Collins v. State
| Decision Date | 12 February 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 63434,63434 |
| Parties | COLLINS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
B. Samuel Engram, Jr., Albany, for appellant.
Hobart M. Hind, Dist. Atty., Albany, for appellee.
The defendant was indicted for the offense of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, convicted by a jury, and sentenced to ten years on probation. Held :
1. Error is assigned to the overruling of defendant's motion to suppress evidence (marijuana) seized after a search without a warrant.
The following facts were adduced at the hearing on the motion.
On February 14, 1981, a Dougherty County Deputy Sheriff called the Dougherty County Jail and told the matron there that he had information that the defendant, whose husband was an inmate in the jail, would be bringing marijuana into the jail. The Deputy instructed the matron to search the defendant, "particularly the upper portion of her body," when the defendant arrived at the jail. After the defendant arrived, a search of her person was conducted and two envelopes were found hidden under her halter top. The envelopes contained material which was subsequently identified as marijuana.
The Deputy Sheriff testified that on the afternoon of February 13, 1981, he received a phone call from a confidential informant whom he had known for "a couple of years", had used in the past, had received information which had "always proved to be reliable" and which had led to the discovery of other contraband and to the arrest of other persons. The Deputy was told by the informant that the defendant would be visiting her husband in jail over the weekend, and that she would be in possession of marijuana. The informant also told the Deputy that he would receive a call the next day as to what time the defendant would visit the jail. After the phone call, the Deputy related "I checked the jail there of the marijuana that was being sold in there, and from whom they were buying it." The following morning, on February 14, 1981, at approximately 9:00 a. m., the Deputy received another phone call from the confidential informant. The Deputy gave the following account as to the subject of the phone conversation: "when they called me back on the 14th, they told me she would be in possession of marijuana and that she was coming to jail, and exactly how long it had been since they'd seen her with it, I don't know, but it was on the same day that they called me, and told me where it would be." He subsequently called the matron at the jail and relayed the information to her, along with instructions for the search.
The trial judge did not permit defense counsel to question the Deputy as to how the informant knew that the defendant was going to take marijuana to the jail.
"The 'probable cause' requirements for a search without a warrant are the same requirements necessary for the issuance of a warrant by a magistrate." Morgan v. Kiff, 230 Ga. 277, 280, 196 S.E.2d 445 [overruled on other grounds, Jacobs v. Hopper, 238 Ga. 461, 463, 233 S.E.2d 169]. See also State v. Watts, 154 Ga.App. 789(3), 270 S.E.2d 52; Whitley v. Warden, Wyoming State Penitentiary, 401 U.S. 560, 566(9), 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306.
We therefore consider the facts of this case under the rationale of Aquilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723; and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637; which set forth a two-prong test, to wit: "(1) that the affidavit gives reasons for the informer's reliability, and (2) that the...
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State v. Peterson, S00A1512.
...are imminently sensible. Indeed, the appellate courts of this State have made similar holdings, such as that in Collins v. State, 161 Ga.App. 546(1), 287 S.E.2d 708 (1982): "This court would be remiss in its duty if it permitted artificially created exigent circumstances." Permitting the po......
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...stopped on Belair Road. Although police may not create exigent circumstances to avoid obtaining search warrants, Collins v. State, 161 Ga.App. 546(1), 287 S.E.2d 708 (1982), police officers are not required to search and arrest at the exact moment probable cause arises. See United States v.......
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...driving the black Peugeot adequately corroborated the tip from the previously reliable confidential informer. See Collins v. State, 161 Ga.App. 546, 287 S.E.2d 708 (1982). This case is one involving a tip from a known confidential informer, whose reliability was established. This fact, comb......