State v. Candage

• Decision Date: 31 August 1988
• Citation: 549 A.2d 355
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Stephen CANDAGE.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 355

549 A.2d 355

STATE of Maine v. Stephen CANDAGE.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued May 11, 1988.

Decided Aug. 31, 1988.

James E. Tierney, Atty. Gen., Charles K. Leadbetter, Garry L. Greene (orally), Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for plaintiff.

William N. Ferm (orally), Ferm & McSweeney, Ellsworth, David W. Kee, William J. Tymoczko, Fellows, Kee & Tymoczko, Bucksport, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and ROBERTS, WATHEN, SCOLNIK ^* and CLIFFORD, JJ.

CLIFFORD, Justice.

The defendant, Stephen Candage, appeals from his conviction in Superior Court, Hancock County, of murder, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983), following a jury trial. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the judgment.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the jury rationally could have found the following facts. In October of 1986, Stephen Candage was living with his father, Roger, ¹ in a small house off Gilbert Farm Road in Bar Harbor. Roger allowed a friend, James Whitney, to park his trailer in front of his house. Whitney lived in this trailer and frequently socialized with Roger and Stephen.

A few days after receiving a social security payment of several hundred dollars in late October 1986, Whitney obtained a $100 bill, exchanging five $20 bills with a friend who was having difficulty getting the $100 bill accepted in a local grocery market. On or about this same day Whitney mentioned to Roger and Stephen that Whitney believed he had lost his wallet.

On November 3, 1986, Angela Lynk of Seal Harbor, who was Stephen's former girlfriend, talked with Stephen on the telephone and was told that something would be happening in the next few days, and that the police would be in contact with her. He further said that the police would know that Stephen had done "it," but they would not be able to prove anything. He refused to elaborate any further, since, he said, there was a danger that Lynk would be considered to be an accomplice if he told her too much.

On Tuesday, November 4, 1986, Roger and Whitney spent much of the day drinking beer and driving around in Whitney's pickup truck. Later in the day, they returned to Roger's house. Stephen, who was at the house, wanted to buy beer and asked Whitney to drive him to a nearby store. Whitney agreed. When they returned, the three men sat in Whitney's trailer and drank beer. In the early evening, Roger left Stephen and Whitney and went into his house to have supper and watch television. As Roger watched television during the evening, he noticed that Stephen entered and left the house several times. No other person was present. Roger went to bed sometime after 10:00 p.m.

Roger woke up at about 6:00 a.m. on November 5. Stephen was not in the house at this time. Roger noticed that his rifle and rifle clip that he kept in his overalls were both missing. Roger walked outside and saw that Whitney's pickup truck was not in its usual location in front of his house. Roger walked into Whitney's trailer and discovered Whitney's dead body. Whitney had been stabbed several times. Roger returned to his house to call an ambulance, but he found his phone had been disconnected, necessitating his going to a neighbor for assistance. An ambulance and several police officers subsequently arrived at Whitney's trailer. Whitney's wallet was missing, and it was not found during a search of the area.

After an initial investigation, a search was begun to locate Stephen and Whitney's missing pickup truck. Whitney's truck was found the same day along the roadside at the intersection of Route 1 and Washington Junction Road in Hancock, facing in the direction of Ellsworth. Roger's rifle and clip were found in the cab of the truck. The truck was sealed, impounded and brought to the Ellsworth Fire Station for processing.

In the meantime, Stephen had appeared at the Ellsworth Holiday Inn, where he registered as a guest under his own name at 5:21 a.m. on November 5. Later in the morning, at around 11:30 a.m., Stephen registered for the following day, and paid for his room with a $100 bill. Shortly thereafter, the desk clerk heard a radio bulletin describing Stephen as a suspect in Whitney's murder. The Holiday Inn manager alerted the police to Stephen's presence.

The police obtained from a District Court judge a search warrant for Stephen's motel room and his clothing, based on much of the information described above, set out in an affidavit of Matthew Stewart, detective with the Maine State Police. Four State Police officers executed the warrant by forcibly entering Stephen's room during the afternoon of November 5. Stephen was asked to accompany the officers to the Ellsworth Police Station for an interrogation. Stephen did go to the station and was interrogated. Throughout the interrogation, Stephen told inconsistent stories but insisted that he did not kill Whitney. Stephen was arrested for Whitney's murder approximately 10 minutes after the conclusion of the interrogation.

