State v. Cortez

663 P.2d 703, 99 N.M. 727
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 1983
Docket5587
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 663 P.2d 703 (State v. Cortez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Cortez, 663 P.2d 703, 99 N.M. 727 (N.M. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

WALTERS, Chief Judge.

Convicted of two counts of distributing marijuana to a minor, one count of trafficking in cocaine with intent to distribute, and one count of receiving stolen property, defendant appeals and presents five issues which he claims require reversal. He has abandoned four other points raised in his docketing statement. State v. Marquez, 96 N.M. 746, 634 P.2d 1298 (Ct.App.1981). We reverse for a new trial.

The issues briefed by defendant are:

1. Was probable cause demonstrated for two warrants to search the house at 919 Encanto Circle?

2. Was the verdict regarding intent to distribute cocaine supported by substantial evidence?

3. Was the evidence of distribution of marijuana competent and substantial?

4. Was the charge and jury instruction regarding receiving stolen property so defective as to constitute fundamental error?

5. Was the trial court’s refusal to grant a mistrial, upon the State’s key witness’s statement that he heard defendant belonged to the “Mafia,” reversible error?

1. The search warrants.

A juvenile informant told the officer who signed the affidavit for search warrant that defendant lived at 509 (or 504) South Platinum, and that he had seen defendant answer the door at 919 Encanto Circle to admit two of the juvenile’s friends. One of the friends told the informant that he had seen “bags of pills and coke and all kinds of stuff” inside “that other house . . . [t]he one over at that circle.” On the basis of these and other statements of the juvenile, the officer alleged in an affidavit for a warrant to search 919 Encanto Circle for drugs and stolen goods, that the juvenile twice had traded jewelry he had stolen to the defendant for marijuana at the Platinum address, and that defendant “is know[n] to frequent the above described house in this affidavit.” A warrant was issued; during the search at 919 Encanto Circle the affiant saw items which appeared to correspond to the description of various goods reported to have been stolen in other burglaries. He sought and obtained a second warrant to search the Encanto Circle premises for those observed items. Defendant was ultimately charged with receiving stolen property which encompassed all of the jewelry seized in both searches of the Encanto Circle house.

Hearsay may provide evidence to furnish probable cause to believe that sufficient underlying circumstances exist to support affiant’s belief that the items sought to be seized will be found upon search “provided (1) there is a substantial basis for believing the source of the hearsay to be credible, and (2) there is a substantial basis for believing that there is a factual basis for the information furnished.” State v. Snedeker, 99 N.M. 286, 657 P.2d 613 (S.Ct.), (1982), citing N.M. R.Crim.P. 17(f), N.M.S.A.1978 (1980 Repl. Pamph.).

The factual basis for linkage of defendant to the premises at 919 Encanto Circle was the juvenile’s statement that he had once seen the defendant open the door at that address. The juvenile had informed the affiant that defendant lived at another address. Information about the items allegedly to be found within the premises to be searched was provided by double unaccredited hearsay from the juvenile’s friend. The affidavit attached a question-and-answer statement given by the juvenile to the affiant, in which the juvenile admitted committing several burglaries and bringing the stolen items to defendant’s home at the Platinum Street address on two separate occasions.

Snedeker, supra, indicates the reasonableness of a magistrate’s thought process which leads to a belief that stolen goods will be kept in a suspect’s home and, thus, to justify issuance of a warrant (that otherwise meets the probable cause standards) to search the suspect’s residence. The basis for issuance of the first warrant to search the Encanto Circle premises, however, is flawed in at least two respects: the officer had no grounds, according to the statements of his informant, to believe that defendant “frequented” the Encanto Circle address; the affidavit offers absolutely no underlying facts to support the reliability of the information furnished by the informant’s informant, or the credibility of that informant, that drugs or stolen goods would be found at that “other house . . . over at that circle.”

Snedeker, supra, examined the facts recited in an affidavit for search warrant and made two significant observations: that from the facts presented, (1) the magistrate had probable cause to believe that defendant lived in the house to be searched, and (2) the magistrate had probable cause to believe that defendant was in possession of stolen property that would be kept at defendant’s home. The sole nexus between this defendant and the premises searched was an allegation that the affiant knew defendant “who gives the address of 509 south platinum [sic] and is know[n] to frequent” the Encanto Circle house, and the informant’s attached statement relating that he had once seen defendant at that address. Who held knowledge that defendant “frequented” the premises was not disclosed, nor were any other underlying facts stated which would support either the allegation or the source of that information.

“Frequent,” when used as a verb, means “to associate with, be in, or resort to often or habitually.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1976 ed.). The observance of defendant at the Encanto Circle location on one occasion, and the identification by the informant and the affiant of the Platinum premises as defendant’s residence, does not establish probable cause to believe that defendant lived at 919 Encanto Circle, or even that he “frequented” that address.

There was nothing in the affidavit to establish probable cause that there were stolen goods at 919 Encanto Circle. There was nothing in the affidavit to establish probable cause to believe that it was defendant’s home. There was double hearsay only from a reliable informant and from that informant’s informant, to suggest that drugs would be found within the premises. The information contained in the affidavit and its attachments was more tenuous than that produced in State v. Baca, 97 N.M. 379, 640 P.2d 485 (1982). Baca nevertheless held that the failure to detail sufficient underlying circumstances and reliable factual information in the affidavit prevented the magistrate from concluding that the criminal evidence sought would be found at the premises searched. As in Baca, supra, we hold that the search warrant for 919 Encanto Circle was not supported by sufficient information to establish probable cause, and thus the warrant was invalid and the search unlawful. Since the second warrant, issued a week later, was based on observations made during the first unlawful search, it too was improperly issued. See Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). The penalty for seizing evidence in the course of unlawful searches is suppression of the evidence seized. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471

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Related

State v. Rubio
798 P.2d 206 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1990)
State v. Musgrave
692 P.2d 534 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Bejar
679 P.2d 1288 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Dobbs
665 P.2d 1151 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Cortez
667 P.2d 963 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
663 P.2d 703, 99 N.M. 727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cortez-nmctapp-1983.