Crane v. State
| Decision Date | 22 September 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 178S13,178S13 |
| Parties | William Leroy CRANE, Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below). |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Richard Albert Alford, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
Defendant (Appellant) was charged with and convicted of first degree murder, Ind.Code § 35-13-4-1 (Burns 1975). He was sentenced to life imprisonment and presents the following issues for review:
(1) Whether the trial court erred in admitting State's exhibit No. 8, a handgun, into evidence over objection upon grounds that it had been obtained as the result of an illegal arrest.
(2) Whether the trial court erred in admitting into evidence State's exhibits Nos. 11 and 12, Defendant's waiver of rights and statement, over objection upon grounds that they had been obtained as the result of an illegal arrest.
(3) Whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant's motion to suppress his waiver of rights and statement, which were subsequently admitted at trial.
(4) Whether the trial court erred in admitting into evidence State's exhibits Nos. 2, 3 and 4, photographs of the decedent, over objection upon grounds that they were inflammatory and prejudicial.
(5) Whether the evidence sustains the jury's finding that the defendant was sane at the time that the crime was committed.
Issues I and II may be consolidated since the basis for each alleged error is the legality of the defendant's arrest. The defendant contends that the officers lacked probable cause for his warrantless arrest and that any evidence obtained in consequence thereof should have been excluded.
The pertinent facts concerning the defendant's arrest were as follows:
At approximately 8:30 on the morning of February 7, 1975, the arresting officers were called to the Steel Inn, a restaurant, to investigate a shooting. Upon arriving, they found Joan Dotterer, the owner, lying dead on the floor. The delivery man, who had found the body, had attempted to contact the defendant, because he knew that he had worked for the decedent and had a key to the restaurant. He told the police that the defendant had always been at the restaurant by the time that he arrived to make his deliveries. On that particular morning, however, the defendant was neither at the restaurant nor at his home. Acting upon this information, the police went directly to the defendant's home, located across the street from the restaurant. Finding no one there, they talked to a few of the defendant's neighbors and then returned to the restaurant for further investigation.
About 9:40 a. m. they returned to the home of one of the defendant's neighbors, Frank Petosky, to ask him a few more questions. During their conversation, they were told that the defendant had stopped by Petosky's house while they were gone and admitted having shot the decedent. After receiving this information, the police went to the defendant's home to question him. When he opened the door, they asked him to step outside, which he did. He was patted down for any concealed weapons and read Miranda type warnings. One of the officers then asked him where the gun was, and he replied that his sister had it in the house. He invited the officers into the house and asked his sister to give them the gun, which she did. The defendant, accompanied by his sister, was then taken to police headquarters. After having been advised of his rights several times and after having signed a waiver thereof, he gave a signed statement to the police confessing to the murder of Joan Dotterer.
"Probable cause justifying an arrest without a warrant exists where facts and circumstances within the arresting officer's knowledge or of which he had reasonably trustworthy information, would lead a reasonably prudent person under the conditions at the time to believe a crime had been committed." Manson v. State, (1967) 249 Ind. 53, 229 N.E.2d 801. Also see, Gaddis v. State, (1977) Ind., 368 N.E.2d 244; Luckett v. State, (1972) 259 Ind. 174, 284 N.E.2d 738.
Upon arriving at the scene and viewing the decedent, the arresting officers had good cause to believe that a crime had been committed. Being advised by persons, who appeared to have no ulterior motives, that the defendant was usually present at the scene of the crime at the time of day when the crime appeared to have been committed, that he could not be found at the time the crime was discovered but that he had subsequently appeared and admitted his guilt, the officers had probable cause for the arrest under the rule above quoted.
ISSUE III
Prior to trial the defendant moved the court to suppress his statement on the grounds that he lacked the sufficient mental capacity and intellect to waive his rights against self-incrimination. On appeal he argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion and in admitting the confession. A hearing was held on the motion, but the transcript of that hearing has not been included in the record. Without such a record of such hearing, we are unable to review any alleged errors concerning the denial of said motion. Bobbitt v. State, (1977) Ind., 361 N.E.2d 1193.
In trial the defendant also objected, upon the same grounds, to the admission of these exhibits and upon the additional grounds that the arrest was illegal and the exhibits obtained in consequence of that arrest. A hearing was had outside the presence of the jury, but the defendant advised the court that he wou...
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