St. Angelo v. State
| Citation | 13 Fla. L. Weekly 2436,532 So.2d 1346 |
| Decision Date | 02 November 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. BS-365,BS-365 |
| Parties | 13 Fla. L. Weekly 2436 Paul ST. ANGELO, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Florida (US) |
Michael E. Allen, Public Defender, and Maria Ines Suber, Asst. Public Defender, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Gary L. Printy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
This appeal is from a plea of nolo contendere to trafficking and possession of cannabis and to possession of hashish of less than twenty grams, wherein appellant specifically reserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence. In his motion, appellant maintained that the affidavit in support of the search warrant was legally insufficient and did not on its face demonstrate that probable cause existed for the issuance of the warrant. We agree and reverse.
Teresa Franklin, an undercover narcotics officer with the Bay County Sheriff's Department, testified at the motion hearing that approximately two days prior to obtaining the search warrant, she met with a confidential informant in person at which time he informed her that appellant was in possession of a large quantity of cocaine. He provided Franklin with appellant's address and advised that he had previously viewed the evidence, which he knew was cocaine by the way it was packaged. Franklin testified that although the affidavit for search warrant stated that the confidential informant was a citizen of good standing in Bay County, she did not personally make a computer check to ascertain that information and had no personal knowledge as to whether or not the informant actually had a criminal record. Further, although the affidavit stated that the confidential informant was reliable insofar as the informant had provided information in the past to investigator Floyd Moore, Franklin had not spoken to Moore personally and the basis of that statement came from information she had received from her lieutenant to the effect that the lieutenant knew that Moore had worked with the informant before and that the information received had been true and accurate. Franklin had no other information concerning the informant, stated that Moore had never before worked on the case involving appellant, and that she did not know whether Moore had ever talked to the trial judge issuing the warrant about this case. Franklin also did not conduct any independent investigation to determine for herself whether the informant was reliable or to corroborate his story.
Following arguments held subsequent to the hearing during which the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), and United States v. Leon, 468...
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State v. Peterson
...State, 690 So.2d 1337, 1339 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997); Smith v. State, 637 So.2d 351, 352-353 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); and St. Angelo v. State, 532 So.2d 1346, 1347 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988)). See also Boyle v. State, 669 So.2d 330, 331-32 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996); Fellows v. State, 612 So.2d 686, 687 (Fla. 2d ......
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Brown v. State
...ago it was. There were no statements from which one could believe drugs would be found in the defendant's home. See St. Angelo v. State, 532 So.2d 1346 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988) (Good faith exception did not apply where affiant did not personally check information regarding the CI's reliability a......
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Peterson v. State, 96-4995
...reverse the denial of the motion to suppress pursuant to McNeely v. State, 690 So.2d 1337 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997), and St. Angelo v. State, 532 So.2d 1346 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988). It is, therefore, unnecessary for us to reach the second issue raised by appellant. We do feel, however, there is some ......
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Smith v. State
...2) the officers did not personally observe the CI, but relied on information he relayed to them. Brown at 1250. In St. Angelo v. State, 532 So.2d 1346 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988), the supporting affidavit alleged that the informant "had provided information in the past to Investigator Moore [not th......
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...to establish probable cause."). (22) Gessel, 751 So. 2d 104; Brown v. State, 561 So. 2d 1248 (Fla. 2d D.C.A. 1990); St. Angelo v. State, 532 So. 2d 1346 (Fla. 1st D.C.A. 1988); State v. Van Pieterson, 550 So. 2d 1162 (Fla. 1st D.C.A. (23) Edmonds, 919 So. 2d at 681. (24) See Peterson, 739 S......