State v. Blackburn

499 P.2d 1325, 10 Or. App. 564, 1972 Ore. App. LEXIS 887
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 10, 1972
DocketNo. 28226; No. 28204
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 499 P.2d 1325 (State v. Blackburn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Blackburn, 499 P.2d 1325, 10 Or. App. 564, 1972 Ore. App. LEXIS 887 (Or. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinions

THORNTON, J.

This is an appieal by the state from orders suppressing evidence in two criminal cases which were consolidated for hearing both in the trial court and in this court.

The trial pudge ruled that the search warrant under which rooms occupied by defendants in a multiple-occupancy basement were searched and a quantity of marihuana seized was fatally defective for the reason that it failed to describe the place to be searched Avith sufficient particularity, and granted defendants’ motions to suppress. The state contends that the trial court erred because the search warrant was sufficient to permit the police officers executing [566]*566the warrant to locate and search the premises and to seize the evidence on which the prosecutions were based.

The rooms in which the disputed search occurred were located in the basement of a residence in Mc-Minnville. The evidence was that the basement area had been divided into a series of small rooms which were rented individually to five tenants. In addition, the basement contained a central ldtehen-living room-bathroom area which was used in common by all tenants. The rooms occupied by the two defendants were located on opposite sides of the common area. This area also provided the sole access to defendants’ rooms. The door to the kitchen-living room-bathroom area had no number on it, and was kept open at all times. A short hallway led from this common area to the street entrance.

The room occupied by defendant Bruce Barber and another student named Welton was known by the landlord as “No. 4-5,” and had affixed to the door three separate cards with printed matter on each. The top card, which was the smallest of the three, had the letters “ECURB” (“ECURB” is Bruce spelled backward) printed on it. The middle card bore what appears from a photograph offered in evidence to be an engraving showing Neptune emerging from the sea. The bottom card had the words “CHANGE . . . CONTROVERSY . . . CHALLENGE” printed on it. The door, however, bore no numerals. The room occupied by defendant Blackburn had the numeral “2” on it. A room occupied by a fourth student named Roberts with the numeral “3” on the door also led off the common area.

The search warrant described the premises to be [567]*567searched as “* * * Apartment Number 2 in the basement of the residence at 240 South Davis Street, said apartment having the letters ECURB on the door * * The affidavit supporting the issuance of the warrant described the premises three times in the same manner. The affiant, who was also the officer in charge of executing the search warrant, obtained his information from an anonymous informant who had been at the named premises on the night of August 2, 1971. The state’s evidence was that the informant had observed a quantity of marihuana there while attending a party.

The search warrant was executed at approximately 4 a.m. on August 3 by the affiant, Deputy Sullivan, and several uniformed police officers. Upon entering the basement area, the officers went down the hall to the open and unmarked door leading to the common area and knocked several times. Deputy Sullivan testified concerning subsequent events as follows: That he looked on the face of the door and did not see any markings; that he could see all of the common area without entering and that he could see the doors marked “2” and “3,” which were closed; that defendant Barber responded to the knocking; that he asked Barber “if he was Barber and if this was Apartment No. 2,” to which Barber replied “That is true”; that he showed Barber the search warrant and gave him the Miranda

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Related

State v. Blackburn
511 P.2d 381 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
499 P.2d 1325, 10 Or. App. 564, 1972 Ore. App. LEXIS 887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-blackburn-orctapp-1972.