Fingers v. State, 2--374A75

• Decision Date: 12 June 1975
• Docket Number: No. 2--374A75,2--374A75
• Citation: 329 N.E.2d 51,164 Ind.App. 438
• Parties: Paul E. FINGERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 51

329 N.E.2d 51

164 Ind.App. 438

Paul E. FINGERS, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.

No. 2--374A75.

Court of Appeals of Indiana, Second District.

June 12, 1975.

Richard L. Milan, Indianapolis, for appellant.

Theodore L. Sendak, Atty. Gen., Gary M. Crist, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

WHITE, Judge.

Appellant Fingers was charged by affidavit with the offense of burglary in the first degree, convicted after jury trial, and sentenced to an indeterminate term of ten to twenty years. Having perfected this appeal, he now argues that the evidence is insufficient to establish a breaking and entering by him, that certain physical evidence was obtained unlawfully, and that an in-court identification of him was tainted by pre-arrest identification procedure.

We affirm.

The evidence most favorable to the appellee State is that a housewife (Smith) came home shortly before 2 P.M. to find a white Thunderbird automobile with its trunk open in her driveway. A man standing there closed the trunk, got in the car and motioned her to move her car out of the way, which she did. He asked her if Mike lived there, and receiving a negative reply he thanked her and drove away. When she went to her house she found the door forced open and a television, a tape-player and speakers, and some tapes missing. She called the Marion County Sheriff and a radio alert was put out on the Indianapolis Police radio band. The alert was for a white Thunderbird driven by a tall negro. Shortly after 2 P.M. and approximately 7 miles away a city police officer (Tirmenstein) saw a white Thunderbird with three riders, all negro, coming from that general direction. He and his partner turned around and started following the car, at the same time radioing for assistance and asking their dispatcher to notify the Sheriff's office. The car stopped at a shopping center, the two passengers (who were later determined to be hitchhikers) got out, and the car continued. A few blocks further on the police stopped the car, obtained identification from the driver (Fingers), advised him that a car like his was just involved in a burglary, and told him that they would like him to wait until the sheriff arrived. A few minutes later a deputy sheriff brought Smith and her husband to the scene. She identified the car as the one that had been in her driveway and Fingers as the man who had been in her driveway. Fingers was then formally placed under arrest. The trunk of his car was opened and both Smith and her husband identified the contents as the articles that had been taken from their residence.

Fingers argues that neither the contents of the trunk nor any testimony about them should have been received into evidence since they were the fruit of an illegal search that followed an illegal arrest. His contentions are that the original stopping of his car was an arrest made without warrant and without probable cause, and that even if the arrest be legal the search is not because it was without warrant.

As to the arrest, Fingers' argument is that the facts then known to Tirmenstein were not such as would warrant a man of reasonable caution and prudence to believe the driver of the car he observed had committed a criminal offense.

Our Supreme Court has considered this very question in two different cases. In Luckett v. State (1972), 259 Ind. 174, 284 N.E.2d 738, a policeman was advised by radio of a burglary and that the suspects were fleeing in a green Chevrolet with a license prefix of 82J. No mention was made of the number or race of the suspects. Thirty minutes after the crime, at a location within the range of possible flight, a green Oldsmobile with the license prefix of 82J traveling in a direction away from the burglary was stopped. In Williams v. State (1974), Ind., 307 N.E.2d 457, police were advised by radio that a robbery had occurred in West Lafayette and that the suspects, two negro males, fled in an automobile heading north on U.S. 52. Two State Police officers, figuring that the suspects might be heading for Chicago and that, if so, they would possibly turn off U.S. 52 onto U.S. 231 so as to reach an Interstate Highway, positioned themselves at an intersection on U.S. 231. The third northbound car had only one visible occupant, the driver, but the police thought the driver was a negro and they followed the car. Improved lighting conditions in a town further down the road convinced one of the police officers that the driver was a negro and they stopped the car.

In both Luckett and Williams the court held that the police officers had probable cause to stop the car, although probable cause for an arrest did not then exist.

On the basis of Luckett and Williams we hold that the facts and circumstances known to Tirmenstein were sufficient to give him probable cause to stop Fingers' car.' ¹

As to the search, Fingers argues that the opening of the trunk of his car was unlawful even though he had been formally placed under arrest. The evidence is conflicting as to whether Fingers consented to the search, or merely acquiesced to the search, or objected to the search, but that dispute is of no consequence. If there is probable cause for search of a car stopped on the highway, the police may either search the car without warrant or impound the car until a warrant can be obtained. Chambers v. Maroney (1970), 399 U.S. 42, 51, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1981, 26 L.Ed.2d 419. Luckett v car had been identified by Smith the police State, supra. After both Fingers and the unquestionably had probable cause to search the car.

Fingers' second argument is that the evidence is insufficient to prove that he broke into and entered the house since he was only seen in the driveway. If Fingers' first argument concerning the contents of his trunk were successful...