Johnson v. State
| Decision Date | 09 March 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 103-93,103-93 |
| Citation | 871 S.W.2d 744 |
| Parties | Lonnie Earl JOHNSON, Appellee, v. The STATE of Texas. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Robert A. Morrow and Alvin Nunnery, Houston; Janet Morrow, of counsel, for appellee.
John B. Holmes, Jr., Dist. Atty., Mary Lou Keel, and Di Glaeser, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
Before the court en banc.
OPINION ON APPELLEE'S AND STATE'S PETITIONS FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
Appellee was indicted for the offense of capital murder, alleged to have occurred on or about August 15, 1990. The trial court granted his motion to suppress his written statement. The State appealed that suppression ruling. The Texarkana Court of Appeals reversed the suppression ruling and held that the statement is admissible. State v. Johnson, 843 S.W.2d 252 (Tex.App.--Texarkana 1992). Both appellee and the State appealed the court of appeals' ruling and sought discretionary review by this Court.
The trial court conducted a hearing on appellee's suppression motion. Thereafter the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Based upon that hearing and the trial court's fact-findings, the record reflects that on August 15, 1990, police discovered two bodies in Harris County. During the course of investigation, appellee emerged as a suspect. Information was received that he was possibly in Austin. Harris County investigators received assistance from police in Austin. On August 29, Austin investigators located appellee's girlfriend in Austin. She gave oral and written statements implicating appellee in the Harris County murders. Around midnight, her written statement was FAXed to Harris County investigators, who proceeded to try to obtain a warrant for appellee's arrest. In the meantime during the early morning hours of August 30, Austin investigators, in returning the girlfriend to her car located in the parking lot of her place of employment, observed appellee enter her car. Police moved in and arrested him there on that parking lot in Austin. At that time, Harris County investigators were still in the process of securing an arrest warrant; thus the arrest was made without a warrant. Subsequently, in response to police interrogation, appellee gave the written statement which is the subject of the suppression claim. The Harris County investigators were able to get an arrest warrant issued that morning, whereupon they then drove to Austin. 1
As noted above, the State successfully appealed the trial court's order suppressing appellee's written statement. However, we granted one of the State's grounds for review challenging a portion of the Texarkana Court of Appeals' decision. Specifically, that ground asked "[w]hether the court of appeals misinterpreted the trial court's findings of fact by concluding that the trial court 'made no finding that [appellee] burglarized [his girlfriend]'s car, and no such inference can be made from the facts that the trial court found.' " Particularly, the State takes issue with the court of appeals' statement that the trial State v. Johnson, 843 S.W.2d at 255. The State insists that such a conclusion arose from a misinterpretation of the trial court's findings of fact, including placing undue emphasis on the format of the findings, misreading a particular finding, and ignoring the legal conclusions. It adds that the format of the findings, which referenced the record and denoted which witnesses testified to which facts, "does not transmogrify the findings into something else."
The State points out that it cited finding number 19 to demonstrate that the trial court had found that appellee committed the offense of burglary of a motor vehicle in the presence of police to justify his warrantless arrest, i.e. finding 19 recited evidence that shows the commission of the burglary of a motor vehicle. It also accuses the court of appeals of "simply focus[ing] on the disputed finding number 20 and reach[ing] the wrong conclusion." It asks this Court to correctly interpret the trial court findings.
Finding 19, which included subsections (a) through (i), detailed one of the Austin officer's testimony "concerning the events and circumstances leading to his decision to arrest the defendant...." There was some question as to appellee's right to be inside his girlfriend's car, as she had made a police report in early August regarding appellee stealing the car but that case had apparently not been followed up, i.e. was no longer active, because her car had been recovered in Tomball, Texas and she had been fairly evasive about her involvement with appellee. There was also testimony that because the girlfriend had allowed appellee to use the car in the past, the charge on the offense report had been changed from auto theft to unauthorized use. There was also testimony that the girlfriend had indicated to police in the parking lot that appellee did not have her permission to be inside the car at that time. Appellee testified that he had permission to enter the car and indicated that he had on occasion taken her to and picked her up from work and had waited in the car when they had lived in Houston and in Austin. He insisted that he was allowed to use her car. Though he admitted that he did not have keys to the car, he stated that it was unlocked. After some inconsistency with an offense report regarding the details of the arrest was pointed out, the Austin officer testified that he observed appellee walk up to the car and did not see him break in; that he just saw the car's dome light come on. Appellee testified that he entered the unlocked car and waited for his girlfriend for awhile, then since she had not returned he got out to go call a taxicab to return him to their motel room. The Austin officer stated that "[t]he burglary of motor vehicle just happened to coincide with this timing on us locating him."
Finding 20 states:
Due to unresolved contradictions in that portion of [the officer-in-question]'s testimony wherein he relates that the reason he arrested the defendant was that the defendant did not have permission to be in [the girlfriend]'s car is not credible. [The officer-in-question]'s clearly stated reason for arresting the defendant was "because of the capital murder case" and this defendant was not arrested for a burglary of a motor vehicle (R. 62).
The State reiterates that the trial court's "findings were findings[,]" and its "efforts to demonstrate that [its] findings were supported by the evidence did not change [its] findings into summaries." The State ultimately asserts that since the trial court found that appellee committed burglary of a motor vehicle in the presence of the police, and that finding is supported by the evidence, his initial warrantless arrest was authorized by Article 14.01, V.A.C.C.P.
The court of appeals' statement that the trial may have somewhat overstated the trial court's reliance upon his testimony, particularly in light of the trial court's apparent reliance upon that officer's testimony in making some of its other findings of fact. For example, finding 18, stating when and by whom appellee was arrested, appears to be based upon the officer's testimony; and in fact appears to cite a page in the statement of facts in which that officer's testimony appears. Another fact finding coincides with that officer's testimony about the call-back magistrate system in Austin, and likewise appears to cite pages in the statement of facts corresponding with that testimony.
Nevertheless, the court of appeals was quite correct in concluding that a passage from finding 20 "does not indicate that the [trial] court affirmatively found facts indicating that [appellee] did burglarize the vehicle." State v. Johnson, 843 S.W.2d at 255. Finding 19 indicates that it is detailing the officer-in-question's testimony, i.e. it states:
19. [The officer-in-question]'s testimony as reflected by the record concerning the events and circumstances leading to his decision to arrest the defendant is set out below:
It does not appear that the trial court was adopting that "testimony as reflected by the record" as a fact finding, but rather found as a fact that such was the officer's "testimony as reflected by the record...." In fact, finding 20, as quoted above, thereafter indicates that the trial court found that a portion of the officer's testimony about the arrest was "not credible"; i.e. the trial court apparently did not believe it and found it to be untrue. We also note that in the "Conclusions of Law" section, the trial court states:
1. The warrantless arrest of the defendant was without probable cause and therefore illegal in the absence of exigent circumstances.
Such a conclusion of law is quite consistent with a finding that appellee did not burglarize his girlfriend's car since had he been seen by the officers committing such offense there would have been probable cause to arrest him for such. 2 Burglary of a vehicle requires entry without the effective consent of the owner and with the intent to commit a felony or theft. V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 30.04(a).
Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge and of which he has reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that a particular person has committed or is committing an offense.
Amores v. State, 816 S.W.2d 407, 413 (Tex.Cr.App.1991). This Court has held that the test for probable cause for an arrest without a warrant is:
Whether at that moment the facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge and of which (he)...
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