., Tallahassee, for appellants/Vaughn Cordle and Van Cordle.

Jack M. Ross, Gainesville, for appellant/Theodore Spears.

Michael L. Bryant, Gainesville, for appellant/Daniel Smith.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., Lawrence A. Kaden, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

LARRY G. SMITH, Judge.

We affirm appellants' convictions, pursuant to jury verdict, of the offense of possession of marijuana in excess of 20 grams. Numerous grounds for reversal have been briefed and argued, some of which will not be discussed. We will discuss contentions regarding the alleged invalidity of the search warrant; improper exhibition of items of physical evidence to the jury; error in rulings on identification testimony; failure to prove the weight of the marijuana; and insufficient evidence of possession as to appellant Smith. We find no reversible error in these and other points raised by appellants.

The arrest and subsequent conviction of the appellants occurred under the following circumstances: A Piper Aztec airplane loaded with marijuana landed at the Gainesville Airport, Alachua County, Florida, at 12:21 a.m. on October 26, 1981. The pilots were later identified as Vaughn and Van Cordle, twin brothers. At approximately 4:00 a.m. the same morning, two other men later identified as appellants Spears and Smith arrived by van, whereupon the plane's cargo was loaded into the van. Meanwhile, an alert Sunny South Aviation Company lineman who was present when the plane landed, had become suspicious because of certain unusual circumstances, including his personal observation of extra fuel tanks and box-shaped packages wrapped in green material and duct tape inside the plane. He telephoned an airport security officer, who in turn telephoned the Gainesville Police Department.

Officers were present on the scene when the van arrived and the unloading of the marijuana took place. The occupants of the van, appellants Spears and Smith, were apprehended and arrested at the scene. Through information obtained from the lineman, a cab driver, and the night desk clerk at the Holiday Inn, downtown Gainesville, officers traced the Cordle brothers to Room 525 of the Holiday Inn, where they were placed under arrest. On the next day, October 27, officer Squires of the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit, Gainesville Police Department, obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of Room 525, Holiday Inn, the van, and the airplane. The search of Room 525 yielded various items, including a small baggy of marijuana, aeronautical charts, owner's handbook for a Piper Aztec aircraft, a ballpoint pen with foreign writing, and a coin from Colombia, South America; a card containing radio frequencies and course coordinates, and ADIZ charts and maps showing routes to well known drug capitals in South America and the Carribean area; a bag containing flight manuals and aircraft logs, and other items.[1]

We see no point in further belaboring the facts of this case. The two appellants Spears and Smith were caught "red handed" at the airport. Appellants Cordle were traced to the Holiday Inn where they were arrested, and at the trial were identified as the pilots of the airplane.

*905 I.

We have carefully considered the contention of appellants Cordle that the court should have suppressed the evidence obtained from Room 525 because the affidavit upon which the warrant was issued contained material and false statements of fact. Alternatively, they contend that the trial court was in error in denying an evidentiary hearing to inquire into these alleged false statements. Neither contention has merit. It is apparent from examination of the affidavit, without consideration of the portions appellants contend were false, that it is more than sufficient to allege probable cause to believe that Room 525 contained evidence (the affidavit specified "a bag" containing maps, charts and other items) relating to the smuggling of the marijuana brought in on the airplane. The affidavit, with the questionable allegations excised, details the arrival of the plane, the facts learned from the airport lineman, the observation of the fuel tanks and bales inside, which the observing officers had ample reason to believe were cannabis; the unloading of the bales from the airplane and placement inside the van; the apprehension of appellants Spears and Smith, and other details which more than adequately established the existence of probable cause to believe that the airplane was being used for carrying a large quantity of cannabis. Furthermore, the affidavit recited that the lineman had obtained from one of the pilots of the plane a signed card (authority for the aircraft to remain overnight) in the name of "Bill Johnson," from Lexington, Kentucky. The pilots were observed to leave the airport shortly after arrival in a City Cab. It further alleged that a City Cab Company driver had been located who furnished information that he picked up two subjects from the airport at approximately 12:40 a.m., who he then transported to the Holiday Inn in downtown Gainesville; and further, that the clerk of the downtown Holiday Inn in Gainesville had advised that two white males had checked into Room 525 at 1:04 a.m., registering under the name of "Bob Johnson," from Lexington, Kentucky.

The discrepancies in the recitals of the affidavit as to the officers' observation of marijuana at the airport, the use of the term "bladder tanks," and the color and material of the nylon flight bag carried by one of the pilots do not, in our opinion, rise to the level of "deliberate falsehood or reckless disregard for the truth" within the requirements of Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). But even if these disputed details are disregarded, the affidavit is still sufficient to establish probable cause. The applicable law is stated in Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. at 171-172, 98 S.Ct. at 2684-2685:

There is, of course, a presumption of validity with respect to the affidavit supporting the search warrant. To mandate an evidentiary hearing, the challenger's attack must be more than conclusory and must be supported by more than a mere desire to cross-examine. There must be allegations of deliberate falsehood or of reckless disregard for the truth, and those allegations must be accompanied by an offer of proof. They should point out specifically the portion of the warrant affidavit that is claimed to be false; and they should be accompanied by a statement of supporting reasons. Affidavits or sworn or otherwise reliable statements of witnesses should be furnished, or their absence satisfactorily explained. Allegations of negligence or innocent mistake are insufficient. The deliberate falsity or reckless disregard whose impeachment is permitted today is only that of the affiant, not of any nongovernmental informant. Finally, if these requirements are met, and if, when material that is the subject of the alleged falsity or reckless disregard is set to one side, there remains sufficient content in the warrant affidavit to support a finding of probable cause, no hearing is required.

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