STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
BRENDA LOUISE PRATT, ANTHONY LEE WILLIAMS, DELL R. CALLINS AND HORACE AMOS, APPELLEES
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The State appealed a trial court's suppression order that invalidated a search warrant based on an allegedly inadequate affidavit. The Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the affidavit sufficiently established probable cause by detailing the underlying circumstances of controlled heroin purchases, even without explicit assertions of the confidential informant's reliability.
The affidavit is sufficient to establish probable cause. When an affidavit sets forth the underlying circumstances that give reason for crediting the information source, it is not necessary to explicitly assert or state that the confidential informant is reliable.
[1] An affidavit for a search warrant is sufficient if a prudent person, knowing all the facts revealed by the affidavit, would conclude that contraband is present in the pre…
[2] An affidavit for a search warrant may be sufficient even when relying on hearsay from a confidential informant, provided the informant's reliability or the information's…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“where some of the underlying circumstances are set forth in the affidavit so that reason for crediting the source of the information is given, it is not necessary to assert or state that the confidential informant is reliable”
Establishes the legal standard for affidavits based on confidential informant information—explicit reliability assertions are not required if underlying circumstances are detailed
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA deputy sheriff's affidavit detailed two controlled heroin purchases at the same apartment monitored by police. In each instance, a confidential info…
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[*1250] DOWNEY, Judge.
The question involved in this appeal is the adequacy of an affidavit for a search warrant. The trial court found the affidavit inadequate because it failed “to establish the confidential informant’s reliability and trustworthiness required by Aquilar-Spinelli (sic).”1
A Broward County deputy, sheriff filed an affidavit in which he stated that he had been contacted by a City of Hollywood detective who advised the affiant that he had a confidential informant who could make heroin purchases. The affidavit then details how the affiant, the Hollywood detective, and the confidential informant set up a controlled purchase of contraband. The confidential informant was searched, given a transmitting device and money, and taken to a location near the place where the buy was to occur. The police monitored the surveillance device as the confidential informant entered an apartment at a stated time, ordered two dime bags of “Red,” paid for it, and departed at a specified time. The confidential informant was observed leaving the apartment and returning to the waiting police vehicle where she was again searched and nothing was found but the two bags which, upon analysis, were found to contain heroin. The confidential informant told the police that she observed approximately 100 tinfoil packets of heroin on the kitchen table in the apartment. The affidavit similarly detailed another purchase monitored by the police at the same apartment four days later. A search warrant was-issued based upon said affidavit, and execution of the warrant resulted in the seizure of contraband and the arrest of appellant. A motion to suppress the evidence was granted by the trial court because the affidavit failed to demonstrate the reliability of the informant.
We reverse upon authority' of United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), and Ludwig v. State, 215 So. 2d 898 (Fla.3rd DCA 1968). The foregoing cases are authority for the proposition that where some of the underlying circumstances are set forth in the affidavit so that reason for crediting the source of the information is given, it is not necessary to assert or state that the confidential informant is reliable. We hold that the affidavit in question is sufficient to show probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant.
Appellees suggest that other grounds alleged in the motion to suppress were sufficient to support the order of suppression and that the order should be affirmed on that basis. We decline to follow that suggestion and restrict our consideration of the order on the motion to suppress to the trial court’s ruling thereon.
Accordingly, the order appealed from is reversed and the cause is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
BERANEK and GLICKSTEIN, JJ., concur. . Aquilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964); Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969).
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State v. Hipolito Barreiro, 432 So. 2d 138 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)…lark, 384 So. 2d 687 (Fla. 4th DCA), rev. denied, 392 So. 2d 1372 (Fla. 1980), or, more subtly, reach these rulings by holding that the trial court was right for the wrong reasons, State v. Roberts, 415 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); State v. Pratt, 386 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980). The fact that the defendant has a right to have rulings unfavorable to him reviewed on direct appeal at the conclusion of the case not only prevents review of such rulings on the State’s interlocutory appeal, see State v. Clark,…
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State v. Roberts, 415 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982)…not file), State v. DeConingh, 396 So. 2d 858 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); State v. Clark, 384 So. 2d 687 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980), review denied, 392 So. 2d 1372 (Fla.1980), or as an argument that the trial court was “right for the wrong reason.” State v. Pratt, 386 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980). . Roberts did not verbally or otherwise affirmatively object to the officer’s taking the luggage to the baggage area. Compare, Cavalluzzi v. State, 409 So. 2d 1108, 1110, n.4 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982).…
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State v. Williams, 444 So. 2d 434 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)…than the trial court order provided, were correctly decided. State v. Barreiro, 432 So. 2d 138, 139 n. 2 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); State v. Fisher, 416 So. 2d 871 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); State v. Roberts, 415 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982); and State v. Pratt, 386 So. 2d 1249 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980), in which the courts, employing the same theory of no jurisdiction over the defendants’ cross-appeals, rejected the defendants’ contentions that the orders on appeal could be affirmed for reasons other than those stated in the or…
Authorities Cited
- Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 (U.S. 1964)
- Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410 (U.S. 1969)
- United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102 (U.S. 1965)
- Bernie Ludwig v. State, 215 So. 2d 898 (Fla. 3d DCA 1968)
- Stewart v. State, 215 So. 2d 898 (Fla. 1st DCA 1968)