Sam v. State

• Citation: 500 P.2d 291
• Decision Date: 09 August 1972
• Docket Number: No. A--16010,A--16010
• Parties: Mario SAM, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 291

500 P.2d 291

Mario SAM, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.

No. A--16010.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

Aug. 9, 1972.

Milton Keen and Max Moulton, Oklahoma City, for appellant.

Larry Derryberry, Atty. Gen., Raymond Naifeh, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

OPINION

BRETT, Judge:

Appellant, Mario Sam, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was convicted in the District Court of Pittsburg County, Case No. CRF 70--37, of possession of marihuana, (63 O.S. § 451), after former conviction of a felony, (21 O.S. § 51), and sentenced to thirty-five (35) years imprisonment. Judgment and sentence was imposed on March 12, 1970, and this appeal perfected therefrom.

It was charged by information that on February 5, 1970, the defendant, Gilbert Grigsby, Roger Medley, and Dickie Stowers, while acting conjointly, did unlawfully have in their possession marihuana. The defendant, age 21, was granted a severance and tried as a habitual felony offender under 21 O.S.1971, § 51 by virtue of his former conviction on a plea of guilty at the age of seventeen (17) to the charge of grand larceny. Essentially the evidence established that on February 5, 1970, a McAlester policeman and a Hartshorne policeman, stopped and searched a vehicle in Hartshorne, Pittsburg County, occupied by defendant and his co-defendants, and discovered covered a quantity of what was identified as marihuana.

We consider here defendant's contentions that the trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress because of an unlawful search, and that the trial court erroneously instructed the jury that marihuana was a narcotic drug.

I.

On the morning of February 5, 1970, Officer Hendricks, a McAlester city policeman assigned as a non-uniformed drugs officer, saw defendant enter a house in McAlester, apparently occupied by co-defendant Grigsby. Officer Hendricks had had the defendants 'under surveillance for thirteen days.' While the officer watched the house, defendant emerged and re-entered the house several times, once with a plastic bag about the size of a softball and once with a flour sifter. When defendant Sam and Grigsby left by automobile, Officer Hendricks pursued them in an unmarked car. However, the officer lost contact with them in the traffic.

Sometime later that morning, Officer Hendricks drove to Hartshorne, a neighboring city. While driving around Hartshorne, Officer Hendricks saw defendant, Grigsby, Stowers and Medley at the 'Y' Drive-In, playing a pin-ball machine. Officer Hendricks then saw a marked Hartshorne Police car parked across the street from the drive-in. Hendricks went over to the police car and talked with its occupant, Hartshorne Policeman Day. Hendricks got into the police car and the two officers drove away while Hendricks explained to Officer Day that he was watching the boys at the drive-in and suspected they had marihuana in their automobile, a 'bluish' Volkswagon station wagon parked in front of the drive-in. In this connection Officer Hendricks testified he asked Officer Day for assistance. Officer Day 'agreed to help him.' As to the Volkswagon, Officer Day testified that he and Hendricks 'talked about stopping the vehicle.' This talk about stopping the Volkswagon occurred while the two officers were driving around the block and while the Volkswagon was parked in front of the drive-in. Officer Day testified that up to that point he had observed no violation of the law. Officer Hendricks testified he was 'going to try to sometime make an arrest' and that he had 'the intent to search that automobile.' Although he did not know for a fact the defendants had any marihuana, Hendricks stated he suspicioned they did.

As Officers Day and Hendricks drove back to the front of the drive-in, the four boys got into the Volkswagon and 'took off a little faster than the usual driver would.' Officer Day, still driving the marked Hartshorne police car, allowed Officer Hendricks to get out of the car and then gave chase to the Volkswagon. Officer Hendricks got into his automobile and followed Officer Day's car. Officer Day testified he overcame the Volkswagon within three blocks and that he was traveling between 50 and 55 mph in a 40 mph zone. According to Officer Day the Volkswagon was going 'faster than the usual driver drives.' Officer Hendricks did not know how fast the Volkswagon was going or if it was speeding. Officer Day motioned the Volkswagon over to the curb with his hand and horn and without turning on his siren or red light.

