A Kettering criminal case that involved a discovery of drugs in a residence has been sent back to the trial court after an appeals court decided the judge mistakenly threw out the drug evidence.

In 2012, Layrue Mitchell pleaded not guilty in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to single counts of trafficking in heroin, possession of heroin, possession of criminal tools, misdemeanor drug possession and three counts of having weapons as a felon.

Kettering police accused Mitchell of selling drugs out of his townhome, in the 1500 block of Moler Avenue, in December 2011 based on what a confidential informant reported to investigators. Mitchell was indicted by a county grand jury last June.

His attorney filed a motion to suppress, claiming the search warrant in the case was insufficient because it lacked a statement about the reliability of the informant. The trial judge agreed and suppressed the warrant. County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.’s office appealed.

Judge Jeffrey Welbaum, writing the opinion for the Second District Court of Appeals, differentiated between a “weak” affidavit in a case that lacked evidence of direct drug buys between the informant and the defendant and Mitchell’s case, which included details about two confirmed drug buys between him and the informant.

“The fact that the confidential informant had detailed knowledge of the interior of Mitchell’s home, including specific areas where drugs and weapons were to be found (and were found), coupled with the success of the informant’s drug buys, which were directly observed and monitored by the police, indicate that the informant was truthful and reliable,” Welbaum wrote in the unanimous decision reached Feb. 22.

Welbaum urged police to include more information about informants’ reliability in affidavits even though the failure to establish reliability is ” ‘no longer a fatal defect in probable cause analysis,’ it is still a consideration,” in the Mitchell case.

The appeals court, whose members include Judges Mary Donovan and Michael Hall, concluded that the affidavit “provided a substantial basis upon which the issuing judge could find a fair probability that a crime had been committed and that evidence would be found within the place to be searched.”

The ruling means the case now will go back to Common Pleas court and the prosecutor’s office for disposition.