Clements v. State

• Decision Date: 26 January 1970
• Docket Number: No. 25536,25536
• Citation: Clements v. State, 226 Ga. 66, 172 S.E.2d 600 (Ga. 1970)
• Parties: David Hugh CLEMENTS v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 600

172 S.E.2d 600

226 Ga. 66

David Hugh CLEMENTS v.The STATE.

No. 25536.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Jan. 26, 1970.

John Kirby, Andrew A. Smith, Atlanta, for appellant.

Lewis R. Slaton, Dist. Atty., Tony H. Hight, Jack E. Mallard, Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Harold N. Hill, Jr., Executive Asst. Atty. Gen., Marion O. Gordon, William

R. Childers, Jr., Asst. Attys.Gen., Atlanta, for appellee.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

FRANKUM, Justice.

1.Evidence as to the time when and the place where arrested, the manner of the arrest, how the accused was armed, and whether he resisted, and all the circumstances connected with the arrest, are proper matters to be submitted to the jury to be weighed by them for what they are worth.Wynne v. State, 56 Ga. 113, 114, 119(5);McClung v. State, 206 Ga. 421, 423, 57 S.E.2d 559.Where, as in this case, the evidence showed that the accused when arrested had just driven an automobile into the parking lot of a motel; that upon being searched he was found to have a pistol tucked in his belt; that two other pistols were found on the seat of the automobile on which the accused had been sitting at the time of his arrest; and where other evidence was to the effect that two of the weapons resembled weapons seen by the victims of the robberies in the possession of the perpetrators of the crimes at the time they were committed, it was not error to admit the pistols in question in evidence over the objection that no connection between the weapons and the crimes had been established.Under all the evidence and circumstances it was for the jury to determine the fact as to whether or not the weapons introduced in evidence were the same weapons used by the accused and his accomplices in perpetrating the robberies for which he was on trial.Dill v. State, 106 Ga. 683, 686, 32 S.E. 660;Prather v. State, 223 Ga. 721(3), 157 S.E.2d 734.

2.Defendant contends that certain physical evidence seized at the time he was arrested was seized illegally because it was not seized as an incident to his arrest but was seized prior to the time he was actually placed under arrest.The evidence in this connection shows that the defendant drove an automobile into the parking lot of a motel in Hapeville, Georgia, and that immediately upon his stopping the same the police officers approached the automobile and took the defendant out of the car at gunpoint, and immediately thereafter searched the person of the defendant and the automobile, recovering the evidence sought by the defendant to be suppressed.An arrest is accomplished whenever the liberty of another to come and go as he pleases is restrained, no matter how slight such restraint may be.The defendant may voluntarily submit to being considered under arrest without any actual touching or show of force, and the arrest is complete.Code§ 27-201;Courtoy v. Dozier, 20 Ga. 369;Turney v. Rhodes, 42 Ga.App. 104(1), 155 S.E. 112;Black's Law...