TX: Failure to corroborate anything of substance from CI inadequate

Conclusorily stating the informant is reliable without backing it up is wholly inadequate. The CI here was corroborated only to the extent of where the defendant lived. State v. Duarte, 389 S.W.3d 349 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012):

We agree with appellee that there was no substantial basis for crediting the first-time informant’s hearsay statement. Officers failed to corroborate the informant’s tip except to confirm appellee’s address. The tip was not a statement against interest, nor repeated by other informants. There was no accurate prediction of future behavior. This tip was a first-hand observation, but it contained no particular level of detail regarding appellee’s premises or his criminal activity. The tip was: “The credible individual stated that he/she had observed Gilbert Duarte 08-17-87 in possession of cocaine within the past twenty-four hours at 10919 Indigo Creek.” That is it. How much cocaine did he possess? A couple of lines worth, laid out at a party and fully consumed? A kilo? Where did Mr. Duarte have the cocaine? In the pocket of his jeans? Hidden in the attic? Was it piled on the kitchen table being weighed and packaged for sale? This is not a case where there is a tip about a methamphetamine lab, or marijuana-growing operation, or crack-cocaine dealing. In those cases, the tip supports an inference that the criminal activity is ongoing. Here, as the State acknowledged at oral argument, there is nothing in the affidavit that suggests Mr. Duarte was engaged in drug-dealing. Indeed, one could plausibly conclude from this affidavit that it was the confidential informer who delivered the cocaine to Mr. Duarte’s house. All we know is that the informant saw some amount of cocaine “in the possession” of Mr. Duarte.

On the one hand, the informant gave a timely, first-hand tip. On the other hand, the police failed to corroborate the tip except to confirm Mr. Duarte’s address. But the fact that Mr. Duarte lives where the informant says he lives does not make his assertion that Mr. Duarte possessed cocaine more reliable. Further, the tip was vague, not an “explicit and detailed description of alleged wrongdoing” that the Gates court referenced. There were no facts from which to draw an inference that the referenced “credible individual” actually was a “credible individual.” The affiant’s ipse dixit does not make it so. Under the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis—balancing the relative weights of all the various indicia of reliability (and unreliability) attending the informant’s tip—the magistrate here did not have a substantial basis upon which to find probable cause.