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State v. Guillory3/11/1998
nation of probable cause, although requiring something more than bare suspicion, does not require evidence sufficient to support a conviction. Probable cause, as the name implies, deals with probabilities. The determination of probable cause, unlike the determination of guilt at trial, does not require the fine resolution of conflicting evidence that a reasonable doubt or even a preponderance standard demands, and credibility determinations are seldom crucial in deciding whether the available evidence supports a reasonable belief that the person to be arrested has committed a crime. The determination of probable cause involves factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which average men, and particularly average police officers, can be expected to act. Id.
From the moment that Lieutenant Lewis first questioned the Defendant, he was suspicious of the Defendant. The Defendant immediately lied to Lieutenant Lewis when he claimed that he had not seen Jeffery Tezeno in approximately three months, yet the motel room where Mr. Tezeno was staying at the time of the murders was registered in the Defendant's name. Furthermore, as the Defendant spoke more and more to Lieutenant Lewis, he revealed more information about the murders. Lieutenant Lewis became suspicious that the Defendant, Mr. Guillory, was involved as an accessory after the fact to the murders or had more knowledge about the murders than he was revealing to Lieutenant Lewis.
The court in Simms noted that:
Each fact known to the police at the time of the arrest, when viewed alone, might be explained consistently with innocence. However, probable cause will not be defeated simply because innocent explanations for an activity can be imagined. W. LaFave, Search and Seizure Sec. 3.2(e) (1987). Probable cause exists if a "succession of superficially innocent events had proceeded to the point where a prudent man could say to himself that an innocent course of conduct was substantially less likely than a criminal one". Id. . . . .
It is not a prerequisite for the existence of probable cause that the police know at the time of the arrest that a particular crime has definitely been committed. State v. Collins, 378 So.2d 928 (La. 1979); State v. Drott, 412 So.2d 984 (La. 1982). Although certainty of knowledge of the commission of a particular crime is frequently an important factor in the determination of probable cause, probable cause may exist when the commission of a crime has not been definitely established, but is reasonably probable under the totality of the known circumstances.
Id. at 149.
Looking at the totality of the circumstances known to Lieutenant Lewis in the present case at the time he asked the Defendant to accompany him to the police station, Lieutenant Lewis knew that a triple murder had been committed and that the Defendant had been staying in a motel room with the chief suspect at the time the murders had been committed. Lieutenant Lewis also knew that the Defendant was lying when he claimed that he had not seen Jeffery Tezeno in approximately three months. Between the time that Lieutenant Lewis asked the Defendant to accompany him to the police station and they first arrived at the police station, the Defendant began to reveal more information about the crimes which raised Lieutenant Lewis's suspicions to the fact that he felt the Defendant was an accessory after the fact or otherwise involved in the commission of the crime.
Based on the totality of the circumstances, Lieutenant Lewis had probable cause to believe the Defendant had committed a crime, probably accessory after the fact, and he was therefore justified in detaining the Defendant. Therefor
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