Bartley V. People

The defendant, William Clifford Bartley, was convicted of the crimes of second degree burglary*fn1 and theft*fn2 as a result of a jury trial in the District Court for Dolores County. On appeal he contended that certain evidence received in his trial was obtained in violation of the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures set forth in article II, section 7, of the Colorado  Constitution. Specifically, he argued that even though the evidence was discovered by a search conducted pursuant to a warrant, the affidavit for the warrant contained information obtained by a constitutionally impermissible aerial inspection of his secluded rural property. The Colorado Court of Appeals held the aerial viewing to be consistent with the Colorado Constitution and sustained the defendant's conviction. People v. Bartley, 791 P.2d 1222 (Colo. App. 1990), cert. granted, 803 P.2d 950 (Colo. 1990). We conclude that the affidavit for search warrant contained sufficient information independent of that obtained by the aerial observation to support the issuance of the warrant. We therefore affirm the judgment of the court of appeals but find it unnecessary to reach the constitutional question. Even assuming that the admission of the aerial observations into evidence at trial violated the Colorado Constitution, we hold that such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.