Norwood v. State

• Decision Date: 21 February 1972
• Docket Number: No. 46649,46649
• Citation: 258 So.2d 756
• Parties: James Dimp NORWOOD v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 756

258 So.2d 756

James Dimp NORWOOD v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 46649.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Feb. 21, 1972.

Rehearing Denied March 20, 1972.

Gene Brown, T. K. Holyfield, Meridian, for appellant.

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

SUGG, Justice:

James Dimp Norwood, appellant, was convicted of armed robbery in the Circuit Court of Lauderdale County, Mississippi and sentenced to serve a term of 45 years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Appellant appealed his conviction and sentence and we affirm.

The office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, located on Fourth Street between Twenty Second and Twenty Third Avenue, in the City of Meridian, Mississippi was robbed on January 30, 1971 at approximately 9:45 A.M. Mrs. Glenn Downey was the only employee of the company on duty at the time of the robbery and described the robbery in detail and identified appellant at the trial as the person who committed the robbery.

Lemuel Kelly, an employee of Rayner Drug and Paint Store, located on Front Street and Twenty Third Avenue, testified that about 10:00 A.M. on January 30, 1971 he observed two colored men sitting in a car parked nearby. The car was described as a 1963 model Pontiac, blue with a white top, with an Alabama tag on it. The car was moved to a second parking place in the immediate area and both occupants of the car got out. The driver went to a parking meter, then both men went east on Front Street to Twenty Second Avenue. After standing there a short time the driver came back west on Front Street and the other man, later identified as the appellant, went north on Twenty Second Avenue.

Kelly observed the driver return, enter the car, and in less than ten minutes appellant ran back toward the car holding his coat. Kelly testified the man dropped something, picked it up, got into the car which pulled away and turned off Front Street traveling south on Twenty Second Avenue toward the overpass.

Kelly saw Officers Sudberry and Thompson on Front Street, reported the incident to them and gave a description of the automobile to them.

Pete Cox, a Quitman, Mississippi policeman, was on duty in a patrol car on January 30, 1971 when he received notification over the Highway Patrol radio that there had been a robbery in a Meridian at the Western Union office, that the suspects were traveling in a white over blue 1964 Pontiac, Alabama license, numbers unknown. Cox began patrolling Highway 45, the route between Quitman and Meridian, and after several trips on this route, he saw an automobile which fit the radioed description. The only person visible in the car was the driver, a Negro male. Cox turned around, overtook the car and the driver was prevented from turning into a one-way street by oncoming traffic, so he then turned into a drive between the bank The driver, King John Stanley, was arrested and turned over to the Chief of Police of Quitman who had responded to Cox's radio dispatch that he had the suspect stopped. About this time a part-time deputy came out of the post office and Cox asked him to move the car so he could get the patrol car out of the street. The part-time deputy opened the door and the appellant was lying face down on the floor board behind the front seat. Cox asked the appellant to get out of the car but the appellant just looked up at him, whereupon Cox reached down and helped him out. Cox stated that he thought appellant was drunk at the time, but when he got out, part of the money and a .22 pistol fell out of his coat. Cox arrested the appellant for suspicion of burglary, searched him, and recovered $1884.00 in cash, money order receipts in the amount of $718.35 and a .22 pistol.

and the post office. The drive was a dead end and Cox blocked the drive with his patrol car.

J. E. Dandridge, a Detective for the Meridian Police Department, went to Quitman on January 30th where the appellant was turned over to him, along with the cash and money order receipts. Dandridge and another Meridian Detective, Charles Glover, returned appellant and King John Stanley to Meridian, Mississippi, detained them at the Meridian Police Department for approximately an hour to an hour and a half during which time the appellant was photographed and fingerprinted. Appellant was asked if he wished to give a statement, and upon declining was not questioned about the robbery. Appellant stated that he would secure an attorney of his choice.

An audit of the Western Union Telegraph Company office revealed that $1884.00 in cash and $718.35 in cash non-negotiable money order receipts were missing from the office.

Appellant remained in jail in Meridian, Mississippi until April 19, 1971, at which time he voluntarily appeared at a preliminary hearing for King John Stanley and testified that he committed the robbery at the Western Union Office without the knowledge or assistance of King John Stanley.

