Bonds v. State
| Decision Date | 15 May 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. PD–0039–12.,PD–0039–12. |
| Citation | 403 S.W.3d 867 |
| Parties | Michael Ray BONDS, Appellee v. The STATE of Texas. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
William A. Bratton, III, Dallas, TX, for Appellant.
Lisa McMinn, State Prosecuting Attorney, Austin, TX, for State.
Michael Bonds moved to suppress the evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant by contesting the warrant's validity. The trial judge overruled his motion finding the errors in the warrant's description of the location to be searched did not invalidate the warrant. The court of appeals found the warrant lacked probable cause and reversed. Finding that the warrant was supported by probable cause and sufficiently particular, we reverse the court of appeals's judgment.
On August 5th, 2008, Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Jeff Ashburn, upon presenting his sworn affidavit, sought and obtained a search warrant authorizing the search for “[d]rugs and/or chemicals kept, prepared, or manufactured in violation of the law of the State of Texas, to wit: Possession of Controlled Substance in Penalty Group 1, (Methamphetamine) (Cocaine)” and various drug paraphernalia associated with the distribution of methamphetamine and cocaine from a location described as [a] single story residence located at 401 Barker Street, Bowie, Montague County, Texas. Said residence is a white wooden framed residence with a grey composition shingle roof with the front of the residence facing south. Said residence has two (2) windows facing towards Barker Street. In addition, the property has a detached garage northwest of said residence. The garage has a large utility door facing towards Barker Street. Parked east of the garage is a small white and blue camper trailer.
In his supporting affidavit, Ashburn described the suspected place and the items to be seized as stated above. His affidavit also described his investigation as follows. As a commissioned peace officer with the Department of Public Safety for over ten years, the past twenty-six months of which he was assigned to the Narcotics Service, Ashburn stated that he is trained in the investigation of narcotics violations, the handling of witnesses, search warrant preparation, and the investigation of persons who derive substantial income from illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of illegal controlled substances. Ashburn's investigation began when a credible confidential informant told him in November 2007 that he had seen Bonds in possession of methamphetamine and had also seen methamphetamine in Bonds's home “located at Texas State Highway 59 and Barker Street in Bowie, Montague County, Texas.” Ashburn then transported the confidential informant to Bonds's home, which Ashburn identified as “401 Barker Street, Bowie, Montague County, Texas.” The confidential informant identified Bonds from a photographic line-up as the person with whom he “conducted a controlled purchase of methamphetamine.”
Ashburn further determined that, according to records maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Bonds listed his address as 401 Barker Street, Bowie, Montague County, Texas. Further, Ashburn conducted a criminal-history search revealing Bonds's prior arrest for possession of marijuana and for possession of a penalty-group 1 controlled substance, and multiple arrests for possession of a penalty-group 1 controlled substance analogue. On May 27th, 2008, July 15th, 2008, and August 5th, 2008, Ashburn conducted garbage searches and “obtained care custody and control of refuse that had been discarded and left for collection at the said residence, 401 Barker Street, Bowie, Montague County, Texas.” These searches produced a number of melted glass smoking pipes containing drug residue which tested positive for cocaine and methamphetamine, plastic bags containing methamphetamine and cocaine residue, and a MasterCard application addressed to Bonds at 401 Barker Street, Bowie, Texas 76230. With the assistance of other officers, Ashburn executed the warrant and seized methamphetamine, other controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, and United States currency.
Bonds filed a pre-trial motion to suppress claiming that the evidence was seized pursuant to an invalid warrant due to the lack of probable cause that the items sought were where they were claimed to be. In support of his motion, Bonds offered and the trial court admitted several photographs in the motion-to-suppress hearing purporting to prove the warrant's description of the location to be searched was partially inaccurate in describing the address as 401 Barker and the roof color as grey.
Taken from several different perspectives, the photographs depict two residences in relatively close proximity to one another and facing the same street (which Ashburn testified was Barker Street) and a garage located behind both residences. Ashburn identified the residence that was actually searched. The photographs show it to have the following characteristics:
• a single-story residence;
• presumably wood-framed;
• a white exterior;
• south-facing;
• two south-facing windows;
• a brown shingle roof; and
• a detached, south-facing garage which appears to be behind this residence and has a large utility door.
The photographs also showed that the residence searched displayed a placard that read “422 Cowan,” but according to Ashburn, the placard was not there during his investigation or the search warrant's execution. Ashburn testified there were no markings of any kind on the residence searched.
Two of the photographs show in closer detail the characteristics of the other residence which was located to the east of the residence searched:
• a single-story residence;
• manufactured or trailer home;
• a white (or perhaps light grey) exterior
• south-facing;
• the numbers “401” displayed next to the front door;
• six south-facing windows;
• a grey shingle roof; and
• a ramp leading up to a large wooden front porch surrounded by a wooden railing.
A garage can clearly be seen with a large utility door facing Barker Street, although the photographs' perspective restricts our ability to determine the garage's directional relationship to the two residences. The small white and blue camper mentioned in the warrant does not appear in any of the photographs.
Ashburn described the searched residence as a white, wood-framed residence with two south-facing windows and a brown roof. He conceded that his previous description of the location's roof as grey was a mistake. Drawing a distinction between the residences, Ashburn testified that the other residence was a “premanufactured,” or trailer home, as opposed to a wood-framed house. Ashburn testified that, when he referred to 401 Barker in his affidavit, he was referring to the white, wood-framed residence with the brown roof, not the manufactured home with the grey roof. He further testified that he had no difficulty identifying the location intended to be searched and that the intended location was in fact searched.
After hearing Ashburn's testimony, the trial judge denied Bonds's motion and entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Notable among them, the trial judge found:
7. The residence searched by authority of the search warrant is in close proximity to two other buildings. One of the buildings is a residence which visibly bears the house numbers “401 Barker Street;” this residence is East of and separate from the residence actually searched by authority of the search warrant. Both residences face South. The residence search[ed] by authority of the search warrant has two windows facing Barker Street. The residence situated to the East of the searched residence has six windows facing Barker Street.
8. The residence searched by authority of the search warrant is a white, wood frame residence with a reddish brown roof and detached garage. There is a garage located just northwest of [the] residence searched and of the house to the East of the residence searched.1
The trial judge further found that Ashburn's affidavit contained errors in the description of the roof color and the address of the property to be searched. However, the trial judge concluded that Ashburn's affidavit established probable cause for the warrant's issuance because the property actually searched had the correct number of windows and, as the executing officer, Ashburn's personal knowledge permitted him to identify the correct location to be searched pursuant to the search warrant.
After the denial of his motion to suppress, Bonds entered a guilty plea to possession of a penalty-group 1 controlled substance with intent to deliver and was sentenced to twenty-five years' confinement.
On appeal, Bonds again contended that due to Ashburn's misidentification of the location to be searched in the affidavit, the warrant was not supported by probable cause. The court of appeals agreed and concluded that “the totality of the circumstances set forth in Ashburn's affidavit fail to indicate a fair probability or a substantial chance that the items identified in the warrant would be found at the residence searched.” 2 The court held that the affidavit failed to establish the “object-place nexus” because the facts stated in Ashburn's affidavit all linked to 401 Barker and did not “match up” with the location actually searched.3 In reaching its conclusion, the court assumed, without deciding, that the description of the location intended to be searched “was sufficient to enable officers executing the warrant to locate the target residence and to distinguish it from other places in the community.” 4
In assuming that the description of the residence to be searched was adequate and unnecessary to the disposition of the...
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