Durham v. State

471 S.W.2d 527, 251 Ark. 164, 1971 Ark. LEXIS 1117
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 18, 1971
Docket5601
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 471 S.W.2d 527 (Durham v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Durham v. State, 471 S.W.2d 527, 251 Ark. 164, 1971 Ark. LEXIS 1117 (Ark. 1971).

Opinions

John A. Fogleman, Justice.

Appellant Charles Durham was convicted of the burglaries on May 25, 1970, of the dwelling houses of E. C. Hardin and Neal James located in the same farming community in Sharp County. The separate burglary charges were consolidated for trial by agreement. Property taken from the Hardin home included a .22-caliber and a .30-.30 Winchester rifle. A .30’06 rifle was among the articles taken from the James residence. Before trial, appellant moved to quash warrants for the search of the truck, residence, bam and premises of appellant in Lawrence County issued by Lucian J. Lee, a justice of the peace of that county. Appellant’s motion asked that the evidence obtained on the basis of the warrants be suppressed. This motion was denied, and the tangible evidence found by the officers was admitted during the trial.

Appellant asks us to reverse his conviction because there was no adequate foundation for the issuance of the warrants. Specifically, appellant argues that probable cause for the issuance of the warrants was not shown by affidavit or evidence under oath. We agree with this contention and with appellant’s further argument that the evidence to which he objected was inadmissible as “fruit of the poisonous tree.”

One of the affidavits was made by Sheriff Ray Martin of Sharp County. In it, the sheriff merely stated that he had good reason to believe that, on May 23, 1970, Charles Durham broke into, entered and carried away from the home of Neal James a Zebco reel, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 automatic rifle and a .30’06 rifle. In the other, E. C. Hardin swore that Durham committed burglary by breaking and entering affiant’s residence and removing a .22-caliber Stevens automatic rifle, a .30-.30 caliber lever action Winchester saddle gun, and a .303-caliber British rifle.

Testimony on the motion to suppress showed substantially the following:

E. C. Hardin saw Durham pass the Hardin residence on Saturday, May 23, and subsequently saw Durham in the vicinity several times. Hardin took the license number of the pickup truck in which Durham was traveling. He could see no gun in Durham’s truck on that day. On Sunday morning after the burglaries, Sheriff Martin ascertained that the license number was issued in Lawrence County. He and his deputy, Frolis, picked Hardin up and drove to that county. Hardin saw the truck at Durham’s mother’s house in Lynn. When the officers approached the truck, two men got out of it. As they were talking to the officers, Hardin moved closer to the truck and saw his .22-caliber rifle in open sight in a rack in the truck. He pointed out the rifle to Deputy Sheriff Frolis and identified it. Possession of the rifle was then taken by Frolis. Hardin stated that he read, signed and swore to the affidavit for a search warrant after Lee wrote it out. He testified that he had told Justice Lee the same things that he had testified at the hearing.
Sheriff Martin testified that he had written out the other affidavit and that Lee had sworn him to it. He also said that he and Hardin told Lee the same things they had stated in their testimony at the hearing.
After the affidavits were made, Lee issued the search warrants. Martin, Frolis and Hardin proceeded to the Durham residence, where Sheriff Guthrie of Lawrence County was awaiting their arrival. One of Sheriff Guthrie’s deputies read the warrants to Durham. The weapons were not found in the house, and the testimony as to whether the house was actually entered is somewhat conflicting and confusing. At any rate, while the officers were in the yard surrounding the Durham residence, one or more of them detected a fresh trail leading from the back comer of the yard into a. field in which fescue was growing knee-deep. Upon following this path for about 200 yards, the officers found nine guns, two of which were described in the search warrants and were later identified as having come from the two residences which had been burglarized. The yard had been mowed and was fenced. The field constituted a part of the Durham place on which the house was located and of which the yard was also a part.

It is elementary that a valid search warrant cannot be issued except upon probable cause determined from facts and circumstances revealed to the issuing magistrate under oath or affirmation. Walton v. State, 245 Ark. 84, 431 S. W. 2d 462. The determination may not be based upon conclusions of those seeking the warrant. Walton v. State, supra; Bailey v. State, 246 Ark. 362, 438 S. W. 2d 321. While the facts supplied in a written affidavit may be supplemented by oral testimony, these additional facts must be disclosed from testimony given under oath.1 Walton v. State, supra.

It is clear that the affidavits in this case stated mere conclusions of the respective affiants, so the warrants were not valid, unless the magistrate could have found reasons for those conclusions from testimony of Martin and Hardin given under oath. We have no doubt that statements made by these witnesses to Lee would have furnished sufficient basis for the finding of probable cause for issuance of a valid search warrant. The determination of this critical question turns upon the testimony of Lee. The pertinent part of his testimony follows:

Q. How did you come to issue those Search Warrants — what caused you to issue them, in other words?
A. By the complaint of Mr. Hardin and the Sheriff of Sharp County making requests for the issuance of the Warrants under the Affidavits.
Q. Was there anyone besides those two men?
A. No, sir.
Q. And we are talking about Mr. Hardin and Sheriff Martin?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did they come to your home?
A. They did.
Q. Did Sheriff Martin make a request of you for a Search Warrant?
A. He did.
Q. Did Mr. Hardin make a request of you for a Search Warrant?
A. He did.
Q. Did each one of them then sign an Affidavit for a Search Warrant?
A. They did.
Q. Did you swear them at the time they signed to the Affidavits that they signed?
A. I did. In addition I swore them to testify to that as well as signing the Affidavits for the Warrants, which states, “I do solemnly swear that the allegations set forth are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.” You know what the form is on the affidavit for procuring a Warrant?
Q. Yes, sir.
A. But in addition to that, I administered an oath to them to testify to the fact or the reasons that they wanted the Search Warrant. They swore the facts contained in there were so.
Q. You mean that the facts contained in the Affidavits were true?
A. Yes, sir. In other words, there was a double oath.

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Durham v. State
471 S.W.2d 527 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
471 S.W.2d 527, 251 Ark. 164, 1971 Ark. LEXIS 1117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/durham-v-state-ark-1971.