Commonwealth v. Perez (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-154-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-1672 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. SANTOS PEREZ.[1] No. 15-P-1672. Bristol. September 8, 2016. – October 21, 2016. Present: Green, Wolohojian, & Massing, JJ. Controlled Substances. Constitutional Law, Search and seizure, Probable cause. Search and Seizure, Probable cause, Warrant, Affidavit. Practice, Criminal, Motion to suppress, Warrant, Affidavit. Probable Cause. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on November 29, 2012. A pretrial motion to suppress evidence was heard by Raymond P. Veary, Jr., J. An application for leave to prosecute an interlocutory appeal was heard by Geraldine S. Hines, J., in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk, and the appeal was reported by her to the Appeals Court. Tara L. Blackman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Alexandra H. Deal for the defendant. MASSING, J. The Commonwealth appeals from the allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence seized from an apartment in the execution of a search warrant. The motion judge determined that the affidavit supporting the search warrant application, which relied in part on information provided by a confidential informant, did not satisfy the probable cause standard under the Aguilar–Spinelli test.[2] Reviewing the affidavit in its entirety, we conclude that the application did establish probable cause to search for heroin in the subject apartment. Accordingly, we reverse the order allowing the motion to suppress. Background. The defendant was indicted on charges of trafficking in 200 grams or more of heroin, in violation of G. L. c. 94C, § 32E(c)(4), and of manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense heroin, G. L. c. 94C, § 32(a). It appears[3] that New Bedford police officers discovered a substantial quantity of heroin when they executed the warrant permitting them to search “172 Hathaway Street, apartment 3 east” for controlled substances, “to include specifically [h]eroin,” as well as instrumentalities used in, records of, and proceeds from the sale of controlled substances. The affidavit in support of the search warrant application, prepared by Lorenzo Gonzalez, III, a New Bedford police officer with four years of experience, assigned as a detective in a unit specializing in narcotics investigations, states that the New Bedford police began an investigation of the defendant when they received a confidential informant’s tip that “a male by the name of Luis Reyes,[4] with a […]