State v. Titus
| Decision Date | 19 April 1965 |
| Citation | 106 N.H. 219,212 A.2d 458 |
| Parties | STATE v. Stillman TITUS. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
William Maynard, Atty. Gen., and George S. Pappagianis, Deputy Atty. Gen., Nashua, for the State.
J. Gilbert Upton, Concord, for defendant.
The search warrant under which the State obtained the evidence objected to was issued on October 22, 1963 by a Justice of the Peace upon the sworn complaint of Jason Hines, a Concord police officer. It commanded the arrest of the defendant, search of his dwelling house and buildings adjacent thereto on a specified road, and seizure of certain articles described in the complaint, including 'certain narcotics.'
The complaint specifying the articles believed to be concealed on the described premises, alleged that the complainant has probable cause to suspect and believe and 'does suspect and believe, and herewith offers satisfactory evidence that' the articles were concealed on the defendant's premises. The warrant issued by the magistrate recited that such evidence had been furnished.
At the trial the evidence offered by the State consisted of the testimony of the complaining police officer concerning the evidence presented to the magistrate who issued the warrant. This consisted of the same officer's testimony that there had been recent house-breaks in the area, and of the written statement of an informer to the effect that the various articles described in the warrant, not including the narcotics, had been seen by the informer in the defendant's possession on the premises in question and that the defendant told the informer that they had been stolen. The officer further testified that the evidence before the magistrate included his testimony that the informant also told him that narcotics were kept by the defendant in a locked trunk kept in a shed adjoining his dwelling house. He testified that search of the premises disclosed a locked trunk in a shed adjoining the house, and that the trunk was transported to the Concord police station and there opened by a key furnished by the defendant; and that the trunk was found to contain the narcotics, as well as butcher knives also listed in the search warrant and alleged to have been stolen. Both the trunk and the narcotics were offered in evidence subject to the defendant's objection. It was agreed that the narcotics came into the defendant's possession in 1946 while he was in the military service stationed in New Jersey.
Through his court-appointed counsel, the defendant maintains that the complaint was insufficient on its face to establish probable cause for issuing the warrant to search for and seize the narcotics; and that if the State is entitled to rely upon other evidence presented to the magistrate, beyond that stated in the complaint, this evidence was insufficient to establish probable cause because the source of the informer's information was not disclosed, and no sufficient ground appeared for believing it. Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723.
The evidence before the Superior Court indicates that the proof before the magistrate consisted of the testimony of the officer concerning articles stolen in recent breaks, and an unsworn written statement by the informer, which the officer supplemented by testimony as to what the informer had told him orally about the narcotics.
The written statement of the informer made on October 22, 1963,...
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