5D05-2737 State v.Cornelius Paige

State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D05-2737

Case Date: 07/17/2006

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JULY TERM 2006

STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellant, v. CORNELIUS D. PAIGE, Appellee. ________________________________/ Opinion filed July 21, 2006 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Seminole County, O.H. Eaton, Jr., Judge. Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Kellie Nielan, Assistant Attorney General, Daytona Beach, for Appellant. James S. Purdy, Public Defender, and Tomislav David Golik, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellee. SHARP, W., Senior Judge. The state appeals from an order which granted Paige's motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant. The trial court concluded the information in the affidavit was stale and otherwise insufficient to establish probable cause to issue the warrant. We respectfully disagree and reverse.1 Case No. 5D05-2737

Our determination that the affidavit was sufficient to establish probable cause for issuance of the warrant renders the other issues raised by the state moot.

1

On October 8, 2003, law enforcement officers searched a residence at 350 Isabella Drive in Longwood pursuant to a warrant. Items seized from the residence included a kilogram of cocaine, packaging for cocaine, cannabis, a .357 Ruger revolver, ammunition (.9mm and .357 caliber) and drug paraphernalia. Francheska Ward, one of the occupants of the residence, told officers she lived there with her boyfriend , Paige. Ward implicated Paige in the business of selling drugs. Paige was charged with trafficking in cocaine (400 grams or more but less than 150 kilograms), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of not more than 20 grams of cannabis and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Paige moved to suppress the evidence on the basis that the affidavit in support of the warrant was insufficient and based on stale information. The trial court agreed and suppressed the evidence. In determining whether probable cause exists to justify a search, the trial court must make a judgment, based on the totality of the circumstances, as to whether, from the information contained in the warrant, there is a reasonable probability that contraband will be found at a particular place and time. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983). As the Court in Gates explained: 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

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