Jackson v. State
| Decision Date | 06 May 1975 |
| Docket Number | 7 Div. 341 |
| Citation | 315 So.2d 131,55 Ala.App. 334 |
| Parties | Joe Nathan JACKSON, alias v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Myron K. Allenstein, Gadsden, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Jack A. Blumenfeld, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant-defendant, an indigent here with appointed counsel, but not at Nisi prius, was convicted of robbery and given forty years imprisonment.
The victim of the alleged robbery was Mrs. Velma Henry who testified that she was robbed of a handbag which she valued at about $8.00. She was carrying the handbag by her hand. The handbag contained $3,200.00 in cash, of which $2,800.00 was in $100.00 bills, two $50.00 bills and the rest in $20.00 bills and $1.00 bills. The bag also contained prescription medicines she valued at approximately $20.00. The robber also took her Whitmier wristwatch which she valued at $150.00. The money came to her by an inheritance in Pennsylvania.
The robbery occurred on the night of July 8, 1974, somewhere between 9:30 P.M. and 10:00 P.M. at the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Gadsden where she had gone to sit with her sick mother who was a patient in the hospital suffering from a massive stroke. She had sat with her mother every night since June 8, 1974.
The witness testified that she parked in the parking lot right close to spaces reserved for pastors along the lower level of the lot right at the foot of the hill. She got out, locked the car door and started walking up the sidewalk to go up to the hill leading to the front entrance of the hospital.
The witness further testified that as she was about half way up the hill, The witness then described her injuries and testified to her losses cataloged with values, supra. She testified that she never saw who struck her and would not be able to identify her assailant.
Mrs. Henry testified on cross examination that she had a brother, James Curry, who was a Highway Patrolman.
The next witness for the State was Mrs. Jean Richards. She testified that on the night of July 8, 1974, she had occasion at lunch time to go to the Baptist Hospital where she remained until evening, a 'little after ten, somewhere in the neighborhood.' She testified that as she came out the front door and started down towards the ministers' parking area, she met a lady she had never seen before. The 'lady', Mrs. Henry, was going up and the witness was coming down from the hospital. The witness testified:
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'As he got out of the car he dropped behind the first car at the minister's parking area . . ..
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The woman had just passed Mrs. Richards on the sidewalk and before the man got the pocketbook, 'she was drug in the street.' The witness stated she could not recognize or identify the assailant.
Roy McDowell, an investigator for the Sheriff's Office, testified for the State. He was a State Investigator for the Public Safety Department for a number of years until his retirement.
This witness testified that on the night of July 8, 1974, at approximately 9:30 P.M he had occasion to go to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Gadsden; that he pulled in the hospital parking for right at the first alley. As he pulled in, he observed 'a car sitting longways; it wasn't in a parking place, it was sitting longways on the south end of the parking lot there, just sitting there.' He testified that it was the only car there that was not parked in a regular parking space; the only one he saw; that it was a blue Pontiac with 'some males in the car.'
The witness further testified:
'A. Well, I pulled on up in the parking lot and parked in the lane there in the parking area, and I got out, was walking across the parking lot. This car came on, easing on by me there.
'Q. That is the car you had been not in the parking space?
'A. Yes, sir. And they were looking at me, the one on the right hand side was. He turned all the way around looking at me, walking, I was walking across the lot going into the hospital.
'Q. Did you get a good look at him?
'A. Yes, sir.
'Q. Then, what happened?
'A. Well, it went on out there and turned back down in the hospital lot in the first lane, and I went on in the hospital.
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'Q. All right, and when you came back out what did you see?
'A. Right below the door of the hospital as you start down the sidewalk there was some people standing there, and there was some blood on the pavement. And I asked what--some of them what happened. And they told me they had robbed a woman there.
'Q. All right, sir. And what did you do then?
'A. I went on down to the car and radioed the jail to get a registration on a tag number.
'Q. All right, what tag number was that?
'A. 31--1294.
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'Q. All right. So, at the time you saw the car in the parking lot you made a note of the tag number. Was it a written note or a mental note?
'A. No, I remembered it.
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'Q. All right, sir. Now, I will ask you if you later saw this individual in the car that you have described to us.
'A. Yes, sir.
'Q. Where did you see him?
'A. City Hall.
'Q. All right, sir. I will ask you if that person is in Court today.
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'Q.--out there in the parking lot?
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'Q. Joe Nathan Jackson.
The witness testified that he stayed in the hospital thirty or forty minutes. Soon after he gave the tag number of the car to radio operator, Ace Williams, a private investigator, called and said he was following the car.
Donald Hoskins, a Gadsden Police Officer, testified about spotting the car about twenty or twenty-five minutes after he was alerted by radio and given the tag number; then giving chase with siren sounding. The pursued car turned off the hard surfaced road onto a dirt road and was pursued in a cloud of dust and overtaken in a private driveway not shown to be that of the car's occupants.
There were two men inside the pursued car. One was the defendant and the other was Arthur Lee Hunter. The officers arrested Hunter for reckless driving and the defendant for disorderly conduct. Both were taken to jail and the car was towed by a wrecker to the jail premises and impounded.
After the car was taken to the City Hall, an inventory was made of the car's contents. No search warrant was obtained. This was routine procedure. This witness was in charge of the inventory.
As to what they found when the inventory was taken, the witness testified as follows:
The 'other stuff' mentioned was some articles of clothing.
Arthur Lee Hunter declined to testify when informed of his rights not to do so.
Thereupon both sides rested, and the court overruled defendant's motion to exclude the State's evidence.
Defendant here disclaims right of officers to search his automobile at the police station. He contends that probable cause for making his arrest for robbery did not exist and, therefore, the search of his car at the police station was illegal and violated his constitutional rights for that he was illegally arrested.
It appears from the evidence that the arresting officers were alerted through radio communication that a robbery had been committed at the Baptist Hospital and to stop an automobile bearing a certain tag number, 31--1294; the automobile being a blue Pontiac.
When this number was spotted on a moving automobile, the officers followed the car and sounded their siren. The moving car, instead of stopping in obedience to the siren, took off at a reckless speed and was finally overtaken in a private driveway intersecting a dirt road.
It does not appear that the officers arrested the occupants of the fleeing and speeding car, in which defendant and his companion were riding, for robbery. Hunter was arrested for reckless driving, and the defendant for disorderly conduct, both offenses being misdemeanors and committed in the presence of the officers. Both arrests were lawful. Title 15, § 154, Recompiled Code, 1958.
We do not necessarily need to consider the existence Vel non of probable cause with respect to arresting defendant for the robbery. It is true that the officers were informed...
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