State v. Killian

In State v. Killian, 158 Ariz. 585, 764 P.2d 346 (App. 1988) the trial court had granted the defendant's motion to suppress evidence, finding the warrant was not supported by probable cause and that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule did not apply. In reversing the trial court's order, we relied on Leon, as had the trial court, for the proposition that an officer's "subjective good faith is not enough." Killian, 158 Ariz. at 588, 764 P.2d at 349. But, the Court found the trial court had erred in concluding that it had been objectively unreasonable for the police to rely on the warrant. In Killian, however, based on an overall assessment of the facts that had been submitted to support the warrant, the officers did not have probable cause. Nonetheless, the Court disagreed with the trial court's conclusion that the officer could not have reasonably relied on the warrant. The Court reached that conclusion, in part, because the trial court had characterized the "officer's conduct as 'exemplary, conscientious police work and thorough police work.'" Id.