William Gary Mosley
An iffy affidavit for a search warrant got a Marion County, Tenn., man’s drug manufacturing and paraphernalia convictions vacated and his charges dismissed after a successful appeal in his 2014 guilty plea.
When William Gary Mosley pleaded guilty in December 2014 to a class B felony charge of initiation of a process to the manufacture of methamphetamine and two misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, he reserved certified questions of law on the affidavit for the search warrant that led to his arrest, according to a ruling handed down this week by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.
Taking up the certified questions, appellate court justices found the affidavit filed by a Marion County Sheriff’s Department detective “failed to establish probable cause.” The case was originally heard by Marion County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Graham and the search warrant was issued by Judge Mark Raines.