Attorneys in a major local theft case will debate the validity of a search warrant and the evidence it produced at a June 17th Anderson County District Court hearing. The prosecution filed an answer last week to a defense motion to suppress the search warrant and its resulting evidence. Attorneys for Marvin Slyter say the search warrant, executed by Anderson County Undersheriff Wes McClain, was fraudulent because it failed to address a prior visit he made to Slyter’s property while investigating numerous pieces of farm equipment reported stolen and later recovered on Slyter’s property. Anderson County Attorney, Elizabeth Oliver, argued there was no case law that would define McClain’s actions during the early November 2019 discovery of the equipment as trespass. When he moved from the door of the residence to the shop building, because no one had answered his knock at the door, he had already seen equipment that matched the descriptions of a piece reported stolen.
The June hearing will likely come down to details of the search, and if anything transpired that violated Slyter’s Fourth Amendment Rights.
