Brown v. State
| Decision Date | 12 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. A00A0656.,A00A0656. |
| Citation | 244 Ga. App. 440,535 S.E.2d 785 |
| Parties | BROWN v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
W. Michael Maloof, Maurice G. Kenner, Decatur, for appellant.
J. Tom Morgan, District Attorney, Keith E. Adams, Robert M. Coker, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Following a bench trial, the trial court found Reuben Brown guilty of trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. On appeal, Brown contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. Brown also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. For reasons that follow, we affirm.
The record demonstrates that, on April 7, 1998, a confidential informant told DeKalb County Police Detective M.T. Lewis that drugs were being sold from an apartment in Sutton Village on Jolly Avenue. Based on this information, Lewis set up a controlled buy. After Lewis searched the informant to ensure that he had no contraband or money on him, Lewis gave him money and watched him walk into the apartment. Approximately ten minutes later, the informant returned to Lewis carrying a bag containing cocaine. Lewis then completed an affidavit and application for a search warrant. On April 7, the magistrate issued the warrant, which Lewis and members of the DeKalb County Strike Force executed. Upon entering the apartment, the police found Brown and a 14-year-old female in a room with two couches, a television, and a stack of clothing.
In plain sight on top of the television, the police found marijuana. Under the couch next to Brown, the police found a handgun. Beneath the stack of clothing, the police discovered a duffel bag that contained a small safe. Upon opening the safe, the officers found a large amount of cocaine. Brown also was searched, and officers discovered a large amount of money, a plastic bag containing 27.1 grams of cocaine, and another plastic bag containing 17.3 grams of marijuana. Brown was charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. At his preliminary hearing, Brown admitted that the drugs in his pocket belonged to him, but claimed that the cocaine in the safe and the gun were not his. Following a bench trial, Brown was found guilty of trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.1
1. In two enumerations of error, Brown contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to suppress. According to Brown, Lewis' affidavit was insufficient because it failed to inform the magistrate about the informant's criminal background and his pending criminal charges. Thus, Brown argues, the magistrate lacked the requisite information to determine whether probable cause existed. We disagree.
In order to fully apprise the magistrate, an officer seeking a warrant should provide the magistrate with any information relevant to the informant's reliability, including information about his criminal history or any pending criminal charges.3 But an officer's failure to provide such information does not automatically warrant suppression of evidence. If any omissions on the part of the officer are offset by independent corroboration of criminal activity, then the magistrate may still have sufficient information to find that probable cause exists.4
Here, Lewis' affidavit was based, in large part, on the controlled buy in which he sent the informant into the apartment with no contraband, and the informant returned with cocaine. Under the "common sense" approach to search warrants, this controlled buy strongly corroborated the reliability of the informant and showed a fair probability that contraband would be found in the apartment.5 Accordingly, the magistrate had sufficient information to establish probable cause, and the trial court did not err in denying Brown's motion to suppress.6
2. Brown contends that the evidence was insufficient to authorize his convictions because others had access to the apartment.7 June Ferguson, an employee of Sutton Village apartments, testified that Brown did not rent the apartment and that she had only seen him at the apartment a few days prior to the execution of the search warrant. Because both the tenant and the juvenile female had equal access to the apartment, Brown contends that he cannot be shown to have possessed either the gun, the marijuana, or the safe containing cocaine. Again, we disagree.
Under the equal access rule, "merely finding contraband on premises occupied by a defendant is not sufficient to support a conviction if it affirmatively appears from the evidence that persons other than the defendant had equal opportunity to commit the crime."8 "A finding of constructive possession...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Davenport v. the State.Walsh v. the State.
...but first stating that “possession of the firearm was established by [defendant's] dominion over his vehicle”); Brown v. State, 244 Ga.App. 440, 442(2), 535 S.E.2d 785 (2000) (upholding conviction by applying joint constructive possession standard). Still others appear to sustain conviction......
-
State v. Palmer
...788, 790-791(1), 595 S.E.2d 610 (2004); Turner v. State, 247 Ga.App. 775, 779(4), 544 S.E.2d 765 (2001); Brown v. State, 244 Ga. App. 440, 441-442(1), 535 S.E.2d 785 (2000); Starks, 240 Ga.App. at 347-348(1), 523 S.E.2d 397; Lewis v. State, 234 Ga.App. 873, 875(1)(a), 508 S.E.2d 218 (1998);......
-
Roberson v. State
...L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Williams v. State, 233 Ga.App. 217(1), 504 S.E.2d 53 (1998). 15. OCGA § 16-13-30(b). 16. See Brown v. State, 244 Ga.App. 440, 442(2), 535 S.E.2d 785 (2000). 17. See Gremillion v. State, 233 Ga.App. 393, 396-397(3), 504 S.E.2d 265 (1998). Compare Parris v. State, 226 Ga.A......
-
Stacey v. State, S13A0268.
...must be based upon some connection between defendant and the contraband other than mere spatial proximity. Brown v. State, 244 Ga.App. 440, 442(2), 535 S.E.2d 785 (2000). Stacey lived with DeDeaux in the bedroom where the cocaine was found, creating a rebuttable presumption that they had jo......