People v. Hampton

Decision Date13 November 1978
Docket NumberNo. 28031,28031
Citation196 Colo. 466,587 P.2d 275
PartiesThe PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Charles HAMPTON and Angelo Horatio Macias, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtColorado Supreme Court

Robert L. Russel, Dist. Atty., Jon C. Thomas, Deputy Dist. Atty., Colorado Springs, for plaintiff-appellant.AT John A. Purvis, Acting Colo. State Public Defender, Michael J. Wood, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, for defendant-appellee Charles Hampton.

Montano & Encinas, Duane Montano, Vincent Franco, Denver, for defendant-appellee Angelo Horatio Macias.

ERICKSON, Justice.

This interlocutory appeal was taken by the prosecution after the trial court suppressed evidence obtained in the course of a search of a 1966 Ford Galaxy which was used in an attempted robbery. We reverse the ruling of the trial court and remand for further proceedings.

The same Modi operandi were used in committing a series of restaurant robberies along the front range. In all of the robberies, the individuals wore gloves and knit ski hats pulled down over their faces. Charles Hampton became the focus of the investigation and was kept under police surveillance for a period of time prior to the night in issue.

On August 22, 1977, the Colorado Springs police department received word that Denver police officers were conducting a moving surveillance of Hampton, who was driving a 1966 Ford toward Colorado Springs. Victor Anaya was a passenger in the car. Hampton's car was joined in Denver by a second car, a Volkswagen. When Hampton reached Colorado Springs, officers of its police department joined in following Hampton and the second car. Police followed both cars to a Colorado Springs motel, where Angelo Macias, the driver of the Volkswagen, obtained a room for his female companion and joined Hampton in the Ford.

Hampton, Anaya, and Macias then left the motel in the Ford. While under police surveillance, they parked the Ford near the Mr. Steak restaurant in Colorado Springs. The three men were observed putting on gloves and ski masks. At approximately 10:00 p. m., the trio attempted to enter the back door of the Mr. Steak restaurant. A number of police officers were hidden at various locations around the restaurant in the belief that a robbery was about to occur.

Police Officer Baldwin thought the trio had discovered the stake-out and left his cover and shouted, "Police. Freeze." Immediately, one of the suspects raised his arm as if to shoot, and Officer Baldwin fired at him. Other officers also fired at the trio when they endeavored to escape. Anaya ran down the alley behind the restaurant and was shot and killed. Hampton and Macias managed to elude the police.

A search of the area near the back door produced a bag containing a pistol, together with two other pistols. Within five minutes after the aborted robbery, the police returned to the motel where the Volkswagen was parked, and other officers located the Ford Galaxy parked on the street near the Mr. Steak restaurant with a key in the ignition.

Both the motel and the automobiles were kept under police surveillance so that an arrest could be made if either Hampton or Macias returned to the motel or to either of the automobiles. While the police were at the motel, the female companion of Macias opened the motel door and was confronted by a detective who asked her to step outside. She looked backwards into the motel room and started to step back inside when the police forced the door open. Neither Hampton nor Macias was inside the motel room, but a .22 caliber pistol was in plain view and a sawed-off shotgun wrapped in a towel was found in the motel room.

Approximately five hours later, the police seized the Ford Galaxy and the Volkswagen. The defendants were not apprehended until the following day. Hampton was found not far from the Mr. Steak restaurant hiding under the hood of an automobile which had had the engine removed for repairs. Blood stains were found on a fence near the Mr. Steak restaurant, and Macias was traced to Denver and found with a possible gunshot wound. Macias' blood type matched the blood found on the fence.

With Anaya dead and both Hampton and Macias in custody, and long after both the Volkswagen and the 1966 Ford Galaxy had been impounded, the police obtained a search warrant. Some of the incriminating items seized in the search are described in the inventory which accompanied the return on the search warrant as:

One Ithaca model 37 Pump 20 gauge shotgun.

One German-made .22 caliber revolver with a 21/2 inch barrel.

One bar type nail puller.

One 20 inch impact tool.

One duffle bag containing: "a length of wire with two clips, one wire cutter, one pliers, one channel lock, one container of strapping tape, three blue handkerchiefs, one piece of blue nylon, three stocking hats, one ski mask, one brown glove, one pair of tan leather gloves, one pair of green cloth gloves, one black wig, two hack saw blades, Colorado passenger tags (KL 2342 1977), Colorado truck tags (JY 6376 1977), one purple and white shirt, one black nylon coat with hood, eight rounds of .32 caliber short ammunition, six rounds of .32 caliber long ammunition, two rounds of 20 gauge 2 buckshot, and an assortment of screw and lag bolts."

One box of 25 rounds of 20 gauge shot shell.

At the suppression hearing, defense counsel asserted that the police officer who signed the affidavit in support of that warrant had included information which was erroneous.

In this case, exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless search were originally present, because both Hampton and Macias were at large after the robbery attempt was aborted, and both cars could have been used for escape purposes. The Ford Galaxy was left in a public place with a key in the ignition, and there was no way for the police to prevent the defendants from obtaining weapons from the car or using the car as an escape vehicle unless the vehicles were taken into custody. Initially, a warrantless search could have been made.

"For constitutional purposes, we see no difference between on the one hand seizing and holding a car before presenting the probable cause issue to a magistrate and on the other hand carrying out an immediate search without a warrant. Given probable cause to search, either course is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.

"On the facts before us, the blue stationwagon could have been searched on the spot when it was stopped since there was probable cause to search and it was a fleeting target for the search. The probable-cause factor still obtained at the station house and so did the mobility of the car unless the Fourth Amendment permits a warrantless seizure of the car and the denial of its use to anyone until a warrant is secured. In that...

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17 cases
  • State v. Theodosopoulos
    • United States
    • New Hampshire Supreme Court
    • August 17, 1979
    ...United States, 429 U.S. 338, 358-92, 97 S.Ct. 619, 50 L.Ed.2d 530 (1977) (several days); State v. Beede, supra (two days). People v. Hampton, 587 P.2d 275 (Colo.1978) (40 hours). "(T)he presence or absence of an ample opportunity for getting a search warrant" is a relevant factor in conside......
  • People v. Hampton
    • United States
    • Colorado Supreme Court
    • February 25, 1985
    ...three weeks later, on November 13, 1978, a new opinion was announced, again reversing the suppression order, People v. Hampton, 196 Colo. 466, 587 P.2d 275 (1978), and a mandate was issued returning jurisdiction to the trial court. On October 16, 1978, after the first mandate had issued but......
  • People v. McFall
    • United States
    • Colorado Supreme Court
    • December 5, 1983
    ...that some portions of an affidavit are erroneous does not require that the remainder of the affidavit be ignored. People v. Hampton, 196 Colo. 466, 587 P.2d 275 (1978); People v. Malone, 175 Colo. 31, 485 P.2d 499 (1971). Where an affidavit includes illegally obtained evidence as well as ev......
  • People v. Dailey
    • United States
    • Colorado Supreme Court
    • January 25, 1982
    ...of such inquiries, at least where the good faith of the police officer-affiant was explicitly or tacitly at issue. People v. Hampton, 196 Colo. 466, 587 P.2d 275 (1978), overruled on other grounds, People v. Bannister, 4 Colo., 619 P.2d 71 (1980); People v. Ellis, 189 Colo. 242, 539 P.2d 13......
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