State v. Chandler

101 P.3d 704, 140 Idaho 760, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 71
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 30, 2004
DocketNo. 29858
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 101 P.3d 704 (State v. Chandler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Chandler, 101 P.3d 704, 140 Idaho 760, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 71 (Idaho Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

LANSING, Chief Judge.

The State appeals the district court’s order suppressing evidence obtained through the execution of a search warrant. We reverse.

I.

BACKGROUND

In March 2003, Detective Kyle Fullmer of the Idaho State Police began receiving information that Jeffrey William Chandler possessed and sold methamphetamine. Detective Fullmer submitted an affidavit of probable cause (the affidavit) to a magistrate in Bingham County for the purpose of obtaining a warrant to search Chandler’s residence. The affidavit detailed three separate occasions between March 17 and April 3, 2003, when police received the information about Chandler through interviews with informants. These were described as follows.

On the first occasion, an informant told police that the informant had accompanied an acquaintance to Chandler’s residence and saw the acquaintance purchase a quarter gram of methamphetamine from Chandler. According to the affidavit, the informant knew that Jeffrey Chandler was supplying methamphetamine to two named individuals.

Next, on March 31, an informant told police that the informant had purchased methamphetamine from Chandler on several occasions and that the informant presently owed Chandler approximately $200 for methamphetamine. The informant said that he/she had personally observed three to four ounces of methamphetamine at a time in Chandler’s residence, and had personally observed Chandler dig up hidden methamphetamine with a shovel. This informant gave police directions to Chandler’s residence, and identified the residence when driven to that location by police. The informant admitted to police that he/she had been using methamphetamine for about eight years and that he/she had been arrested in the past for delivery of controlled substances.

Lastly, on April 3, an informant told police that the informant had personally observed Chandler sell three “teeners” of methamphetamine to someone known to the informant. The informant also observed Chandler place about three ounces of methamphetamine in a glove and hide it in the bushes near his residence. The informant reported having seen guns on Chandler’s property, and having been told that some of the guns were stolen.

Detective Fullmer conducted a criminal history search on Chandler and discovered that he had previously been convicted of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. Based upon all of this information, Detective Fullmer applied for a warrant to search Chandler’s property. The affidavit did not give any informant’s name nor state whether there were one, two, or three different informants, but the affidavit did state that on each occasion the informant was someone whose identity was known to the police.

The magistrate issued the search warrant as requested, finding that there was probable cause to believe that evidence of controlled substances, firearms, and stolen property would be found on the premises. A search of Chandler’s property turned up methamphetamine and multiple firearms. Chandler was charged with possession of methamphet[762]*762amine, Idaho Code § 37-2732(c)(l), and unlawful possession of a firearm, I.C. § 18-3316. He moved to suppress all evidence obtained from the search, contending that the warrant was issued without probable cause. The district court ordered the evidence suppressed and, in the same order, dismissed the case.

The State appeals, contending that the district court erred by applying the wrong standard of review to the magistrate’s finding of probable cause and by basing its decision upon the erroneous belief that information supplied by one confidential informant could not be used to corroborate information supplied by another.

II.

ANALYSIS

In examining a challenge to a search warrant, an appellate court’s function is limited to reviewing the search warrant affidavit and determining whether the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed. State v. Lang, 105 Idaho 683, 684, 672 P.2d 561, 562 (1983); State v. Molina, 125 Idaho 637, 639, 873 P.2d 891, 893 (Ct.App.1993). Great deference is accorded to the magistrate’s determination of probable cause, as the United States Supreme Court emphasized in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983):

[W]e have repeatedly said that after-the-fact scrutiny by courts of the sufficiency of an affidavit should not take the form of de novo review. A magistrate’s determination of probable cause should be paid great deference by reviewing courts. A grudging or negative attitude by reviewing courts toward warrants, is inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment’s strong preference for searches conducted pursuant to a warrant; courts should not invalidate warrants] by interpreting affidavits] in a hyperteehnical, rather than a commonsense, manner.

Gates, 462 U.S. at 236, 103 S.Ct. at 2331, 76 L.Ed.2d at 546 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). See also Molina, 125 Idaho at 639, 873 P.2d at 893; State v. Chapple, 124 Idaho 525, 527, 861 P.2d 95, 97 (Ct.App.1993). On appeal, our review of the magistrate’s decision to issue the warrant is conducted with due regard for, but independently from, the district court’s decision. See, e.g., State v. Kenner, 121 Idaho 594, 597, 826 P.2d 1306, 1309 (1992); State v. Donohoe, 126 Idaho 989, 991, 895 P.2d 590, 592 (Ct.App.1995).

Probable cause is determined by examining the totality of the circumstances and making a practical, common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before the court, including information from an informant, there is a fair probability that contraband or other evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238, 103 S.Ct. at 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d at 548; Lang, 105 Idaho at 684, 672 P.2d at 562; State v. Wilson, 130 Idaho 213, 215, 938 P.2d 1251, 1253 (Ct.App.1997); Chapple, 124 Idaho at 527, 861 P.2d at 97. In adopting this “totality of the circumstances” test in Gates, the United States Supreme Court abandoned a previous standard developed in Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), which required that the government demonstrate both the informant’s veracity and the informant’s basis of knowledge. In Chapple, 124 Idaho at 528, 861 P.2d at 98, we explained the effect of the Gates decision:

[T]he Court did not completely abandon the two-pronged test of Aguilar-Spinelli

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 P.3d 704, 140 Idaho 760, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chandler-idahoctapp-2004.