NC: When two CIs are used, both need to be known and reliable; here, one wasn’t

Defendant raised multiple issues in his motion to suppress that led to a general denial “with some reluctance.” The court of appeals doesn’t find enough in the record to resolve what the court was thinking and vacates and remands for that, particularly a Franks issue: “Based upon this statement, the trial court apparently agreed that defendant had made the preliminary showing required for a Franks hearing, but never made findings addressing the issues of credibility and good faith raised by the motion.” Also, this case really had two CIs and the reliability of only one was addressed. That CI was driven there by another, called an “unknown middleman”; the first CI was searched for drugs, but the second wasn’t. The affidavit lacks probable cause as a whole in the informant hearsay because of the court’s doubts, and the case is reversed. State v. Williams, 2019 N.C. App. LEXIS 760 (Sept. 17, 2019).