Green v. State

• Decision Date: 02 April 1984
• Docket Number: No. 882,882
• Citation: 461 N.E.2d 108
• Parties: Lawrence GREEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee. S 293.
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Page 108

461 N.E.2d 108

Lawrence GREEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee.

No. 882 S 293.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

April 2, 1984.

Brent Westerfeld, Choate, Visher & Haith, Indianapolis, for appellant.

Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., G. Douglas Seidman, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Defendant-Appellant Lawrence Green was found guilty by a jury in the Tippecanoe Superior Court of class B felony burglary, class B felony attempted burglary, class D misdemeanor battery on a police officer and class D felony theft. The jury subsequently found Appellant to be a habitual offender. The trial court accordingly sentenced Appellant to concurrent imprisonment terms of six years for burglary, six years for attempted burglary, six months for battery and two years for theft. A consecutive term of thirty years also was imposed upon Appellant for being a habitual offender. Appellant now directly appeals and raises the following seven consolidated issues:

1. admission of evidence obtained during an investigatory stop of Appellant;

2. admission of certain exhibits in spite of alleged failure to establish a proper chain of custody;

3. refusal to allow Appellant to object outside of the jury's presence to the admission of a certain lab report;

4. motion for mistrial based on the State's submission of a certain lab report;

5. admission of testimony that Officer Stonebraker was acquainted with Appellant prior to his instant arrest;

6. admission of certain instructions; and

7. sufficiency of the evidence.

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. on July 23, 1981, Paula Rochman was awakened by someone attempting to break into her home on Brown Street in Lafayette. She screamed and the man left. Police were called and Officer Gary Bennett responded by proceeding toward the scene. Enroute, Bennett observed a man walking down Brown Street about two blocks from Rochman's residence. Since it was very early in the morning and Appellant was the only person in the area, Officer Bennett stopped and asked Appellant for his name and where he was coming from. Appellant stated his name and said that he was coming from a friend's house in the neighborhood. Appellant could not, however, supply the friend's name or the friend's address. Officer Stonebraker arrived and remained with Appellant while Bennett proceeded to Rochman's house.

At Rochman's house, Officer Koon discovered a black wallet and some papers lying next to what appeared to be a sandy flower bed. In this flower bed Koon found fresh boot prints which bore a distinctive pattern. These prints were in the vicinity of the window which showed signs of an attempted entry. In the wallet was the driver's license of Johnny Bunch who lived two houses away from Rochman. Police went to the Bunch residence and found a screen removed from a window and the door standing open. Mr. and Mrs. Bunch were awakened whereupon they discovered certain items missing from their home. Bunch informed the police that the house was locked and secured at 2:30 a.m. Bunch was missing a pair of trousers, a belt, a tape measure, a black cowhide billfold containing identification and other papers, some old nickels, a pocket knife, a nail clipper and a twice-folded one-hundred dollar bill.

The officers at Rochman's house radioed Stonebraker and asked him to check Appellant's shoes. Stonebraker checked the shoes and found that they had the described groove and ridge pattern. Having determined this, Stonebraker took Appellant to Rochman's house where his boots were positively matched with the bootprints discovered near Rochman's window.

Bunch's trousers were found with Bunch's belt missing near Rochman's house. Bennett recalled that he found a coiled belt on Appellant when he frisked Appellant before going to the crime scene. The belt was not taken from Appellant at that time but was found later under a seat in the police car in which Appellant had been sitting. While at Rochman's house, Officer Stonebraker asked Appellant for permission to search him which Appellant gave. Stonebraker found in Appellant's pockets a pocket knife, some nickels and a twice-folded one-hundred dollar bill. Bunch identified these items as belonging to him. Appellant was then informed that he was under arrest. Appellant strongly resisted the officers and had to be forcibly subdued and handcuffed. While Appellant subsequently was incarcerated in the jail, Officer Stonebraker ventured near his cell and was slapped across his face by Appellant.

