State v. Fernandez

1999 NMCA 128, 990 P.2d 224, 128 N.M. 111
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 24, 1999
Docket19,681
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1999 NMCA 128 (State v. Fernandez) 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. Fernandez, 1999 NMCA 128, 990 P.2d 224, 128 N.M. 111 (N.M. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

SUTIN, Judge.

{1} The State appeals the district court’s suppression of evidence based on a misleading search warrant affidavit. Defendant contends that the appeal is not timely. The first question this appeal resolves is how to compute the ten-day period for a State appeal from an order granting a motion to suppress. We then look at the standard to be applied when a defendant attacks a search warrant affidavit on the grounds that it contains false statements or omits material facts. We hold that the State’s appeal was timely filed, and we reverse because the district court applied the wrong legal standard for evaluating a facially sufficient search warrant affidavit attacked as misleading. We remand for a new suppression hearing.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

{2} While investigating an alleged battery, Officer James Lobb went to Defendant’s home on two occasions. On both occasions, Defendant’s daughter opened the door, and the officer believed that he smelled burning marijuana. The officer believed the odor to be stronger the second time than the first.

{3} The officer then prepared an affidavit for a search warrant stating that he suspected marijuana and paraphernalia for using marijuana were concealed at Defendant’s residence. Based on this affidavit, the magistrate judge issued a search warrant for Defendant’s residence. The warrant was served on Defendant at her home and the search produced various drugs and drug-related paraphernalia. Defendant was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

{4} Defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence and obtained an evidentiary hearing. Defendant argued that the officer did not have sufficient training and experience smelling marijuana to establish probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant.

{5} The officer’s affidavit explained that: In the course of my training and career I have had several occasions to smell lighted and burning marijuana.
I have learned from training and experience that marijuana, in order to be burned and ingested is most commonly done so by hand rolled cigarettes or various types of pipes.
I have also learned through training and work-related experience that persons who use and distribute marijuana often keep on hand devices for cleaning, packaging and weighing the marijuana prior to its ingestion.

During the suppression hearing, the officer testified that he never received any courses or formal training at the Police Academy or at the police station in the detection of marijuana. He testified that his “on-the-job training” in the detection of marijuana, meant only training “in connection with cases” that he worked. During the prelimi-. nary hearing, the officer had testified to four eases involving marijuana with which he was associated. At the suppression hearing, he testified to having remembered one other case that involved marijuana. None of these cases involved the smell of burning marijuana. During cross-examination at the suppression hearing, the officer testified that he had encountered marijuana smoke in his private life twice, once in 1978, and then again sometime during 1986-1988.

{6} The district court granted Defendant’s motion to suppress on the ground that the officer’s affidavit was' misleading. The court thought that the magistrate might have reached a different conclusion as to probable cause if the officer had revealed “the limit and limitation of his training and experience” with smelling marijuana.

{7} The State moved the court to reconsider. On reconsideration, the court found that the officer’s affidavit contained intentional misrepresentations and denied the State’s motion for reconsideration in a suppression order. The State filed a notice of appeal, and Defendant moved to dismiss the State’s appeal on the ground that the appeal was untimely. We deferred consideration of the motion until our decision on the merits.

{8} We hold that the State’s appeal was timely. We reverse on the merits.

DISCUSSION

I. The State’s Appeal Was Timely

{9} The State appealed on June 3, 1998, from the district court’s suppression order filed on May 21, 1998. The notice of appeal was filed on the thirteenth consecutive day after the filing of the court’s suppression order. The issue before us is whether the notice of appeal was filed by the State within the ten-day deadline for appeals by the State from orders suppressing evidence. See NMSA 1978, § 39-3-3(B)(2) (1972) (“an appeal may be taken by the state ... within ten days from ... [an] order of a district court suppressing ... evidence ... if the district attorney certifies to the district court that the appeal is not taken for the purpose of delay and that the evidence is a substantial proof of a fact material in the proceeding”). The question is how we calculate those ten days.

{10} The Supreme Court rule that governs the computation of time is Rule 12-308 NMRA 1999. This rule applies the “less-than-eleven-days” rule: “When the period of time prescribed or allowed is less than eleven (11) days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall be excluded in the computation.” Rule 12-308(A).

{11} The State contends that, employing the less-than-eleven-days rule in Rule 12-308, it had fourteen consecutive days within which to file, and its thirteenth-day filing was therefore timely.

{12} As Defendant sees it, the plain meaning of ten days is ten consecutive twenty-four hour periods. Defendant contends that State v. Alvarez, 113 N.M. 82, 823 P.2d 324 (Ct.App.1991) controls here. Defendant cites no authority other than Alvarez for his position. We do not see this issue as governed by Alvarez.

{13} In Alvarez, the State filed its notice of appeal fourteen days after entry of the district court’s suppression order. The Court questioned whether the ten-day period in Section 39-3-3(B)(2) required dismissal of the appeal. The State contended that the appeal was timely because Rule 12-201(A) NMRA 1999 allowed the State thirty days within which to file the notice of appeal. The State argued that the rule, and not the statute, controlled. See Alvarez, 113 N.M. at 84, 823 P.2d at 326. Therefore, the State argued, the Court was bound by the Supreme Court’s thirty-day period in Rule 12-201(A), even though it conflicted with the ten-day period imposed by the Legislature in Section 39-3-3(B)(2). See Alvarez, 113 N.M. at 84, 823 P.2d at 326.

{14} We determined in Alvarez that the State’s appeal was not timely, and dismissed the appeal, holding that, as between the ten-day period in the statute and the thirty-day period in .the rule, the statutory ten-day period controlled. Id. at 85, 823 P.2d at 327.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Romero
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2025
State v. Bingham
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2024
State v. Chavez
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2023
State v. Rodriguez
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2021
State v. Belknap
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2017
State v. Garnenez
2015 NMCA 022 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2015)
State v. Ramos
New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2012
Strausberg v. Laurel Healthcare Providers, LLC
2012 NMCA 006 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2012)
State v. Garcia
2002 NMCA 050 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1999 NMCA 128, 990 P.2d 224, 128 N.M. 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fernandez-nmctapp-1999.