Raffield v. State, 49872

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Florida
• Citation: 351 So.2d 945
• Docket Number: No. 49872,49872
• Parties: Leveral RAFFIELD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.
• Decision Date: 14 July 1977

Page 945

351 So.2d 945

Leveral RAFFIELD, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent.

No. 49872.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 14, 1977.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 6, 1977.

Guillermo A. Ruiz and Philip J. Padovano of Ruiz, Padovano & Schrader, St. Petersburg, for petitioner.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Patti Englander, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

BOYD, Justice.

We are reviewing the decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, reported at 333 So.2d 532 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976), because it conflicts with Hannigan v. State, 307 So.2d 850 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975).

This is the factual background as related in the opinion of the District Court. In early December of 1973 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement received information that Leveral Raffield was involved in importing marijuana somewhere along the Florida Panhandle. Suspicion of Raffield grew when Marine Patrol officers discovered tracks from a large vehicle and 261 grams of scattered marijuana on a creek bank, near his farm. Other government agents reported that Raffield, a former welfare recipient, was showing a lot of money and had purchased the forty-acre farm in his wife's name. The Department set up surveillance in a fire tower from which the creek bank and part of Raffield's property were in view.

In the meantime, government agents began to observe a Winnebago believed to have been purchased in Jacksonville by a suspected drug dealer. On December 23 the Winnebago, accompanied by a Dodge van and a pickup truck, headed north from Gainesville toward the Panhandle. At one a. m. the following morning, the day of Christmas Eve, agents observed the vehicles on a road leading to either Raffield's farm or Highway 71. Agents posted at Highway 71 did not see the vehicles pass. An hour and a half or so later the vehicles, much lower to the ground as if heavily laden, returned, presumably from Raffield's farm. They were stopped in Tallahassee at six a. m., Eastern Standard Time, and searched. Each contained marijuana and the drivers were arrested.

Upon learning of the arrests an attorney for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement directed agents to search Raffield's barn without attempting to obtain a warrant. ^* The barn was searched at nine a. m., Eastern Standard Time, and in it were discovered two vehicles, each holding large quantities of marijuana. Raffield's motion to suppress introduction of the marijuana was denied. At trial it was admitted into evidence over his objection. He was convicted of possession of marijuana and conspiracy to sell or deliver marijuana for which he received consecutive imprisonment sentences totalling ten years.

Raffield attacked his conviction before the district court for being obtained with evidence seized in an unreasonable search contrary to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The state argued that the search was reasonable and therefore excepted from the warrant requirement in two ways: Raffield consented to it and there existed exigent circumstances, coupled with probable cause to search. The district court declined to consider the issue of consent because it found the latter exception to apply and affirmed the conviction. Judge Mills dissented because he could not find that exigent circumstances existed.

We agree with Judge Mills. The state has the burden of showing a warrantless search comes within an exception to the warrant requirement. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). It has not met that burden here.

Probable cause to search plus exigent circumstances will usually justify a warrantless search. Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). The state claims that the circumstances under which the search of Raffield's barn was undertaken were sufficiently exigent because it was likely that the arrested drivers would alert...