State v. Hidalgo, 296 Neb. 912

Omaha PD received an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip that a Hispanic male “Roberto” (aka “Sporty”), age ~30–35, an 18th Street gang member, lived at a specified Omaha address and possessed illegal firearms.
Officers surveilled the address, observed several tattooed Hispanic males on the porch who appeared alarmed, and saw a white Nissan Sentra registered to Robert Hidalgo and Jacqueline Linares at the residence.
A trash pull from the residence produced mail addressed to the location and marijuana stems/seeds/leaves.
Based on the tip and officer corroboration, a magistrate issued a warrant to search the residence for marijuana, records, weapons, and ammunition; the warrant was executed and officers recovered firearms from the house, the yard, and the Sentra (Hidalgo later admitted ownership of the gun in the car).
Hidalgo, a convicted accessory to a felony (a prohibited person), was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person; after a stipulated bench trial he was convicted and sentenced, and appealed contesting the warrant’s probable cause and the search of the vehicle.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Hidalgo)	Held
Probable cause for search warrant	Affidavit (tip + corroboration + trash pull) provided fair probability of finding contraband/weapons	Anonymous tip unreliable; corroboration only showed innocent details; small amount of marijuana in trash insufficient	Warrant supported: totality of circumstances (tip corroborated by names, gang membership, observations, trash) supplied probable cause; good-faith analysis unnecessary
Reliability of anonymous tip	Independent police investigation corroborated key details and established reliability	Contends officers failed to corroborate claim he was a felon in possession of firearms; the tip thus unreliable	Magistrate properly considered police corroboration; no requirement that every detail be independently verified
Sufficiency of trash-pull marijuana	Marijuana evidence combined with tip and other corroboration supports probable cause	Marijuana stems/seeds alone are only evidence of past use and insufficient	Marijuana was one indicium among others; in context supported probable cause
Search of vehicle parked at residence	Vehicle on described premises falls within warrant’s scope; affidavit tied defendant to vehicle	Warrant described house but not vehicle specifically; searching the Sentra exceeded warrant scope	Vehicle parked in driveway and connected to defendant fell within the scope; search valid

State v. Hill, 288 Neb. 767 (discusses probable-cause review and totality-of-circumstances test)
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (totality-of-the-circumstances standard for informant tips)
State v. Vermuele, 234 Neb. 973 (no requirement that the alleged crime itself be fully corroborated to support probable cause)
U.S. v. Evans, 92 F.3d 540 (vehicles parked at a residence may be treated like interior containers for purposes of a residence-based warrant)
U.S. v. Pennington, 287 F.3d 739 (vehicle search covered by warrant where affidavit linked defendant to vehicle)