Page:Brief for the United States, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963).djvu/24

 evidence. But what Toy stated in his confession was sufficiently corroborated to warrant consideration of his statement. When he confessed to delivery of heroin at Yee's house, he was not spinning a fantasy—the 27 grams of heroin at Yee's house on the morning of June 4 corroborated this admission. Additionally, Toy admitted a series of visits to Yee's house. This was corroborated in Toy's very detailed familiarity with the house, as disclosed in the testimony of Agent Nickoloff. The statement in Toy's confession specifically placing him at Yee's house on the night of June 3 was further substantiated in Agent Nickoloff's testimony that Toy admitted to him on June 4 that he had been at Yee's house the night before. There were also other elements of corroboration.

Petitioners argue that the trial court erred in admitting several items of evidence—petitioner Toy's statements to the federal agent (at the time of and after his arrest) which led the agents to Johnny Yee and to petitioner Wong Sun, the narcotics found at Yee's house, and the formal confessions made by petitioners some days later, subsequent to their arraignment—because all of this evidence resulted from the petitioners' arrests which are claimed to have been unlawful. Although holding that the arrests of both petitioners were invalid as not based on probable cause, the court of appeals sustained the convictions on the ground that the invalidity of the arrests did not void the confessions by petitioners nor the statement by petitioner Toy which led the agents to recover narcotics from Yee. In effect, the court