Myers v. State
| Decision Date | 17 June 1975 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 314 |
| Citation | 55 Ala.App. 404,316 So.2d 235 |
| Parties | Richard Keith MYERS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
Farmer & Herring, Dothan, for appellant.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen. and C. Lawson Little, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to four years imprisonment in the penitentiary. Throughout the trial proceedings he was represented by retained counsel who represents him on appeal. At arraignment he pleaded not guilty.
Appellant was charged with feloniously taking and carrying away one air grinder and one drill motor of the aggregate value of $214.00, the personal property of the Alabama Power Company.
The facts are not in dispute. Appellant did not testify nor did he offer any evidence in his behalf.
Mr. Virgil O. Woodring was employed by Daniel Construction Company as warehouse superintendent and part of his duties included receiving, maintaining and storing tools, equipment and construction supplies at the Farley Nuclear Plant site in Houston County. An inventory of all items in the warehouse was made on January 19, 1974. Such items included air grinders and drill motors. On the day the inventory was made, forty-two air grinders were missing. He further testified that no one had permission to remove tools from the nuclear plant site. He said that all nonexpendable tools (such as those mentioned in the indictment) were owned by the Alabama Power Company and were located in the warehouse; that the tools needed on the construction of the plant had to be checked out by job foremen. Such tools would be listed by serial numbers and a receipt was required to be signed by a foreman.
When it was discovered that certain items were missing from the warehouse for which no receipts were issued and signed, an investigation was begun by David B. Hinman, Manager of Security for the Alabama Power Company, along with the Sheriff of Houston County and a State Criminal Investigator. Appellant was employed at the nuclear plant site.
The officers interviewed appellant's wife at the Ramada Inn in Dothan and told her they were investigating certain missing tools that were the property of the Alabama Power Company. As a result of this conversation with appellant's wife she told the officers 'she didn't know of any tools in our apartment but if there were any she wanted them to come and get them saying, I don't want them in the apartment.' She gave the officers a 'written consent' to search their apartment located at 101 Colony Apartments in Dothan. She went with the officers to the apartment.
In the course of the search the officers found an air grinder in the hall closet and a drill motor in appellant's Jeepster station wagon parked in front of the apartment. These items were identified as the property of the Alabama Power Company. Over appellant's objections these items were introduced in evidence at trial.
Appellant claims reversible error was committed in the admission into evidence of those items since the officers did not have a search warrant and the wife could not give consent to search appellant's apartment--that appellant only could give such consent.
Appellant was arrested and given the Miranda rights and warnings. He signed the following waiver of rights form:
Appellant then made and signed the following statement:
'Q. Officer Cox, would you please read the statement the defendant made to you at that time, to the jury?
'A. (witness read following statement:) 'I, Richard Keither Myers, hereby make the following free and voluntary statement to State Investigator Rex Cox and David B. Hinman who has identified himself as a representative of Alabama Power Company. I understand that this statement may be used as evidence. I am 22 years old and reside at Apartment 101, Colony Apartments, Dothan, Alabama. I am employed as a welder for Little Electric Co., at the Farley Nuclear Plant. I have been employed in this capacity for approximately one year. During my employment, I have taken tools belonging to Alabama Power Company. These tools included an end grinder which I later sold to Emmett Dollar, an electrician at the Plant. He gave me $15.00 for it and I gave it to him at Gills Restaurant on Highway 95. I also sold a 1/4 electric drill, Black and Decker, to Jimmy Anders who lives at Madrid. He paid me $500.00 for it. I have looked at an assortment of other tools which I recognize as tools which I took from the Plant site. These tools include one acetylene regulator, an oxygen regulator, a 3/8 Black and Decker electric drill, an air operated angle grinder, a 1/2 electric drill, screw drivers,...
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