Court of Appeal for Ontario
Date: 2018-06-05 Docket: C64807
Judges: Lauwers, Pardu and Miller JJ.A.
Between
Her Majesty the Queen Respondent
and
Devon Boe Appellant
Counsel
Devon Boe, appearing in person
Nader R. Hasan, appearing as duty counsel
Ian Bell, for the respondent
Heard and released orally: June 5, 2018
On appeal from the convictions entered on December 6, 2017 by Justice Terrence L. J. Patterson of the Superior Court of Justice.
Reasons for Decision
1The appellant appeals convictions for possession of marijuana, cocaine and MDMA for purposes of trafficking, and possession of a prohibited weapon, on the basis that the police did not have reasonable and probable grounds for his arrest.
2We disagree. The police received a tip from a confidential informant that someone named Devon was dealing drugs from a Dodge Avenger. The tip provided the name and description of the person, a description of the vehicle including the licence number, and a cell phone number. The police corroborated the name, description and age of the appellant from a search of the vehicle licence number. The information was detailed enough to warrant further investigation.
3The police conducted surveillance of the appellant on two days. They observed him in his vehicle interacting with others in circumstances they believed to be suspicious and consistent with drug trafficking.
4Although police did not observe any hand-to-hand transactions, or anyone carrying anything away from the vehicle, the trial judge concluded from the pattern of conduct that the police had reasonable and probable grounds to arrest the appellant. The search incident to arrest led to the drugs and weapon. The trial judge did not err in finding on the evidence before him that the police had reasonable and probable grounds to arrest the appellant, and there is no basis upon which this court could interfere. The appeal is dismissed.
P. Lauwers J.A.
G. Pardu J.A.
B.W. Miller J.A.