People v. Taylor, 79

• Decision Date: 29 December 1954
• Docket Number: No. 79,79
• Citation: 341 Mich. 570,67 N.W.2d 698
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Marshall TAYLOR, Harry Fuqua, Paul Wasson and Abbey Clay, Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 698

67 N.W.2d 698

341 Mich. 570

The PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Marshall TAYLOR, Harry Fuqua, Paul Wasson and Abbey Clay,

Defendants and Appellants.

No. 79.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Dec. 29, 1954.

Burke, Burke & Smith, Ann Arbor, William D. Brusstar, Detroit, for appellants.

Frank G. Millard, Atty. Gen. of Michigan, Edmund E. Shepherd, Sol. Gen., Lansing, Edmond F. DeVine, Pros. Atty. for County of Washtenaw, Ann Arbor, for the People.

Before the Entire Bench.

REID, Justice.

Defendants on leave granted appeal from conviction and sentence for conspiracy to violate the gambling laws of the State of Michigan. The trial court denied a motion for a new trial.

Directly involved are two questions. Defendants claim: 1. That the search of the private residence of defendant Clay subsequent to defendant Clay's arrest therein, without a search warrant, was not reasonable in the absence of any showing of necessity or emergency to excuse the officers for not obtaining a search warrant; and defendants claim: 2. That the corpus delicti of the crime of conspiracy was not established by a showing of multilateral participation in crime which evidenced a private agreement with respect thereto.

On January 18, 1951, a captain of detectives in the city of Ypsilanti, William Reiman, received information from a confidential informant considered by the captain as reliable, that defendant Paul Wasson was in a numbers business picking up numbers daily at the home of defendant Abbey Clay on Second avenue in Ypsilanti and that defendants Marshall Taylor and Harry Fuqua were with defendant Paul Wasson in the numbers business and that Harry Fuqua sometimes drove Wasson's car to Detroit, taking numbers and money there, and the informant further informed the captain that Wasson would be leaving Ypsilanti between 1:15 and 2:30 p. m. daily. On the next day, January 19, 1951, Captain Reiman in checking the information thus given him, observed Wasson with some one in his car going to Detroit at 1:53 p. m., an hour of the day significant as to the numbers business or 'racket' because of the deadline in playing certain night races. On Saturday afternoon, January 20, 1951, Captain Reiman placed three police cars in the city of Ypsilanti to wait for the Wasson car. At about 2:18 p. m., Captain Reiman recognized the Wasson automobile and pulled his own automobile behind the Wasson automobile at a red light. As Reiman and a fellow officer got out of their car and advanced toward the Wasson automobile, the Wasson automobile started up, ran through the red light, and at a speed of about 45 to 50 miles an hour ran through the traffic on the main street of the city of Ypsilanti, and ran a second red light with police cars operating red flasher lights and sirens in pursuit. Finally the Wasson automobile was forced to the curb by being sideswiped by a police car. The police placed all three occupants in the Wasson car under arrest for conspiracy to violate the State gambling laws. The driver defendant Marshall Taylor was also given a ticket for running a red light.

After the arrest of the three occupants, a large quantity of policy tickets and numbers slips was found under the front seat of the car. On the front seat of the Wasson car beside the driver, defendant Taylor, was Paul Wasson. In his inside pocket was found a white envelope filled with mutuel numbers bet slips and in his topcoat pocket was found the sum of $375.83, of which $20.83 was in change and $355 in bills. A large amount of the bills were one dollar bills. Numbers slips were also found in Wasson's vest pocket and in his cap. In the back seat of the car was defendant Harry Fuqua. After the arrest, defendant Wasson stated he had been in the numbers racket for five or six months, taking the numbers to Detroit, and that the money and slips found on his person were the money and slips he was going to turn over to a man in Detroit as the day's receipts and that sometimes Marshall Taylor drove him to Detroit and sometimes Harry Fuqua did. Defendant Marshall Taylor stated he drove Wasson to Detroit in Wasson's car so that Wasson could take the numbers tickets to Detroit and that he had done this many times in the past. Defendant Taylor said that he saw Wasson put a large number of tickets in his pocket along with the money at his house that day. He said he tried to get away from the police car because he knew he would be in trouble if they found those numbers tickets in the car. Defendant Fuqua stated that he had been writing numbers for several months and that he turned them over to Wasson and sometimes went to Detroit with Wasson to turn the numbers in there. He said his identifying mark 'FU-2' was the mark that appeared on the numbers tickets taken from Wasson's pocket in the white envelope.

After the arrest of the three defendants and acting on the same information that led to their arrest, Captain Reiman dispatched two uniformed officers about 3 p. m. on Saturday afternoon, January 20, 1951, to the home of defendant Abbey Clay on Second avenue in Ypsilanti, she having been reported also as writing numbers which Wasson picked up at her home to take to Detroit. The officers rapped at the door, asked for Abbey Clay and if they might come in, and were admitted by a woman who said she was Abbey Clay and said, 'Yes, you may come in.' The officers then came in and because of their reliable information that she was guilty of a conspiracy to violate the gambling laws, placed her under arrest under such charge. Entering an L-shaped room divided by an open archway between the living and dining room sections, the officers told Abbey Clay she was under arrest for conspiracy to violate the State gambling laws. The officers searched a limited area, being solely the L-shaped room. They found a cardboard room section of the L-shaped room, 10 or room section of the L-shaped room 10 or 12 feet from where Abbey Clay was arrested and clearly visible from the place where she was at the time of her arrest. The box was a manila colored box with a slit in the top of it. The only things examined in the entire search were the cardboard box on the table, the sewing cabinet, Abbey Clay's pocketbook, and a magazine rack in the living room section of the L-shaped room. The officer searched no other room of the four or five room house. The total time involved in leaving the police station, going to Abbey Clay's home, arresting Abbey Clay, and making the limited search, and then returning to the police station, was approximately 20 minutes.

Under the front seat of the Wasson car were found policy slips with Abbey Clay's identification mark, '8-X,' which she stated was her mark. These slips were identified by her as the slips she wrote for the $60 worth of numbers business which she had written that day. Defendant's brief says, 'Her home contained numbers tickets with numbers corresponding to those in the car.'

After their arrest, each of the four defendants, under circumstances described by the officers as witnesses, showing the freedom from compulsion or hope of reward, and after being informed that their statements might be used against them, separately confessed guilt of the crime charged.

Under question number 1, defendant claims a violation of the fourth amendment to the Federal constitution concerning unreasonable searches and seizures and also, under the constitution of the State of Michigan of 1908, art. 2, § 10, as to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

There is no showing that the officers would have or did have, sufficient time after the arrest of defendants Taylor, Fuqua and...