Campbell v. State

Decision Date21 May 1973
Docket NumberNo. 47326,47326
Citation278 So.2d 420
PartiesPat CAMPBELL v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Henry L. Tillman, Pascagoula, Miss., for appellant.

A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by T. E. Childs, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

WALKER, Justice:

The appellant Campbell and Robert L. Dearman were jointly indicted for robbery. Following a severance, appellant was convicted in the Circuit Court of Jackson County and sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary. We affirm.

On February 16, 1972, James W. Krepps, a sailor stationed aboard the U.S.S. Gato at Pascagoula, Mississippi, had been drinking at a local bar. When the time came for the bars to close within the city limits, Krepps caught a ride with two men in a green pickup truck, neither of whom he could identify at the trial, who offered to carry him to bar out in the county where they could continue their drinking. The driver of the truck drove to a place upon a highway where they stopped and a fight took place between Krepps and appellant and Dearman. After taking between $35 and $40, his watch, wallet, belt and shoes, the defendant and his accomplice left Krepps stranded at the scene. Krepps then walked to the nearby residence of J. B. Morgan who immediately notified the sheriff's department. Morgan described the victim as being a bloody mess and barefooted.

Sheriff's dequties were dispatched immediately to the Morgan home and Deputy Sheriff Ledbetter arrived there at about 1:21 a.m. Krepps gave a description of the truck to the officer and told him that it was occupied by two white males. Deputy Ledbetter put this information on the police radio between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m., and shortly thereafter, in response thereto, was advised that a truck fitting the description had been located at an apartment complex in Pascagoula by Deputy Sheriff Johnson. Krepps, after being taken to the local hospital and released, was taken to the apartment complex by Deputy Ledbetter. Upon arriving at the apartment building, Krepps pointed out the truck from a number of other cars and trucks parked in the vicinity of the building.

It was further developed by testimony that Deputies Johnson and Byrd had stopped this same truck earlier that morning at approximately 1:17 a.m. because the truck was weaving along the highway as if the driver was either slightly intoxicated or having mechancial trouble. Upon stopping the truck, they observed that both occupants were muddy and that appellant had blood on his arms and clothing. However, the appellant explained to the officers' satisfaction that there was slack in the steering mechanism and his condition the result of extricating the truck which had been stuck. Nevertheless, the officers routinely made a note of the time of the incident, the description of the truck, its tag number and appellant's name and address. The address later proved to be false, but was within a few blocks of where the appellant was located and arrested.

Based on the information given by Krepps as to the identity of the truck and his description of its occupants as two white males, the muddy and bloody condition of the occupants as observed by officers who stopped the truck, and the later identification of the same truck by the license tag number taken by the officers when it was stopped, a John Doe warrant was obtained for the arrest of the appellant and Dearman. While other officers were dispatched along with Krepps to get the John Doe warrants, Deputy Johnson watched the rear of the apartments to prevent an escape. While doing so he observed a window screen on the ground and a pair of pants hanging from the roof directly above the window from which the screen had been pushed. At about this same time, Deputy Byrd and another officer, while walking around the building and knowing that the victim's shoes and belt had been taken, observed similar objects in an open garbage can outside of the apartment building. krepps later identified them as items taken from him.

When the officers returned with the John Doe warrants for the arrest of these suspects, Officers Johnson and Byrd went into the apartment building and arrested appellant and Dearman whom they recognized as the occupants of the truck which they had stopped earlier. After making the arrest, Deputy Johnson went to the bathroom window to recover the clothing which they had earlier observed hanging from the roof. When he turned to step down from the windowsill, he noticed and retrieved from the commode nine $1.00 bills and thirty cents in change. However, this money was not offered into evidence.

While testifying in his own defense, the appellant admitted that he and Dearman had given Krepps a ride and that a fight had ensued after they became engaged in an argument, but he denied robbing or taking anything from the victim. He admitted that he and Dearman hurriedly cleaned up when they observed the officers outside of the building as well as throwing the pants onto the roof, but denied any knowledge of the money in the commode or items found in the garbage can.

The questions before this Court are:

(1) Did the lower court commit error in admitting into evidence, over defendant's objection, the clothing of the appellant which was found hanging from the roof and the belt and shoes which were found in the garbage can outside of the apartment building where appellant was arrested, all of which was obtained without a search warrant?

(2) Was the verdict against the overwhelming weight of the evidence?

In considering the first assignment of error, we find the record vague as to whether there was, in fact, a detailed search of the apartment by the officers after the suspects were arrested. But, even if there was a search of the apartment, the items of evidence which were introduced and objected to, and which are the subject of the first assignment of error, were not obtained by such search. The objected to evidence was in plain and open view of the officers from the ground on the outside of the apartment building and was observed by the officers before they ever went into the apartment to make the arrest. The officers had a right to be where they were at that time and were not trespassing on the defendant's property. After making the...

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    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • 4 Diciembre 1985
    ...be given their testimony. Redmond v. State, 457 So.2d 1344, 1346 (Miss.1984); Carter v. State, 310 So.2d 271 (Miss.1975); Campbell v. State, 278 So.2d 420 (Miss.1973). Based on the evidence, to-wit: (1) Louise Mack's home was broken into and some items were stolen; (2) on the same day of th......
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