State v. Connella

436 So. 2d 648, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8957
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 29, 1983
DocketNo. CR82-755
StatusPublished

This text of 436 So. 2d 648 (State v. Connella) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Connella, 436 So. 2d 648, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8957 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

STOKER, Judge.

Defendant, Lowell “Sonny” Connella, pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving stolen things having a value of more than $100 but less than $500, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:69, expressly reserving his right to appeal the trial court’s rulings on his pretrial motions to suppress illegally seized evidence and to quash the indictment. See State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). He was given a suspended sentence of two years in the custody of the Department of Corrections and placed on supervised probation for two years. He was fined $1,000 and ordered to make restitution to the victim as a condition of his probation. For reasons set out below, we affirm the trial court rulings on both pretrial motions.

FACTS

The burglary from which this charge arose was reported on June 17, 1980, at [649]*64911:40 a.m. Mrs. Opal Giles reported that furniture and other property had been stolen from a house she was just moving into.

After investigating, a Rapides Sheriff’s Department deputy obtained an arrest warrant for Lloyd Lachney, Connella’s roommate at that time.1 After further investigation, the deputy obtained a search warrant for a mini-warehouse rented the morning of the burglary by Connella. Upon searching the warehouse, most of the property reported stolen by Mrs. Giles was found.

Connella was initially charged by bill of information with simple burglary; however, that charge was dismissed upon the district attorney’s motion to dismiss the prosecution pursuant to LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 691. He was later charged in a new bill of information with receiving stolen things having a value in excess of $500.

After his pretrial motions were denied, Connella entered a plea of guilty to a charge of receiving stolen things having a value of more than $100 but less than $500. This appeal followed. The facts will be more fully dealt with below as they relate to the assignments of error.

MOTION TO SUPPRESS

The evidence sought to be suppressed is the property taken from the warehouse rented by Connella pursuant to the search warrant. Connella claims that the affidavit supporting the search warrant fails to set forth within its four corners sufficient probable cause to believe that the stolen items were contained in the warehouse.

Deputy William Hilton investigated the burglary and was the affiant for the affidavit supporting the warrant. The affidavit contains all details of his investigation which led to his seeking the warrant. A summary of facts contained in the affidavit is as follows.

Mrs. Giles reported the burglary at 23 Glen Parkway, Cotile Lake, at 11:40 a.m. on June 17, 1980. At 9:15 a.m. that same morning Deputy Hilton had observed an orange U-Haul truck parked in front of the house at 23 Glen Parkway. Upon investigating Mrs. Giles’ complaint, Deputy Hilton discovered orange paint on a freshly damaged portion of the roof and green face board of the house. He also noticed dual tire marks in approximately the same place he had seen the truck.

At 3:00 p.m. that same afternoon, Deputy Hilton located a truck at a U-Haul office similar to the one he had seen that morning with damage corresponding to the damage to the house. Orange paint found on the house matched that from the truck and green paint found on the truck matched that from the house. The truck had been rented on June 16, 1980, at 6:30 p.m. by Lloyd Lachney. The U-Haul manager said that Connella picked up Lachney when the truck was returned on June 17, 1980.

After learning that Connella and Lach-ney shared an apartment, Deputy Hilton found out from the manager of the apartment complex in which they lived that a U-Haul truck had been parked in front of their unit the entire night of June 16, 1980. The deputy spoke with Connella on June 17, asking him to have Lachney contact him. Having heard nothing from Lachney by the next day, Deputy Hilton obtained a warrant for his arrest. The arrest was made at Connella’s fire-damaged home where Lach-ney was working with Connella.

Apparently acting on his knowledge that stolen goods are often stored in warehouses, Deputy Hilton began contacting local self-storage warehouse businesses. He found that a unit in Alexandria had been rented by Connella on June 17, 1980, around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. His request of Connella to search the warehouse was refused.

Based on the above summarized facts given in the affidavit, a search warrant for the warehouse rented by Connella was issued. Substantially all of the property reported [650]*650stolen by Mrs. Giles was recovered from within.

The initial charge of simple burglary and the charge of receiving stolen things for which Connella was ultimately convicted arose out of the same incident and are based on the same evidence. Three trial judges have previously upheld the validity of the affidavit, Judge Mansour who issued the warrant, Judge Humphries who denied Connella’s motion to suppress filed while he was still under the bill charging simple burglary, and Judge Teekell who denied the motion to suppress under consideration here.

LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 162 provides in pertinent part:

“A search warrant may issue only upon probable cause established to the satisfaction of the judge, by the affidavit of a credible person, reciting facts establishing the cause for issuance of the warrant.”

It is well settled that “The facts establishing probable cause for a search warrant must be contained within the four corners of the affidavit.” State v. Feeback, 411 So.2d 10 (La.1982), State v. Poree, 406 So.2d 546 (La.1981). In order to show probable cause, the affidavit for the search warrant must state facts and circumstances within the affiant’s knowledge which are based on reasonably trustworthy information sufficient to support a reasonable belief that an offense has been committed and that evidence or the contraband may be found at the place searched. State v. Po-ree, supra.

Appellant in this case claims the affidavit fails to establish probable cause to believe that Connella was connected with the burglary or that the proceeds from the burglary would be found in the warehouse rented by him. We disagree. When considered alone, each of the facts v/hich link Connella to the crime is as consistent with innocence as with guilt. However, when considered in conjunction with each other, they are sufficient to support a reasonable belief that a burglary had occurred and that the stolen property would be found in the warehouse rented by Connella.

Affidavits in support of search warrants should be interpreted in a common sense and realistic fashion. State v. Johnson, 408 So.2d 1280 (La.1982). Connella’s renting of the warehouse on the day of the burglary just shortly before the U-Haul truck was observed at the house is sufficient, when considered along with other facts in the affidavit, to establish probable cause to believe that the stolen property would be located in the warehouse. The trial court properly denied the motion to suppress.

MOTION TO QUASH

Connella claims that prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of his right to a speedy trial and that his motion to quash the indictment on this ground should have been granted.

The procedural history of this matter leading up to the present appeal is somewhat complicated. On October 27,1980, the state filed a bill of information charging Connella with simple burglary in relation to the June 17 event.

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Related

Barker v. Wingo
407 U.S. 514 (Supreme Court, 1972)
State v. Poree
406 So. 2d 546 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)
State v. Crosby
338 So. 2d 584 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1976)
State v. Feeback
411 So. 2d 10 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)
State v. Johnson
408 So. 2d 1280 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)
State v. Lachney
436 So. 2d 645 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
436 So. 2d 648, 1983 La. App. LEXIS 8957, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-connella-lactapp-1983.