KY: Anonymous predictive tip defendant would show up at his paramour’s house did not show PC

The police received a tip that a man with a gun used in a homicide would be at a certain location. They stopped the car when they saw it for an alleged traffic offense, and admitted that they couldn’t give a ticket. Based on an alleged furtive movement, they decided to impound the car and defendant left on foot. A later search warrant for the car was issued, and the gun was found. The motion to suppress was denied, and the jury hung at trial. Defendant later entered a conditional plea and appealed. The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the denial of the motion to suppress because the basis for the search warrant was the anonymous tip that defendant would show up essentially at his girlfriend’s house; this was insufficient to show probable cause as a matter of law. The motion to suppress should have been granted. Reversed. Abdul-Jalil v. Commonwealth, 324 S.W.3d 433 (Ky. App. 2010):

This fact is essentially a non-issue considering the registered owner of the car lived at the address given and the driver of the car was the car owner’s paramour. It is safe to assume that the car and driver in this case would eventually end up at the address given under normal circumstances. This tip, viewed in light of what the officer knew at the time of the impoundment, lacked enough information to give the officer a “reasonable basis for suspecting … unlawful conduct” sufficient to warrant the immediate impoundment of Abdul-Jalil’s car. J.L., 529 U.S. at 271, 120 S. Ct. at 1379.