Subsequent to his indictment Stephen filed a variety of motions, including a motion to suppress evidence seized during the raid on Stephen's motel room and statements he made to the police during the interrogation at the Ellsworth Police Station. After a hearing in Superior Court the motion to suppress was denied. Stephen's trial was held in October 1987. Motions for a judgment of acquittal were made and denied at the conclusion of the State's case and after Stephen presented his evidence. After the jury returned its verdict of guilty, Stephen filed a motion for judgment of acquittal or a new trial. This motion was likewise denied. This appeal was thereafter filed in a timely fashion.

I.

Stephen's first argument in his appeal is that the evidence gathered from the search of his motel room and the seizure of his clothes should have been excluded from evidence because, contrary to the finding of the motion justice, the affidavit in support of the warrant failed to establish a substantial basis for the finding of probable cause for that search.

The standard of review for a magistrate's finding of probable cause with respect to a search warrant is a deferential one, the inquiry being limited to whether there was a substantial basis for the finding of probable cause, with the affidavit supporting the search warrant being read " 'with all reasonable inferences that may be drawn to support the magistrate's determination.' " State v. Gallant, 531 A.2d 1282, 1284 (Me.1987) (quoting State v. Knowlton, 489 A.2d 529, 532 (Me.1985)).

The affidavit in this case, relating most of the essential facts set forth previously, ² provides a substantial basis to support the District Court's finding of probable cause for the search.

II.

Stephen's next argument is that the hearing justice committed reversible error at the suppression hearing by refusing to allow testimony concerning an alleged misrepresentation in Detective Stewart's affidavit. During the suppression hearing Stephen's counsel had read into the record the following testimony of Detective Stewart given at the previously held hearing on bail:

Q. If you had had enough evidence at the time you went to room 206 [Stephen's room at the Holiday Inn] ... that probably there was probable cause to arrest Mr. Candage for murder and he had tried to leave then, then you would have placed him under arrest, wouldn't you?

A. [Stewart] Had I reached the conclusion I had probable cause to believe he committed the crime of murder, I certainly would have.

Stephen contends that Stewart's testimony at the bail hearing contradicted his statement in the affidavit that probable cause existed to search Stephen's Holiday Inn room. Stewart made the following assertion at the conclusion of his supporting affidavit:

WHEREFORE, I have probable cause to believe, and do believe, that there may be evidence found on or in the clothing of Stephen Candage, or in his personal belongings, or in his room at the Holiday Inn, consisting of blood, bloodstains, a knife or knives, and money, which may be evidence of the crime of homicide.

Stephen argues that if Stewart testified at the bail hearing that he (Stewart) felt there was not probable cause to arrest Stephen at the Holiday Inn, this indicates that Stewart was less than candid in asserting there was probable cause to search the motel room in the affidavit. At the suppression hearing, Stephen's counsel wished to examine Stewart about the alleged inconsistency between his affidavit statement and his later testimony at the bail hearing. Specifically, Stephen's counsel sought to elicit confirmation from Stewart that he did not believe there was probable cause to arrest Stephen. This request was denied by the hearing justice, who reasoned that, even assuming Stewart would expressly testify at the suppression hearing that he felt there was no probable cause to arrest Stephen at the Holiday Inn, there was no need to have had probable cause to arrest Stephen in order for there to have been probable cause to support the search warrant.

In State v. White, 391 A.2d 291 (Me.1978), we addressed the issue of when a criminal defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to explore the veracity of information in a supporting affidavit for a search warrant. In White, we held that:

'[W]here the defendant makes a substantial preliminary showing that a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, was included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit, and if the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable cause, the Fourth Amendment requires that [an evidentiary] hearing [on this issue] be held at the Defendant's request.'

391 A.2d at 293 (quoting Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2676-77, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978)).

Stephen basically contends that (1) he made the substantial preliminary showing of a false statement required by White and (2) the concluding paragraph of the affidavit,...