Garza v. Com.

• Decision Date: 30 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 831726,831726
• Parties: John Louis GARZA v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 127

323 S.E.2d 127

228 Va. 559

John Louis GARZA v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia.

Record No. 831726.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

Nov. 30, 1984.

James R. Swanson, Salem (Phillips, Doherty & Swanson, Salem, on brief), for appellant.

Karen A. Laserson, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Gerald L. Baliles, Atty. Gen. on brief), for appellee.

Present: All the Justices.

THOMAS, Justice.

John Louis Garza was tried by a jury and convicted of two offenses: possession with intent to distribute more than five pounds of marijuana, in violation of Code § 18.2-248.1; and possession of cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance, in violation of Code § 18.2-250. Garza was sentenced to 15 years for the marijuana offense and 2 years for the cocaine offense.

On appeal, Garza assigns two errors. First, he contends the affidavit was insufficient to support the issuance of the search warrant that was relied on to seize the illegal drugs. Second, he contends the affidavit was filed in the wrong place. Garza argues that on either ground his convictions must be overturned. We disagree.

Garza was stopped by a State Trooper for speeding on Interstate 81 in Roanoke County. Garza did not have an operator's license. As a result, he was arrested for speeding and driving without an operator's license and taken to the City of Salem-Roanoke County Jail. A passenger in Garza's car drove the vehicle to the jail's parking lot and left it there.

At the jail, Garza was unable to post bond. Consequently, he was incarcerated. During a body search made incident to Garza's incarceration, a sheriff's deputy discovered a folded dollar bill wrapped in plastic. The bill was unfolded and found to contain a white, powdery substance suspected of being a controlled substance. Subsequent chemical analysis established that the white substance was cocaine. The dollar bill and its contents were confiscated.

After the contraband had been found on Garza, a Trooper went to the jail's parking lot and looked inside Garza's vehicle from the outside. The Trooper observed, inside the car, a dollar bill folded in a manner similar to the one just confiscated from Garza.

The Trooper went immediately to a magistrate to secure a search warrant. In the affidavit for the warrant, the Trooper set forth the following facts upon which the magistrate was to rely in deciding whether there was probable cause to issue the warrant:

On 1-3-83 the affiant stopped a 1976, blue, 4 door, Pontiac on Interstate I-81, at Exit 39 in Roanoke County for a traffic violation. There were two subjects in the vehicle. The driver was a John Louis Garza and the passenger was a David S. Belisle (license plates registered to him). Garza was arrested for not having [an operator's] license and speeding and taken to the Roanoke County Jail. A search of his person at the jail revealed a plastic packet which contained a dollar bill (folded) which contained a white powdery substance believed to be a controlled substance. A visual examination of the interior of the vehicle from the outside reveals a folded bill which resembles the dollar bill with white powdery substance found on Garza.

The Trooper noted in his affidavit that he had personal knowledge of the facts. On the basis of the affidavit, the magistrate issued a warrant to search the car.

The vehicle was moved inside the garage at the jail and searched. In the trunk, the Trooper found three cardboard boxes of green, plant-like material which, upon later analysis, was determined to be 68 pounds of marijuana. In addition, the Trooper recovered more of the white powdery substance which turned out to be cocaine. Also found were two .38 caliber revolvers. All of the items found in the car were inventoried. On the day following the search, the search warrant, the underlying affidavit, and the search inventory were filed in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Roanoke County.

In order to decide whether the affidavit was sufficient to support the search warrant, we must look to the totality of the circumstances. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). In Gates, the Supreme Court rejected any hypertechnical, rigidly compartmentalized, overly legalistic analyses when reviewing probable cause determinations made by judges and magistrates. The Supreme Court stated that the correct approach is as follows:

The task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the "veracity" and "basis of knowledge" of persons supplying hearsay information, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a "substantial basis for ... conclud[ing]" that probable cause existed.

462 U.S. at 238, 103 S.Ct. at 2332 (quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 271, 80 S.Ct. 725, 736, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960)) (emphasis added). In addition, citing Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), the Gates Court urged caution where courts are called upon to engage in "after-the-fact scrutiny ... of the sufficiency of an affidavit." 462 U.S. at 236, 103 S.Ct. at 2331. In Gates, the Court said such after-the-fact reviews should not be de novo and that great deference should be given to the magistrate's finding of probable cause.

Here, the facts were recounted by a State Trooper who had first-hand knowledge of the events. He was a highly reliable source. See Saunders v. Commonwealth, 218 Va. 294, 301, 237 S.E.2d 150, 155 (1977). There was no reason for the magistrate to question the Trooper's veracity. Moreover, the Trooper's affidavit contained factual allegations from which the magistrate could reasonably conclude that there existed a link between the contraband found on Garza's person and the automobile Garza had been driving when arrested. Given all of the foregoing, the magistrate properly concluded that there existed a probability that the automobile contained contraband.

The existence of such a probability is all that is required to meet the test of probable cause. We have described probable cause as follows:

Probable cause, as the very name implies, deals with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations in every day life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. Probable cause exists when the facts and circumstances within the arresting officer's knowledge and of which he has reasonable trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense had been or is being committed.

Saunders, 218 Va. at 300, 237 S.E.2d at 155 (emphasis added) (citing Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 313, 79 S.Ct. 329, 333, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959); Schaum v. Commonwealth, 215 Va. 498, 500, 211 S.E.2d 73, 75 (1975)). In Gates, the Supreme Court emphasized the fluid nature of the concept: "probable cause is a fluid concept--turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts--not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules." 462 U.S. at 232, 103 S.Ct. at 2328. Considering the flexible nature of probable cause, giving deference to the magistrate's on-the-spot determination, and analyzing the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that there existed a substantial basis upon which the magistrate justifiably relied in finding probable cause.

Garza's next argument turns on the resolution of a conflict between two statutes. Garza...