State v. Saide
| Decision Date | 29 November 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 6466,6466 |
| Citation | 114 N.H. 735,329 A.2d 148 |
| Parties | STATE of New Hampshire v. Richard J. SAIDE. STATE of New Hampshire v. Dennis J. SAIDE. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Warren B. Rudman, Atty. Gen., and James L. Kruse, Concord, under Supreme Court Rule 23, for the State.
Sheehan, Phinney, Bass & Green and Alan L. Reische, Manchester for defendants.
The issues in this case involving the crime of possession of more than one pound of marijuana are: whether evidence seized under a warrant should be excluded as a matter of law because of a failure to comply with statutory requirements with respect to receipts and inventories, and whether the evidence would support a finding of possession by either defendant of more than one pound.
After a trial without jury, the Court, Loughlin, J., reserved without ruling 'issues of law presented by the proceedings'.
On February 25, 1971, five Manchester police officers armed with a search warrant went to the apartment rented and occupied by both defendants, who are brothers. When they received no response to their knocking on the door, two officers went to one of the sandwich shops operated by the defendants and brought the defendant Dennis Saide back with them. He told the officers his brother had the key and he had none. After attempting to contact Richard, the owner of the apartment house was contacted and he opened the door for them.
The apartment consisted of a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bath. Dennis was asked to sit down in the living room while the officers searched the various rooms. Vegetative matter was found in the stove, refrigerator, in the sitting room and in both bedrooms. Some was in plastic bags, some in clothing, some in a silver bucket, and in various other containers. As the various items were found, they were brought into the living room and placed in front of Dennis. The court found that Dennis viewed the material as it was placed in front of him. After the search was completed, the material was all taken to the police station along with defendant Dennis. No receipt was given before removal as required by RSA 595-A:5 (Supp.1973).
At the police station, the vegetative material was put into one bag and weighed. It was found to weigh about one and one-half pounds. An inventory was then made for the return of the warrant in the presence of the applicant for the warrant and another creditable person. A copy to serve as a receipt was given the defendant at his probable cause hearing the next day since he had left the station on bail before the inventory was completed.
After the inventory was completed, the material was then all put in an evidence bag, sealed, and locked in the evidence room at the police station where it stayed for five days. It was then taken to the State laboratory in Concord by the same officer who had procured the warrant, had been in charge of the search and the inventory, and had placed the bag in the evidence room. He delivered it personally to the chemist who later testified as to its contents. The bag was left sealed in the laboratory until its examination four or five days later. The material was all aggregated and a random sample taken, which was found to contain 85% leaf, 5% viable seed and 10% small stem marijuana.
A discrepancy between the number of small glassine bags listed in the inventory, and the number found by the chemist was explained by the officer as being the result of some of them having been put into larger containers like the silver bucket so that at the time of the inventory only the larger containers were listed. The State chemist testified that after the testing, he kept the evidence bag with its contents locked up in the State police vault until he brought it to court the day he testified. The trial court found that the vegetative matter taken from the defendants' apartment was in the exclusive control of law enforcement officers. He also found that the test laid down in State v. Fornier, 103 N.H. 152, 167 A.2d 56 (1961), had been met. The evidence supported this finding.
Defendants contend that all the evidence obtained in the search should be suppressed because of the failure of the police to strictly comply with the requirements of RSA 595-A:5 (Supp.1973). It it true that no receipt was given the defendant Dennis at the scene of the search as required by the statute, but a copy of the inventory was given defendants the next day to act as a receipt. The trial court found that Dennis had the opportunity to see every item seized at the apartment. He further found that, although Dennis was not present at the taking of the inventory, it was taken by the applicant for the warrant and in the presence of a creditable person. This complied with the...
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State v. Sands
...does not mandate that the person verifying the inventory be an individual different from the applicant. See State v. Saide, 114 N.H. 735, 737, 329 A.2d 148, 149 (1974) (inventory taken by applicant for warrant). However, even assuming arguendo that such a requirement exists, we have held th......
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State v. Roy
...to require the exclusion of evidence based upon noncompliance with the technical requirements of RSA 595–A:7. Cf. State v. Saide, 114 N.H. 735, 737–38, 329 A.2d 148 (1974) (explaining that, unlike in other statutes, the legislature has not provided for the exclusion of evidence for violatio......
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State v. Gilson
...37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973)), and this omission did not require that evidence properly listed in the return be suppressed. State v. Saide, 114 N.H. 735, 329 A.2d 148 (1974); United States v. Hall, 505 F.2d 961 (3rd Cir. Remanded. All concurred. ...
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Com. v. Hicks
...ground for exclusion of evidence under New Hampshire law. State v. Gilson, 116 N.H. 230, 234, 356 A.2d 689 (1976). State v. Saide, 114 N.H. 735, 737-738, 329 A.2d 148 (1974). See Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 449, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973). After an extensive voir dire hearin......