Appellant did not testify at his trial and the only witness offered in his behalf was the jailer for the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department who testified that the appellant had been in jail at all times except when he was taken from the jail on April 19, 1971 by two city detectives to attend the preliminary hearing of King John Stanley and at other times to appear in circuit court.

Appellant assigns and argues nine errors and these assignments of error will be discussed in the order made.

The first assignment of error is that the trial court erroneously overruled the demurrer to the indictment exhibited against the appellant.

Omitting the formal parts, the indictment is as follows:

That King John Stanley and James Dimp Norwood in said Lauderdale County and State on the 30th day of January, A.D., 1971 did then and there in and upon the person of one Mrs. Glenn Downey, employee of Western Union Telegraph Company, a corp., unlawfully, feloniously and violently make an assault, and her the said Mrs. Glenn Downey did then and there put in fear of some immediate injury to her person, by the exhibition of a certain deadly weapon, to-wit: a .22 cal. pistol, and from the person and from the presence of the said Mrs. Glenn Downey, and against her will be violence to her person, with the intent the goods, chattels, and money then and there on the person and in the presence of the said Mrs. Glenn Downey, then and there to feloniously and violently steal, rob, seize, take and carry away; And then and there $1,884.00 in cash the personal property Appellant's attack on the indictment is based on the following grounds: (1) The indictment charges no crime known to the law and is wholly void. (2) The indictment attempts to charge the defendant with robbery but said indictment on the face thereof charges Mrs. Glenn Downey with attempted robbery of herself. (3) The indictment fails to state that any robbery was actually accomplished.

of Western Union Telegraph Company, a corporation, from the person and from the presence of the said Mrs. Glenn Downey by putting the said Mrs. Glenn Downey in fear of some immediate injury to her person and by violence to her person, by the exhibition of a certain deadly weapon, to-wit: a .22 cal. pistol and against the will of the said Mrs. Glenn Downey then and there feloniously and violently did steal, rob, seize, take and carry away contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of The State of Mississippi.

The indictment set out is similar to one approved in the case of State v. Snowden, 164 Miss. 613, 145 So. 622 (1933), where this Court held that if the offense is charged substantially and certainly in language equivalent in meaning to the language of the statute, it is sufficient. Although it is possible for the indictment to have charged the offense in clearer language, the language used is sufficient to charge the crime of armed robbery.

While it would be clearer for the indictment to state '$1884.00 in cash' after the words-'did steal, rob, seize, take and carry away' the omission of these words is not fatal.

The second assignment of error is that the trial court erroneously overruled defendant's motion to suppress and quash illegally obtained evidence. Appellant argues in support of this assignment of error that when Pete Cox, the police officer of Quitman, Mississippi, arrested appellant for suspicion of robbery based on the description of the automobile, he then had no reason to believe the persons inside the car were the ones who committed that robbery.

Mississippi Code 1942, Annotated, Section 2470 (Supp.1971) provides:

'An officer * * * may arrest any person without warrant, * * * when a felony has been committed, and he has reasonable ground to suspect and believe the person proposed to be arrested to have committed it; * * *'

The rule has been stated in many cases that it is not the duty of the arresting officer to determine the guilt of the person before making an arrest, but it is his duty to make an arrest where a felony has been committed and the officer has a reasonable ground to suspect and believe the person proposed to be arrested to have committed it. It is not required that probable cause be established solely by facts within the personal knowledge of the arresting officer, but the determination of probable or reasonable cause permits the use of common sense and honest judgment by police officers. Lathers v. United States, 396 F.2d 524 (5th Cir. 1968); Hurst v. State, 240 So.2d 273 (Miss.1970); McCollum v. State, 197 So.2d 252 (Miss.1967).

Under a similar set of facts an arrest and search was held to be valid in the case of Dunning v. State, 251 Miss. 766, 171 So.2d 315 (1965); certiorari denied 386 U.S. 993, 87 S.Ct. 1310, 18 L.Ed.2d 339 (1967). Dunning, supra, quoted from Bell v. United States, 102 U.S.App.D.C. 383, 388, 254 F.2d 82, 87 (1957) certiorari denied, 358 U.S. 885, 79 S.Ct. 126, 3 L.Ed.2d 113 (1958) where the following...