State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. Bruce Allen Lilly, Defendant Below, Appellant, And; State Of…

Summary

The court held that the search-warrant affidavit did not establish probable cause because it provided only a bare assertion of informant reliability and lacked meaningful police corroboration. Although the circuit court's findings concerning the officer's alleged use of false information were supported by the record, the warrant nevertheless lacked a substantial basis and the seized evidence should have been suppressed. Justice Cleckley, concurring, agreed with the result and praised the parties' use of a conditional guilty plea to preserve the constitutional issue while avoiding an unnecessary trial.