Hobson v. State

Decision Date19 November 1973
Docket NumberNo. 47586,47586
Citation285 So.2d 464
PartiesThomas V. HOBSON v. STATE of Mississippi.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Buchanan & Haltom, Indianola, for appellant.

A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Karen Gilfoy, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

GILLESPIE, Chief Justice:

Thomas V. Hobson was convicted of armed robbery in the Circuit Court of Sunflower County and sentenced to serve a term of fifteen years in the State penitentiary. He appeals his conviction and raises the question of whether he should have been afforded an attorney at the pre-indictment showup.

On the night of January 21, 1973, Bill Owens, Jr., manager of Billups Service Station in Indianola, Mississippi, was robbed. At approximately 10:45 p.m. a man drove into the well-lighted station and asked for some gas. Mr. Owens checked his gas tank and found a lock on the cap. When Mr. Owens asked the man for a key to the locked cap, the man approached him with a pistol and informed him that this was a holdup. Mr. Owens went to the cash register and handed the man about $80 in denominations of $10, $5, and $1. The man then locked Mr. Owens in a room and fled. The robber had been at the service station for approximately seven minutes. Mr. Owens kicked open the door and called the city police. He described the robber's automobile as a 1969 white Pontiac with a Humphreys County license plate that was a little dirty around the name 'Humphreys.' He described the man as black, between five and six feet tall, with a little mustache and very short hair, wearing a light jacket, and carrying a small .22 calibre blue-plated pistol.

Marvin Farmer, a State highway patrolman, received this information from the city police and waited on the highway until a car of that description passed him. He followed the car that fit the description and noticed that the driver appeared to be hiding something under his car seat. Farmer radioed Inverness police for assistance and then stopped Hobson's car. Hobson told Farmer and John Bailey, the Inverness police officer, that he had been shooting craps on Main Street in Indianola. Although the word 'robbery' was never mentioned by Farmer, Bailey or the dispatcher, Hobson insisted that he had robbed no one. Farmer noticed that Hobson's pocket was bulging. He reached in and pulled out a roll of bills consisting of five ten-dollar dills, three five-dollar bills, and twenty-two one-dollar bills, totaling $87. Bailey found a gun with a barrel of blue steel in the car, and Hobson was then handcuffed and put on the front seat of Farmer's car.

They all waited on the highway until Mr. Owens arrived. Mr. Owens thought that this was the right automobile, and he asked the officers to check if the car had a locked gas cap on it. Farmer told Mr. Owens that it did. Mr. Owens looked at Hobson, who at that time was wearing a black felt hat. Although Mr. Owens had stated in his description that the robber had been wearing a coat and tie and no hat, there was no coat and tie in Hobson's car. Mr. Owens told Farmer that he did not believe Hobson was the robber; however, he also stated that inadequate lighting on the highway where the officers apprehended Hobson prevented a positive identification.

Farmer then took Hobson to the police station for further identification, decause he planned to book him for having a concealed weapon. Hobson was told to sit down, and his handcuffs and hat were removed. Then Mr. Owens walked in and said, 'That's him.' The period of time from the robbery to this identification was approximately twenty-five to thirty...

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6 cases
  • Com. v. Richman
    • United States
    • Pennsylvania Supreme Court
    • May 22, 1974
    ...102 (Iowa 1972); State v. Jefferson, La., 284 So.2d 577 (1973); Jackson v. State, 17 Md.App. 167, 300 A.2d 430 (1973); Hobson v. State, Miss., 285 So.2d 464 (1973); State v. Gant, 490 S.W.2d 46 (Mo.1973); Robinson v. State, 482 S.W.2d 492 (Mo.1972); State v. Earle, 60 N.J. 550, 292 A.2d 2 (......
  • Howell v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • October 9, 2014
    ...possible perpetrator of a recent criminal act, provided that the show-up is not so unduly suggestive as to taint it.”); Hobson v. State, 285 So.2d 464, 466 (Miss.1973) (citing Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972) ).The right to counsel at a lineup proceeding......
  • Howell v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • May 17, 2013
    ...possible perpetrator of a recent criminal act, provided that the show-up is not so unduly suggestive as to taint it."); Hobson v. State, 285 So. 2d 464, 466 (Miss. 1973) (citing Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682 (1972)).The right to counsel at a lineup proceeding as held in United States v. W......
  • Livingston v. State
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • February 3, 1988
    ...(1976); Howard v. State, 319 So.2d 219, 220 (Miss.1975); cert. den. 425 U.S. 954, 96 S.Ct. 1733, 48 L.Ed.2d 199 (1976); Hobson v. State, 285 So.2d 464, 466 (Miss.1973). In this case, we look to more recent caselaw and the applicable law found in Mississippi Code Annotated, section 99-1-7 A ......
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