Gillette v. State

Decision Date12 April 1990
Docket NumberNo. 89-149,89-149
Citation561 So.2d 4
Parties15 Fla. L. Weekly D970 Sandra GILLETTE, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

Ronald E. Fox of Ronald E. Fox, P.A., Umatilla, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Fleming Lee, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Robin A. Compton, Certified Legal Intern, Daytona Beach, for appellee.

COBB, Judge.

The appellant, Sandra Gillette, challenges the validity of a search warrant predicated upon the affidavit of an undisclosed confidential informant. The confidential informant had not supplied information in the past and was not a citizen informant; nor did the affidavit show independent indicia of reliability, i.e., inculpatory details independently corroborated by law enforcement personnel prior to issuance of the warrant, as in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Corroboration of easily accessible information does not establish the credibility of an informant. State v. Novak, 502 So.2d 990 (Fla. 3d DCA), review denied, 511 So.2d 299 (Fla.1987).

The instant factual scenario is very similar to that in Blue v. State, 441 So.2d 165 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), wherein the court said:

To place our imprimatur on the warrant in the present case would be to sanction a search in every instance where a person of unknown reliability brings contraband to the police, tells them that he obtained it in a particular place, and that there is more where it came from. This is not the meaning of Illinois v. Gates.

See also Williams v. State, 531 So.2d 246 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988).

REVERSED.

W. SHARP and GOSHORN, JJ., concur.

To continue reading

Request your trial
3 cases
  • Green v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • December 8, 2006
    ...not establish the veracity of the confidential informant. See McNeely v. State, 690 So.2d 1337 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); Gillette v. State, 561 So.2d 4 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990). However, in this case, the affiant did not rely only on the verification of the location of appellant's camper and vehicle,......
  • McNeely v. State
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • March 14, 1997
    ...and the description of the house and yard. It is not enough to verify innocent details such as these. As explained in Gillette v. State, 561 So.2d 4 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990), "[c]orroboration of easily accessible information does not establish the credibility of an informant." In Gillette, the c......
  • Irizarre v. State, 87-2116
    • United States
    • Florida District Court of Appeals
    • April 24, 1990

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT