State v. Griffith

129 Wash. App. 482, 2005 WL 2217086
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided September 13, 2005·No. Nos. 22405-8-III; 22406-6-III·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinions

f 1 Aaron Griffith was convicted of possessing child pornography and dealing in child pornography. Claiming the court erred by denying his motion to suppress the search warrant and allowing the State to amend the information after both sides had rested, he appeals. We affirm the court’s order denying suppression of the warrant but reverse the late amendment of the information.

Kurtz, J.

¶2 Aaron Griffith hosted a party on the night of April 27, 2001. C.R. attended the party with J.T. Hewitt. C.R. was 16 years old at the time.

¶3 C.R. drank several beers at the party. She offered to pose for Mr. Griffith so he could use his new digital camera. She then started to take off her clothes and posed for what some described as seductive pictures. Several people were present at this time. After taking the pictures, Mr. Griffith showed them to others using the viewing window on his camera as well as his computer.

¶4 Thereafter, C.R. went to sleep and woke everyone up when she started to scream. Another male party guest was on top of her and she was not dressed from the waist down. She later reported this incident to the police as an attempted rape.

¶5 During the attempted rape investigation, the man C.R. accused told the police about the pictures Mr. Griffith [486] had taken. C.R. confirmed that pictures were taken of her in the nude and some were put on a computer.

¶6 The police then filed an affidavit for a search warrant for Mr. Griffith’s residence. The affidavit indicated that the affiant had interviewed numerous individuals and reviewed police reports. The affiant stated that Mr. Griffith hosted a birthday party at which beer was served. C.R., a minor, was a guest at the party. C.R. was the alleged victim of a rape and, during the investigation of that rape, the police learned Mr. Griffith had taken nude photos of C.R. The pictures were a birthday present to Mr. Griffith.

¶7 Based upon the affidavit, a judge issued a search warrant. The warrant indicated there was probable cause to believe evidence of possession of child pornography and possession of pictures of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct was likely to be found at Mr. Griffith’s residence. The warrant permitted the seizure of many items, including computers, all cameras, videotapes, unprocessed film, and storage media.

¶8 The police executed the warrant on May 30, 2001, and seized, among other things, numerous computer disks, hard drives, and two cameras. On the hard drives, the police found several pornographic images, some of which appeared to be minors. They also found evidence of a web site where these images were available for download.

¶9 On September 21, 2001, the State charged Mr. Griffith with possession of child pornography. On January 9, 2002, the State amended the information to add one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. On February 21, the State filed a second information charging Mr. Griffith with dealing in child pornography pursuant to ROW 9.68A.050(1). The court granted the State’s motion to consolidate the two cases.

f 10 On January 13, 2003, Mr. Griffith filed a motion to suppress evidence seized during the execution of the search warrant. He argued the affidavit supporting the warrant did not state a crime, the information contained in the [487] affidavit was stale, the affidavit did not show an adequate nexus between the alleged offense and the place to be searched, and the affidavit was not supported by probable cause. The court denied the motion.

¶11 Mr. Griffith claims the court erred by denying his motion to suppress on the basis that the search warrant was improperly issued. When reviewing a denial of a CrR 3.6 motion to suppress, we review whether substantial evidence supports the challenged findings of fact and, if so, whether the findings support the conclusions of law. State v. Mendez, 137 Wn.2d 208, 214, 970 P.2d 722 (1999).

¶12 Mr. Griffith does not assign error to any of the court’s CrR 3.6 findings of fact; rather, he first claims the warrant was invalid because it was not supported by probable cause. In determining the validity of a search warrant, the court considers whether the affidavit, on its face, established probable cause. State v. Perez, 92 Wn. App. 1, 4, 963 P.2d 881 (1998). An affidavit is sufficient to support probable cause if it contains information from which an ordinarily prudent person would conclude a crime has been committed and evidence of a crime can be found at the place to be searched. Id. The standard of probable cause is governed by the probability, rather than a prima facie showing, of criminal activity. In re Pers. Restraint of Yim, 139 Wn.2d 581, 594-95, 989 P.2d 512 (1999) (quoting State v. Seagull, 95 Wn.2d 898, 907, 632 P.2d 44 (1981)). The determination of probable cause is given great deference. Id. (quoting State v. Cole, 128 Wn.2d 262, 286, 906 P.2d 925 (1995)). Affidavits are to be read as a whole, in a commonsense, nontechnical manner, with doubts resolved in favor of the warrant. State v. Casto, 39 Wn. App. 229, 232, 692 P.2d 890 (1984). The determination of probable cause is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. State v. Estorga, 60 Wn. App. 298, 303, 803 P.2d 813 (1991).

113 Mr. Griffith contends the warrant was invalid because the affidavit did not indicate “sexually explicit” photographs of a minor would be found and, consequently, the affidavit did not suggest any criminal activity was occur[488] ring. The affidavit for the warrant indicates that C.R., a minor, posed naked for Mr. Griffith. It states he took pictures and then hooked the camera up to his computer.

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State v. Griffith, 129 Wash. App. 482, 2005 WL 2217086 (Wash. Ct. App. 2005).

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