I

Appellant first contends that Lafayette Police Officers Stonebraker and Bennett exceeded constitutional and statutory limitations on the scope of an investigatory stop. Appellant specifically claims that the officers unreasonably detained him in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Indiana statutory law after Appellant had satisfactorily answered their initial inquiries. He argues that he should have been immediately released by the officers at that point. Appellant also claims that there was no probable cause for his continued detention, that Bennett unconstitutionally seized his boots, and that Stonebraker violated the Fourth Amendment when he searched his pockets without a warrant and without probable cause to believe that Appellant had items of evidence from the Bunch residence on his person.

We agree with the State's contention that the stop and search of Appellant was proper. Appellant was the only person in the vicinity of a reported break-in at 3:37 a.m. He was moving in a direction away from the crime scene on the same side of the street and within two blocks of the crime. He told police that he had been visiting a friend in the neighborhood but was unable to give the name of that friend or an address. He was antagonistic and reluctant to cooperate with the police. The police were justified in making this stop and investigation. Terry v. Ohio, (1968) 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889. The police also had a right to make a weapons frisk of Appellant. Adams v. Williams, (1972) 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612.

While Appellant was being stopped and investigated, police were investigating the scene of the attempted burglary and found evidence of an additional break-in nearby. Officers at the scene also discovered bootprints clearly imprinted in the ground which revealed a distinctive type of shoe. Radio transmission to the officer talking with Appellant ascertained that Appellant was wearing such shoes. This was a short time after the original stop and not an unreasonable length of time for police to detain Appellant under the circumstances.

Probable cause exists when, at the time of arrest, the arresting officer has knowledge of facts and circumstances which would warrant a man of reasonable caution to believe that the defendant committed the criminal act in question. Funk v. State, (1981) Ind., 427 N.E.2d 1081, reh. denied (1982). Here the police were informed about the suspicious circumstances related above together with the bootprints at the scene which matched the shoes Appellant was wearing. The police therefore had probable cause to justify them in continuing to detain Appellant. See Hatcher v. State, (1980) Ind., 410 N.E.2d 1187; Williams v. State, (1974) 261 Ind. 547, 307 N.E.2d 457, reh. denied.

Since probable cause existed, the police had sufficient evidence to arrest Appellant at that point. They did not do so. Once a subject is under arrest a reasonable custodial search may be conducted and evidence found thereby is admissible at trial. Akins v. State, (1981) Ind., 429 N.E.2d 232, reh. denied (1982). The State admits, however, that Appellant was searched before he was formally placed under arrest. It is the State's contention that since probable cause existed prior to this search, the failure to place Appellant under arrest before searching him was harmless error as expressed in United States ex rel. Roberts v. Ternullo, (E.D.N.Y.1976) 407 F.Supp. 1172. Appellant claims that the seizure of his boots to compare them to the bootprints in the flower garden was an unconstitutional seizure. He is incorrect in that assertion. The use of the boots in comparing them to the prints found at the scene of the crime was permissible. See Hatcher, supra; Biggs v. State, (1929) 201 Ind. 200, 167 N.E. 129. Furthermore, there was evidence that Appellant voluntarily consented to being searched. Police officers testified that they asked Appellant if they could search his pockets for items missing from Bunch and Appellant gave them permission to do so. Appellant does not deny that he gave permission to the police officers to search him but rather simply states that his constitutional rights were violated. The detention and search of Appellant by the police was therefore proper and the trial court properly denied the motions to suppress the items of evidence obtained from Appellant at the scene. United States v. Mendenhall, (1980) 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497.

II

Appellant objected to the admission into evidence of the old nickels found on him claiming that a proper chain of custody was not shown. It is well-settled that no chain of custody need be shown for certain items of hard physical evidence which are not of a fungible character. Dier v. State, (1982) Ind., 442 N.E.2d 1043. The items in question were old nickels of particular dates which could be recognized and were testified to by the police. One of the nickels even had a black stain on it which apparently was from the billfold it had been in. Police testified that nickels with certain dates on them were found on Appellant; the nickels offered into evidence bore such dates. Any weakness in the connection of these particular items of evidence to the crime involved goes only towards the weight of the evidence and not to its admissibility. Young v. State, (1980) Ind., 409 N.E.2d 579. No reversible error is presented on this issue.

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