Founds v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed the denial of Andrew Founds' motion to suppress and his convictions for possession of over fifty pounds of marijuana, possession of psilocyn with intent to distribute, and possession of bulletproof body armor. Assuming without deciding that officers' warrantless protective sweep of his apartment violated the Fourth Amendment, the Court held the independent source doctrine barred suppression because the warrant affidavit, with the officers' plain-view observations from the unlawful entry excised, independently established probable cause; as a matter of first impression it adopted the objective Franks-style excision methodology for the second prong of the Murray test and held the resulting probable-cause determination is reviewed de novo. The Court also held the evidence sufficient under the four-factor constructive possession framework while rejecting the State's broader theory that a drug-dealing enterprise alone establishes possession of all contraband on the premises. Justices Watts, Biran, and Gould dissented, and the majority specifically rejected the Principal Dissent's proposed subjective, relevance-based test for Murray's second prong.