Haynes v. State, No. 44217

• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Writing for the Court: ODOM
• Citation: 475 S.W.2d 739
• Parties: William Berry HAYNES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Docket Number: No. 44217
• Decision Date: 14 December 1971

Page 739

475 S.W.2d 739 William Berry HAYNES, Appellant,
v.
The STATE of Texas, Appellee. No. 44217. Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. Dec. 14, 1971.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 16, 1972.

Stayton, Maloney, Black, Hearne & Babb, by Kent M. Rider, Austin, for appellant.

Robert O. Smith, Dist. Atty., Lawrence Wells and Phoebe Lester, Austin, and Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

OPINION

ODOM, Judge.

This appeal is from a conviction for the offense of unlawful possession of a narcotic drug, to-wit: marihuana. Punishment was assessed by the court at two years, and probation was granted.

On March 12, 1970, officers of the Austin Police Department executed a search warrant on one apartment in a multi-unit apartment house in that city. Upon entering the apartment, the officers observed appellant and three other persons sitting around a card table playing cards. The search revealed two 'baggies' of marihuana and a letter addressed to appellant at the apartment contained in a cardboard box. The box in question was located under a table approximately four feet behind the place where appellant was seated.

By his first ground of error, appellant attacks the validity of the search warrant, contending the place to be searched is not described with the particularity required by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 9, of the Texas Constitution, Vernon's Ann.St.

The description is as follows:

'a two story, white frame, asbestos siding house, located at 604 W. 28th Street, Austin, Travis County, Texas. The room to be searched is reached by going in the left front screen door, then by going in the first door on the right and also to be searched are all outbuildings and motor vehicles appurtenant thereto.'

The test for determining the sufficiency of a search warrant's description of the place to be searched is whether that description is sufficient to apprise the police of where they are to conduct the search. McCormick v. State, 169 Tex.Cr.R. 53, 331 S.W.2d 307; Martinez v. State, 162 Tex.Cr.R. 356, 285 S.W.2d 221; Rhodes v. State, 134 Tex.Cr.R. 553, 116 S.W.2d 395. Where the warrant describes a multi

Page 741

-unit dwelling, the description therein must contain sufficient guidelines to apprise the officers executing that warrant of the particular unit to be searched. Aguirre v. State, 109 Tex.Cr.R. 584, 7 S.W.2d 76. Where the warrant contains accurate directions as to how to locate the place to be searched and a showing is made that the place searched is the place described, specificity is met in the warrant. McCormick v. State, supra; Childress v. State, 163 Tex.Cr.R. 467, 294 S.W.2d 110; Harrison v. State, 149 Tex.Cr.R. 513, 196 S.W.2d 933; Rhodes v. State, supra.

We find that the directions to the officers were sufficient to guide them to the place to be searched and that the apartment searched was shown at the trial to be the one described.

Next, the contention is that 'the trial court erred in receiving evidence of a letter seized in the apartment.' The letter in question was not introduced. The arresting officer testified that he found the envelope, which was addressed to appellant, in the same cardboard box in which the marihuana was found. Appellant contends: (1) that the seizure of the envelope was in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 9, of the Texas Constitution; (2) that the parol recitation by the arresting officer was hearsay; and (3) that the parol recitation by the arresting officer of the information existing on the envelope was contrary to the best evidence rule.

The problem of determining the validity of the seizure of private papers is not a new one. See, Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886); Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029 (1765); Wilkes v. Wood, 19 How.St.Tr. 1153...