State v. Majors

430 So. 2d 183
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 28, 1983
Docket15291-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 430 So. 2d 183 (State v. Majors) 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. Majors, 430 So. 2d 183 (La. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

430 So.2d 183 (1983)

STATE of Louisiana, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Irving Richard MAJORS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 15291-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

March 28, 1983.
Rehearing Denied May 5, 1983.
Writ Denied June 27, 1983.

*184 A.L. Blondeau, Asst. Dist. Atty., Bossier Parish, Benton, for plaintiff-appellee.

Wellborn Jack, Jr., Shreveport, for defendant-appellant.

Before PRICE, C.J., and JASPER E. JONES and NORRIS, JJ.

NORRIS, Judge.

Reserving his right to appeal from an adverse ruling on a motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant under State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La. 1976), defendant, Irving Richard Majors, Jr. pled guilty to possession of marijuana in violation of La.R.S. 40:967 and possession of amphetamines with intent to distribute in violation of La.R.S. 40:967(A).

The only issue involved in this appeal is the propriety of the trial court's overruling of Majors' motion to suppress.

Approximately twenty-eight hours prior to the search in question, which occurred in the early morning hours of January 8, 1982, Officer Mike May met with his confidential informant on Poole Road in Bossier Parish at a location near the mobile home where Majors resided. Officers Rambo and Furqueron were in a different vehicle behind May at the time of the meeting. May searched the CI as well as his car and found no drugs. Thereafter, the CI was given money with which to purchase drugs from Majors and from the residents of an identical mobile home located adjacent to Majors' mobile home but closer to Poole Road. The adjacent mobile home and Majors' residence are owned by Majors' father and share a common rural mailbox and address. The occupants of Majors' mobile home are Majors and his wife; the occupants of the adjacent mobile home are Majors' sister and her husband.

After the meeting with the CI, the officers observed the CI park in front of the mobile homes but did not actually see the CI enter either of them. Some one and one-half hours later, the CI met May again, at this meeting turning over to May two packages containing amphetamine which the CI declared had been purchased, one from each mobile home.

May had had Majors under investigation for some ten months and was familiar with *185 both mobile homes and their occupants. After receiving the drugs, the officers proceeded to prepare two separate search warrants, one for each mobile home. The proper papers were prepared on printed forms in normal fashion with the exception that the premises to be searched in each instance was not entirely described on the face of the warrant or the application in support thereof. On both documents concerning Majors' residence, the partial description of the place to be searched read as follows:

... a mobile home being gold in color with white or beige stripes at the top and bottom of the mobile home, located at Route 1, Box 93, Elm Grove, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. See also attached description. [Emphasis added.]

Identical descriptions which complimented and amplified the partial description found on the face of the warrant and the application were, according to the testimony of May, attached to both the warrant and the application and presented to the judge for his consideration and signature. The attached descriptions read as follows:

Description of property is as follows;

A certain mobile home located on a tract of land described as follows;
That part of the west half of section twenty-four, west of Platt River, and northwest of Mulberry Bayou and ten acres off west part of northwest of southwest lying southeast of Bayou in southwest quarter, section twenty-four, township fifteen, range eleven.
Said mobile home is located approximately 2.8 miles east of State Highway 71 south on Poole Road. Poole Road intersects State Highway 71 south and runs in an easterly/westerly direction for approximately two miles and then runs in a southerly/northerly direction.
Said mobile home is located approximately one (1) mile north of the intersection of Levee Board Road and Poole Road. Levee Board Road runs in an easterly/westerly direction and intersects State Highway 71 south on its west end and Poole Road on its east end.
Said mobile home is situated on the east side of Poole Road approximately fifty (50) to one hundred fifty (150) feet east of that road. It is adjacent to another mobile home and is the one fartherest from Poole Road. It is located east, northeast of the other mobile home which is very similar in appearance, however, the mobile home of Majors appears to be the larger of the two.
Majors mobile home is described as being gold in color with white or beige stripes at the top and bottom of home. Said home has approximately two (2) entrance/exit doors on the northerly side and one (1) entrance/exit door on the southerly side.

The documents were later detached by removing the staples for copying purposes and then reattached so that copies could be distributed.

May and Furqueron, who conducted the surveillance, and who were the officers in charge of conducting the search, with the assistance of other law enforcement officers then proceeded to execute the search warrants, searching both the Majors' residence and the adjacent mobile home at approximately the same time. The evidence produced as a result of the search of the residence of Majors is the evidence sought to be suppressed.

On appeal, Majors assigns as error:

(1) the trial court's failure to suppress the evidence, and
(2) the trial court's refusal to disclose the identity of the confidential informant.

Because Majors has failed to brief or argue the second assignment of error, we consider it to be abandoned and will not consider it. See State v. Domingue, 298 So.2d 723 (La.1974).

The real thrust of Majors' argument on appeal is that the warrant in question violates constitutional mandates which require that the warrant particularly describe the place to be searched. Majors strongly contends that the attached description referred to above should not be considered to be a part of the warrant or application because *186 it was not identified on its face with the warrant or application and was not "signed, initialed or sealed by anyone."

Both the United States and Louisiana Constitutions provide that no warrant shall issue unless based on probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation and "particularly describing the place to be searched * * *." U.S.Const.Amend. IV: La. Const. 1974 Art. I, § 5. See also La.C.Cr.P. Art. 162; State v. Cobbs, 350 So.2d 168 (La. 1977); State v. Brown, 412 So.2d 1064 (La. 1982). The object of the particularity requirement is to prevent the search of the wrong premises. In State v. Cobbs, supra, the court stated:

The object of the description in a search warrant is to prevent the search of the wrong premises. If the place to be searched is described in sufficient detail to enable the officers to locate it with reasonable certainty and with the reasonable probability that the police will not search the wrong premises, the description is sufficient. United States v. Prout, 526 F.2d 380 (5th Cir.1976); United States v. Darensbourg,

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Related

Hamilton v. State
556 So. 2d 685 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Ockman
466 So. 2d 658 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1985)
State v. Bailey
446 So. 2d 352 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1984)
State v. Majors
435 So. 2d 438 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
430 So. 2d 183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-majors-lactapp-1983.