Ex parte Meeks

• Decision Date: 10 June 1983
• Citation: 434 So.2d 844
• Parties: Ex parte James E. MEEKS. Re: James E. Meeks v. State of Alabama. 81-944, 82-37.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 844

434 So.2d 844

Ex parte James E. MEEKS.

Re: James E. Meeks v. State of Alabama.

81-944, 82-37.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

June 10, 1983.

Paul R. Cooper of Cooper & Cooper, Montgomery, for petitioner.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Billington M. Garrett, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

We granted certiorari to review the decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeals in Meeks v. State, 434 So.2d 843 (Ala.Cr.App.1982), and Meeks v. State, 434 So.2d 836 (Ala.Cr.App.1982), which affirmed Meeks's convictions. The principal issue presented for our consideration is whether the trial court erred in admitting evidence of defendant Meeks's confession. We hold that the evidence was improperly admitted and reverse the judgments of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

In the early morning hours of July 19, 1981, Mr. Renoir T. Britt was performing his duties as a night porter at Shoney's Restaurant in Montgomery. A man, later identified as the defendant, threatened Mr. Britt with a pistol, demanded entrance to the restaurant office, and tied Mr. Britt's arms and legs. The man, identified at trial as Meeks, then removed from the office a safe containing approximately $1,500 and drove away from the restaurant in Mr. Britt's car.

On July 22, 1981, two men entered the Carter Hill Drugstore in Montgomery and robbed the store of various controlled substances and approximately $80.00 in cash. Allen Rosenthal, a co-owner of the Carter Hill Drugstore, testified that Meeks approached him at the prescription counter, pointed a gun at him, and told him he wanted his stock of "Class A" drugs. Meeks's companion marched the store cashier, Marsha Jackson, to the prescription department and told her to remain there. During the robbery, a delivery man, William Sanders, entered the store, and Meeks's companion escorted him to the prescription department, where the three victims were made to lie on the floor while their hands and feet were taped behind them.

Meeks was taken into custody on August 13, 1981, at 6:30 a.m. by two police officers at the Paradise Motel. There is no evidence in the record regarding the identity of the officers and there was no warrant for the arrest. Corporal R.H. Davis of the Montgomery Police Department testified that he advised Meeks of his constitutional rights at approximately 9:40 a.m. on August 13, 1981, and obtained Meeks's signature on a waiver of rights form. At the suppression hearing, Corporal Davis testified that the charge against Meeks was "robbery investigation," because at the time Meeks was taken into custody no warrant had been issued. A line-up was commenced at 10:45 a.m., at which time Meeks was positively identified by three of the robbery victims.

T.H. Roper, an investigator in the Robbery-Homicide Division, testified at trial in both the Shoney's and the Carter Hill Drugstore robbery cases that he talked with Meeks on August 13, 1981. He stated that he advised Meeks of his constitutional rights and obtained Meeks's signature on a waiver of rights form at 12:30 p.m. Roper testified that he and Investigator Houlton related information received from Meeks's girlfriend, Rhonda Thornton, concerning Meeks's involvement in the robberies. Roper testified that Meeks made an oral statement at approximately 12:45 p.m. that he had been involved in some robberies, but that the robberies did not occur in the manner described by Thornton.

Three police officers testified at the pre-trial suppression hearing. Corporal Davis testified that Meeks was arrested because of information received from a reliable informant that Meeks and others were involved in the drugstore robbery. Davis, however, admitted that the information had not been given to him and that he did not know the identity of the informant. Roper testified, but could not identify the officers who arrested Meeks, nor could he provide any information concerning the identity of the informant. Roper testified that Thornton and Meeks were picked up at about the same time. In fact, the trial court stated that it was undisputed that the police did not have the information from Thornton prior to the time Meeks was taken into custody. Investigator Houlton testified, but did not identify the arresting officers or the informant.

Meeks made a motion to suppress all testimony and identifications arising out of the police line-up, the testimony of other witnesses, and all other evidence, based on the ground that his arrest was without probable cause and that the evidence the State expected to use was obtained as a result of the illegal arrest. The trial court denied the motion to suppress.

The first issue we address is whether the police had probable cause to arrest the defendant. Section 15-10-3(3), Code 1975, enables a police officer to arrest a person without a warrant "[w]hen a felony has been committed and he has reasonable cause to believe that the person arrested committed it." This "reasonable cause" requirement has been equated with probable cause. Knight v. State, 346 So.2d 478 (Ala.Cr.App.1977). The constitutional validity of an arrest depends upon whether,

"at the moment the arrest was made, the officers had probable cause to make it--whether at that moment the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the petitioner had committed or was committing an offense."

Thomas v. State, 50 Ala.App. 227, 235, 278 So.2d 230, 237 (Ala.Cr.App.1973).

It has been held that an officer cannot justify an arrest without a warrant on the ground that he has reasonable cause to believe that the person arrested has committed a felony, unless he has information or facts derived from credible sources or from persons reasonably presumed to know the facts, which, if submitted to a magistrate, would require the issuance of an arrest warrant. Thomas v. State, 50 Ala.App. at 235, 278 So.2d at 237. If probable cause is to be based on an informant's information, two requirements must be met: (1) The underlying circumstances must show the officer's reason to believe the informant is a credible person or that the information is reliable, and (2) the circumstances must show the basis of the conclusions reached by the informant. Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964); Knight v. State, 346 So.2d 478 (Ala.Cr.App.1977).

Looking at the facts in this case, we are of the opinion that the record positively discloses that the State failed in its burden of proving probable cause to make an arrest. Testimony from witnesses for the State failed to reveal the identity of the arresting officers. Even if knowledge of one police officer was imputed to the arresting officers, Cook v. State, 56 Ala.App. 250, 320 So.2d 764 (Ala.Cr.App.1975), there is no evidence in the record of the identity of the officer directing the arrest and no evidence that any such officer had probable cause to make an arrest. No evidence was presented of circumstances showing the officer's reason to believe that the unidentified informant was a credible person or that the information was reliable. Furthermore, information from the unidentified informant may not be used to establish the existence of probable cause, because it was not corroborated by any additional information. Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969); Knight v. State, 346 So.2d 478 (Ala.Cr.App.1977). Nor do we find any indication of the existence of probable cause to make an arrest in Investigator Houlton's statement that Meeks fit the description of one of the robbers.

Having established the primary illegality of Meeks's arrest, we next consider whether the evidence to which petitioner's objection is made was procured by exploitation of that illegality or by a means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487-88, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417-418, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).

The Court of Criminal Appeals held that no "fruits" of the arrest were placed in evidence in this case. We must disagree. This holding ignores the testimony of Investigator Roper in both the Carter Hill Drugstore and Shoney's robbery cases that Meeks admitted his involvement in the robberies. The United States Supreme Court in Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. at 484, 83 S.Ct. at 415, stated: "The exclusionary prohibition extends as well to the indirect as the direct products of such invasions." The exclusionary sanction clearly applies to...