Goins v. Com., 761131
| Decision Date | 01 September 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 761131,761131 |
| Citation | 237 S.E.2d 136,218 Va. 285 |
| Parties | Henry Lee GOINS, etc. v. COMMONWEALTH of Virginia. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Michael Hill Dills, Norfolk, for plaintiff in error.
Alan Katz, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Anthony F. Troy, Atty. Gen., on brief), for defendant in error.
Before I'ANSON, C. J., and CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN, POFF and COMPTON, JJ.
The appellant, Henry Lee Goins, convicted by the trial court, sitting without a jury, was sentenced to serve 25 years in the penitentiary for robbery, 12 months in jail for carrying a concealed weapon, and 12 months in jail for brandishing a firearm, and to pay a fine of $100 for giving a false name to police officers. On appeal Goins contends that the trial court committed reversible error in overruling his motion to suppress certain identification statements made to the investigating officers by the victim of the robbery who died prior to trial.
About 4:05 a. m. on December 11, 1975, Detective L. I. Rawls, of the City of Norfolk Police Department, arrived at the Pembroke Towers Apartments in response to a call. Entering the lobby, Rawls found William B. Etheridge, conceded by Goins to have been at that time the night manager of the apartment building, with his face "busted" and bloody, a front tooth missing, and his clothes "messed up." Short of breath, Etheridge spoke slowly and with difficulty in relating what had happened. The detective observed that the office area of the lobby was littered with papers and other articles and that drawers had been pulled out of desks. Rawls retrieved from the floor of the lobby a black leather glove for the right hand.
Sergeant J. R. Jarvis was in a police car approximately one-half mile away when he received a radio report that a robbery had been perpetrated at Pembroke Towers by a person identified only as a black male. Proceeding to the area, Jarvis came upon Goins, a black male, on Pembroke Avenue about three blocks from Pembroke Towers. When the officer got out of his car and asked him for identification, Goins pulled a pistol from one of two pocketbooks he was carrying, pointed it at Jarvis, and pulled the trigger. When the pistol failed to fire, Jarvis drew his weapon, disarmed and arrested Goins, and called on his radio for assistance. Officer James G. Ingram, who responded to Jarvis' call, transported Goins in a police van to Pembroke Towers.
About 4:15 a. m. or 4:20 a. m. Detective Rawls conducted Etheridge to the police vehicle parked outside the apartment building. Rawls testified that Etheridge looked at Goins and said, "This is the man who assaulted me and robbed me and took my gun." Rawls further testified that he received from Officer Ingram the two pocketbooks seized from Goins at the time of his arrest which contained, among other items, a black leather glove for a left hand that matched the glove found earlier by Rawls. Ingram also delivered to Rawls a black wallet, containing money, and a .25 caliber pistol, all of which Etheridge identified as his property. About 4:35 a. m. Goins was removed to police headquarters, where he gave his name as James Lloyd Smith and refused to sign the form on which was listed the property seized from him. The officers subsequently ascertained the suspect's correct name.
Etheridge, who suffered from a preexisting heart ailment, was admitted to a hospital shortly after the robbery, and he died approximately one month later. At trial, his widow identified as her husband's property the black wallet and the .25 caliber pistol taken from Goins. She further testified that her husband carried the wallet in the pocket of his trousers, and that when she went to the hospital to assist her husband she examined his clothes and found that this pocket had been torn away.
Goins, testifying in his own defense, denied having been at Pembroke...
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