State v. Phelps
| Decision Date | 20 July 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 43666,43666 |
| Citation | 297 Minn. 61,209 N.W.2d 780 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Robert PHELPS, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Robins, Meshbesher, Singer & Spence, Ronald I. Meshbesher and James H. Gilbert, Minneapolis, for appellant.
Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., Richard B. Allyn, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Robert O'Neill, County Atty., Robert J. Gogins, Asst. County Atty., New Prague, for respondent.
Heard before KNUTSON, C.J., and PETERSON, TODD, and GILLESPIE, JJ.
Defendant, convicted of theft (retaining possession of stolen property valued at more than $2,500) in violation of Minn.St. 609.52, subds. 2(1), 3(1), and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 10 years, 1 appeals from judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for judgment of acquittal or for a new trial, challenging not only the sufficiency of the evidence but also the trial court's orders refusing to suppress certain evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds and refusing to rule that in the event defendant took the stand the state could not use evidence of prior convictions to impeach his credibility. We affirm.
On October 18, 1971, Sergeant Howard Halverson of the Scott County sheriff's office applied for a warrant to search the John Fuller farm in Scott County for certain specifically described stolen property. Halverson's affidavit, attached to the application, stated that John Fuller had informed him that he had observed one Eddy Phelps, who was renting the basement of Fuller's house and part of the barn on his farm, and two other people using a cutting torch to disassemble a brand new 1972 Ford pickup truck in the barn. Halverson stated further that Fuller had obtained an inventory sheet in the truck showing it to bear serial number F25YPM-40125, the same number which he found on an engine in a 1965 Ford pickup, bearing license number YE6468, in the barn. Halverson added that on the basis of information given him by Fuller he had reason to believe that Eddy Phelps and the other two were concealing on the farm other specified property, including a Ford tractor whose serial number matched that listed in a report of a stolen tractor he had received from the Orono Chief of Police.
While Halverson was obtaining the search warrant from the magistrate, a deputy sheriff and an agent of the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension maintained a surveillance from a point approximately 1/2 mile from the farm. While maintaining this surveillance they observed a pickup truck (which, as it developed, defendant owned and was driving) leave the farm. Pursuant to radio instructions received from the sheriff, the two stopped the truck. At the time of this encounter they observed in the bed of the truck in plain sight four new mounted tires. After checking defendant's driver's license the two asked defendant to return to the farm and await the arrival of the sheriff and Halverson. There is a dispute in evidence as to whether defendant voluntarily complied with this request, defendant contending that he returned to the farm only because the officers said that he was not free to leave. In any event, defendant did drive the truck back to the farm.
A short time later the sheriff and Halverson arrived on the scene and executed the search warrant, discovering pursuant thereto the items which defendant sought to have suppressed, including the engine and numerous parts from the new 1972 pickup, which the officers later positively determined had been stolen from Southdale Ford.
After completing the search, the officers placed defendant, Eddy Phelps, and Richard Mattila, all of whom were present during the search, under arrest for possession of stolen property and advised them of their rights. After being advised of his rights, defendant not in response to any question stated,
At defendant's trial the state introduced, in addition to the above evidence, evidence that the stolen truck had cost Southdale Ford between $2,900 and $3,000, evidence that defendant was one of the two men who had been workign with Eddy Phelps in disassembling the truck, evidence that the tires in the back of defendant's truck were like the tires that had been on the stolen truck, evidence that the engine from the stolen truck had been found installed in another truck registered in defendant's name, and evidence that defendant had admitted to a friend after the arrest that he had planned to use the engine from the stolen truck in his own truck.
1. Defendant contends, first, that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the search warrant because the magistrate did not have sufficient facts on which to base his probable cause assessment or sufficient basis for believing that the source of the facts was credible and reliable and had obtained the facts in a reliable manner.
We have no difficulty in rejecting defendant's contention that the magistrate did not have sufficient...
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State v. Mollberg
...facts to enable the magistrate to judge whether the informant obtained his knowledge in a reliable manner.' See, also State v. Phelps, 297 Minn. 61, 209 N.W.2d 780 (1973). Thus, there is no question that the affidavit in the instant case satisfies the first part of the Aguilar test since it......
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State v. Davis
...anonymous tipster. This requirement clearly contravenes prior law that private citizens are presumed reliable. State v. Phelps, 297 Minn. 61, 64, 209 N.W.2d 780, 782 (1973) (citations omitted); Marben, 294 N.W.2d at 699 (citations In addition to requiring that the tipster stop and identify ......
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State v. Siegfried
...and Probable Cause, 25 Mercer L.Rev. 741, 765-773. See, also, State v. Mollberg, 310 Minn. 376, 246 N.W.2d 463 (1976); State v. Phelps, 297 Minn. 61, 209 N.W.2d 780 (1973); State v. Lindquist, 295 Minn. 398, 205 N.W.2d 333 (1973); State v. Cox, 294 Minn. 252, 200 N.W.2d 305 (1972). A first-......
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State v. Tennin, C3-88-1533
...or control [of stolen property] means exclusive of third parties, not exclusive of other parties to the crime. State v. Phelps, 297 Minn. 61, 65, 209 N.W.2d 780, 782 (1973). The state's expert witness testified that the value of all the stolen guns was $2,879.71. Therefore, under Phelps, ap......