When the Volkswagon stopped, Officer Day pulled in behind it, got out of his vehicle, and approached the driver's side. Officer Day talked to the driver about speeding and asked for his driver's license. Officer Hendricks pulled in behind Day's car, got out of his car, and approached the passenger side of the Volkswagon. Officer Hendricks testified that when he came up to the Volkswagon he 'wasn't watching' Officer Day and 'wasn't paying any attention' to what Officer Day was doing. Officer Hendricks 'looked through the car there,' looking in the back seat and front seat where he found on the right front floor board a 'wax paper' package or 'little plastic bag.' Without picking up the sack or examining it, Officer Hendricks 'reached into the glove compartment' and pulled out a penny box of matches.' Hendricks said he 'slid it open' and 'looked inside the match box and I could see this green stuff, it smelled like alfalfa to me.' Hendricks testified he could not tell alfalfa from marihuana. Officer Hendricks took four other match boxes containing the same substance from the glove compartment, after which he picked up the small package from the floor board. The four boys in the Volkswagon, Sam, Grigsby, Stowers, and Medley, were then taken into custody by Hendricks. Afterwards, another package was recovered from under the dash of the Volkswagon, and another from the boot of Grigsby. A chemist testified that the substance in the packages and match boxes was marihuana. Officer Day did not see the packages and boxes until after Officer Hendricks removed them from the Volkswagon. The State asserts the warrantless search was justified as incident to arrest for speeding.

A warrantless search is 'per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment,' and the State has the burden to prove a warrantless search is lawful as falling within one of the 'few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.' Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, at 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, at 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699, at 705, 68 S.Ct. 1229, 92 L.Ed. 1663 (1948). Lawson v. State, Okl.Cr., 484 P.2d 1337, at 1339 (1971). Although search incident to arrest is one of those exceptions, 'search and seizure as an incident to a lawful arrest may not be used as a pretext to search for evidence.' Handley v. State, Okl.Cr., 430 P.2d 830, at 831 (1967). 'To justify the search of a person and immediate surroundings of the person arrested, the arrest must be done in good faith and not as an excuse or subterfuge for search otherwise unlawful.' Smith v. State, 52 Okl.Cr. 315, 4 P.2d 1076 (1931). In a long line of cases this Court has held that where an officer operating on mere suspicion makes a traffic arrest as a subterfuge or pretext to search, such a search is unreasonable and its fruits inadmissible. ¹

In Johnson v. State, 92 Okl.Cr. 63, 220 P.2d 469 (1950), a patrolman justified stopping defendant's automobile for driving across the highway center line. After lecturing the driver and giving him a citation, the patrolman saw a box of bottles containing whiskey in the automobile. This Court reversed the resulting conviction for illegal transportation of whiskey, holding that the arrest was a mere pretext to search the vehicle. This Court stated:

'It is apparent to us, based on the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, that the officers were suspicious that defendant was transporting intoxicating liquor in his automobile. They started following it with the intent to investigate and search the car because of their suspicion. . . . The fact that defendant might have crossed the center line of the highway a few inches during this drive was merely used as a subterfuge by the officers to cover up their determination to search defendant's car.' 220 P.2d at 472.

In Barnett v. State, 94 Okl.Cr. 293, 235 P.2d 555 (1951), the defendant's conviction for transporting intoxicating liquor was reversed because of an unlawful search of defendant's automobile stopped for a traffic violation. The court concluded that the officer's 'suspicions become aroused because of the looks of (defendant's) truck and that they determined to investigate it. They had no warrant, and no crime was committed in their presence to justify the arrest of the defendant without a warrant. The alleged reckless driving was merely used as a subterfuge by the officers to cover up their determination to investigate the contents of the truck.' 235 P.2d at 558.

In Holland v. State, 93 Okl.Cr. 180, 226 P.2d 448 (1951), the officers stopped a truck occupied by the co-defendants, Holland and Baker, for a reckless driving violation and discovered intoxicating liquor. Their conviction was reversed because: 'The officers had known for several days they wanted to search this truck and had made no effort to procure a search warrant and we are firmly convinced that the claim of reckless driving was purely a pretense and subterfuge for concealment of the real purpose of searching the automobile.' 226 P.2d at 450.

It is apparent in the instant case that the intent of the officers, as one of them stated, was to search the Volkswagon for suspected marihuana and it was for this reason the officers stopped the Volkswagon. The purported arrest for speeding was a mere subterfuge to allow a search of the vehicle without a warrant. Officer Hendricks had no knowledge there was marihuana in the Volkswagon, but merely...