State v. Hawkins
| Decision Date | 29 November 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. WD,WD |
| Citation | 760 S.W.2d 926 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Marvin Virgil HAWKINS, Appellant. 40526. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Jimmie R. Nix, St. Joseph, for appellant.
William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., William J. Swift, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Before LOWENSTEIN, P.J., and TURNAGE and COVINGTON, JJ.
This is an appeal from a conviction for possession of cocaine, § 195.020, RSMo 1986. The defendant was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. The judgment is affirmed.
The sole issue is whether the trial court improperly denied the defendant's motion to suppress evidence. The defendant asserts that the search warrant was issued on the basis of information contained in an affidavit which was insufficient to establish probable cause in that the affidavit was based on hearsay and the affidavit did not contain information to corroborate the hearsay information provided by the informant.
Police sergeant Howard Judd submitted an affidavit in support of the search warrant. He swore that the confidential informant had been inside trailer number 54, located at Lake Contrary, Buchanan County, within two days prior to the execution of the affidavit, at which time the confidential informant observed Virgil Hawkins, the defendant, with one bag of white powdery substance which Hawkins said was cocaine. The informant viewed the defendant in the back left bedroom of the trailer with cocaine, a triple beam scale, and "baggies." The confidential informant gave Sgt. Judd precise directions to the trailer. Sgt. Judd took the confidential informant's information and followed his directions to the location at which the confidential informant reported that the defendant could be found with cocaine. The affiant stated that the confidential informant who gave the information relative to the defendant in this case had given Sgt. Judd reliable information in the past. The confidential informant had given the sergeant drug information with which Sgt. Judd had been able to obtain search warrants, felony drug arrests, and felony drug convictions. The affiant had heard from other reliable informants that Virgil Hawkins was dealing in cocaine in St. Joseph.
The test for determining whether probable cause has been established for issuance of a search warrant is the totality of the circumstances standard enunciated in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).
The task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical, commonsense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the "veracity" and "basis of knowledge" of persons supplying hearsay information, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. And the duty of a reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a "substantial basis for ... concluding" that probable cause existed.
Id. at 238-39, 103 S.Ct. at 2332. See also State v. Gardner, 741 S.W.2d 1, 7 (Mo. banc 1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1025, 108 S.Ct. 2001, 100 L.Ed.2d 232 (1988). The magistrate's determination must be given great deference. United States v. Mims, 812 F.2d 1068, 1072 (8th Cir.1987); State v. Hodges, 705 S.W.2d 585, 588 (Mo.App.1986).
If information in an affidavit is based on information obtained by an informant, the court must inquire into the reliability of the informant and the information supplied. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238-39, 103 S.Ct. at 2332-33. The ultimate question is the reliability of the information and this is to be decided by the magistrate according to the standard set forth above. The issue is whether the issuing magistrate had a substantial basis for his decision. Id.
In United States v. Bourbon, 819 F.2d 856 (8th Cir.1987), the defendant disputed the reliability of the unnamed informant and asserted that the only statement by the informant regarding the carriagehouse which was searched was that the defendant kept weapons there and used it "to sell dope out of." Id. at 858. The court believed that the issuing magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed for issuance of the search warrant. First, according to the affidavit, the informant previously provided the affiant, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency, with information which led to the arrest of two persons on charges of a drug...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Brown
...State v. Berry, 801 S.W.2d 64, 66 (Mo. banc 1990). We reverse only if that determination was clearly erroneous. Id.;State v. Hawkins, 760 S.W.2d 926, 927 (Mo.App.1988). “The task of the appellate court is to determine, upon review of the four corners of the supporting affidavits, whether th......
-
State v. Williams
...we reverse only if that determination is clearly erroneous. State v. Milliorn, 794 S.W.2d 181, 183 (Mo. banc 1990); State v. Hawkins, 760 S.W.2d 926, 927 (Mo.App.1988). State v. Berry, 801 S.W.2d 64, 66 (Mo. banc Evidence is suppressed pursuant to the "exclusionary rule," which is based on ......
-
State v. Berry, 72786
...we reverse only if that determination is clearly erroneous. State v. Milliorn, 794 S.W.2d 181, 183 (Mo. banc 1990); State v. Hawkins, 760 S.W.2d 926, 927 (Mo.App.1988). The rigid, two-pronged, basis of knowledge/reliability test of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 7......
-
Hawkins v. State
...ineffective assistance of trial counsel, sought relief from a felony conviction for possession of cocaine which was affirmed at 760 S.W.2d 926 (Mo.App.1988). The transcript in the original appeal was filed in this court on July 14, 1988. By the terms of Rule 29.15(b), the motion was require......