Sosebee v. State, A97A0880
| Decision Date | 19 June 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. A97A0880,A97A0880 |
| Citation | 227 Ga.App. 21,488 S.E.2d 102 |
| Parties | , 97 FCDR 2482 SOSEBEE v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Steven M. Ellis, Chickamauga, for appellant.
Ralph L. Van Pelt, Jr., District Attorney, Michael J. Moeller, Bruce E. Roberts, Assistant District Attorneys, for appellee.
Timothy Allen Sosebee was indicted on one count of possession of over one ounce of marijuana and one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. OCGA § 16-13-30(j)(1). He was convicted by a jury on both counts, his motion for new trial was denied, and he appeals.
Sosebee, in his sole enumeration of error, contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. He asserts that a search of his residence pursuant to a warrant was improper because the request for the warrant was based in part upon illegally obtained evidence; without that evidence, he contends, the request did not establish probable cause. We disagree and affirm.
In reviewing a motion to suppress, (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Morgan v. State, 195 Ga.App. 732, 735, 394 S.E.2d 639 (1990). And our task is "simply to ensure that the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed." (Citation and punctuation omitted.) Midura v. State, 183 Ga.App. 523, 525(4), 359 S.E.2d 416 (1987) ().
Construed to support the trial court's ruling, the evidence shows that, while driving in Walker County, Sosebee and a female companion, Hendricks, were arrested. Sosebee was charged with disorderly conduct, and Hendricks was charged with having an open container of alcoholic beverage, driving without a license, and possessing marijuana. A routine check revealed that the vehicle occupied by Sosebee and Hendricks was registered to Gary Holt, a fugitive who was wanted for a series of home invasion robberies in Tennessee and was believed to be armed and dangerous. Tennessee law enforcement authorities were notified, and two Chattanooga police officers came to Walker County the next day to search for Holt. Sosebee refused to talk to the officers, but Hendricks was more communicative and told the officers she had seen someone matching Holt's description in Sosebee's trailer.
Based on this information, the Tennessee officers, Walker County deputies, and FBI agents went to Sosebee's trailer and sought permission from his mother, who lived next door, to search for Holt. Sosebee's mother stated that the trailer was hers, signed a consent to search form, and gave the officers a key to the trailer. The officers searched Sosebee's trailer for the fugitive but did not find him. They did not conduct any other search, but looked only into "any place that a human could get into." They did not see any drugs.
A tracking dog and handlers for the Georgia Department of Corrections were summoned to the scene in an attempt to track Holt. While the dog handlers were standing by their truck in the driveway "waiting for further instructions," Sosebee's dog approached the truck barking and attempting to climb into the truck. One of the handlers placed the dog in a nearby pen to secure it and to protect the tracking dog. After Sosebee's dog was placed inside, it dragged a plastic bag out of the doghouse in the pen. The dog handler, concerned that the bag might contain "something that the dog was about to choke on," retrieved the bag from the pen and found that it contained drug paraphernalia.
Meanwhile, an officer with the Lafayette Police Department was conducting a telephone interview with Hendricks, who told him that she had purchased marijuana and pills from Sosebee at his trailer the previous night and that she saw a box containing four pounds of marijuana....
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