Shipman v. State
| Decision Date | 20 March 1973 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 140 |
| Citation | 51 Ala.App. 80,282 So.2d 696 |
| Parties | Thearon SHIPMAN et al. v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
John S. Gonas, Jr., Mobile, for appellants.
William J. Baxley, Atty. Gen., and Joseph G. L. Marston, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellants were jointly indicted in Houston County for unlawfully possessing heroin or discetylmorphine or salt thereof. They were tried jointly before a jury and convicted of possession, an alternative averment in the indictment. The trial court, after proper allocution in the presence of defendants' counsel, sentenced each to eight years imprisonment in the penitentiary. Separate judgments were rendered. The appeals to this Court are embraced in one record. The defendants were represented in the trial court by employed counsel and here by different employed counsel.
The manager of Danley Furniture Company in Dothan, Alabama, came in contact with the defendants in the furniture store between 8:30 and 9:00 A.M., July 7, 1970, at which time they came into the store through an open door located in the rear of the store. Other employees were in the store at the time. Danley Furniture Company had a disputed account with Brown. The other two defendants came with Brown, but not on business.
The manager of the furniture company was very hazy and indefinite in his testimony as to what occurred. The trial court sustained numerous objections to the manager's testimony in his efforts to tell what happened. Brown in some way aroused the ire of the manager who told the three to get out of the store or he would call the police. The manager testified that one of the defendants, he would not say which, said to go ahead and call the police, that 'they would take care of them, too.' Someone in the store did call the police.
Lieutenant Jack Smith, a Dothan police officer, responded to the call after being directed to do so by the desk sergeant. He got to the scene immediately after the defendants left the store and while they were in their automobile in an alley which led to the street. Being assured by someone in the store that the three in the automobile were the persons who had been in the store, the officer caught up with the retreating vehicle bearing the defendants and ordered them to pull over, which they did. The officer did not have a warrant for their arrest nor did he have a search warrant. He knew of the oral complaint that the manager made to the police office. The store manager later took out a city warrant for the arrest of the defendants, but not at the time the defendants were stopped and detained by the police officers, including Officer Halstead, who was patrolling on a motorcycle when Officer Smith beckoned him to the stopped automobile.
Lieutenant Smith testified that when he first saw the defendants, they were coming from an alley into the street. He testified that he did not know 'exactly' who they were and that he had never seem them before; that he did not have a warrant for their arrest; that they had not committed any misdemeanor in his presence; neither had they committed a felony at that time. He and Officer Halstead escorted them to the police station, but not, so Officer Smith testified, under arrest. The officers directed the defendant to follow them; one police vehicle was ahead and the other behind the automobile in which the defendants were riding.
It appears from Officer Smith's testimony on voir dire examination by defendants that he requested Brown, who was driving the automobile bearing the defendants, to show him his driver's license. Brown obeyed. Witness further testified that he saw Shipman shift some cellophane packages from one of his hands to the other and then conceal them in his boot top. The witness responded to questions as follows:
On voir dire by the State the following occurred:
The powders were delivered to a state toxicologist who reported that they were heroin; also the toxicologist appeared in court at trial and gave like testimony. Following the report, Officer Smith took out a felony warrant for the defendants who were subsequently removed by him from the city jail to the county jail for confinement. The witness testified that he never did arrest the defendants until the following day when he took out a felony warrant for them. That was after the toxicologist's report was received.
There is no evidence in the record that either of the defendants, Brown or Davis, as distinguished from Shipman, had actual or constructive possession of the powders which the officers seized; nor is there evidence from which a lawful inference could be drawn that the two defendants, or either of them, had such possession. Nor does it appear that either aided or abetted such possession. Neither made an incriminating statement and neither attempted to flee or leave the scene. We think our pronouncement in Parks v. State,46 Ala.App. 722, 248 So.2d 761(7), has application here. The defendant was convicted for unlawful possession of narcotics being transported in an automobile in which defendant was a passenger. We observed as follows:
The next question is whether the officers were lawfully authorized to search the person of defendant Shipman as they did, and seize the heroin or powders concealed in his boot top after observing the defendant effect such concealment. Officer Smith, as above noted, had no knowledge of any misdemeanor committed by defendants, or either of them, in his presence, or cause to believe that defendants had committed a felony. Dennis v. State, 40 Ala.App. 182, 111 So.2d 21 (H.9); Tit. 15, § 154, Code of Alabama, 1940. Officer Smith testified, supra, that he did not know what was in the package. He did not qualify as an expert in detecting heroin. The officers had neither a warrant for arrest of either defendant nor did they have a search warrant. Under such circumstances, they were not authorized to make an arrest or to search the person of the defendant Shipman....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
People v. Pace
...N.M. 611, 577 P.2d 1257; cf. State v. Kaluna (1974) 55 Haw. 361, 520 P.2d 51; Young v. State (Del.1975) 339 A.2d 723; Shipman v. State (1973) 291 Ala. 484, 282 So.2d 700, Affirming 51 Ala.App. 80, 282 So.2d 696; State v. Elkins (1966) 245 Or. 279, 422 P.2d 250. On the other hand, the Ninth ......
-
Murray v. State
...requirement cannot be applied to this case. Likewise, a search is not justified by what it subsequently uncovers. Shipman v. State, 51 Ala.App. 80, 282 So.2d 696, writ quashed, 291 Ala. 484, 282 So.2d 700 (1973); Rudolph v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 371 So.2d 962, cert. denied, Ala., 371 So.2d 96......
-
Crafts v. State
...So.2d 183 (Ala.Cr.App.1976); Williams v. State, 340 So.2d 1144 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 340 So.2d 1149 (Ala.1976); Shipman v. State, 51 Ala.App. 80, 282 So.2d 696, cert. denied, 291 Ala. 484, 282 So.2d 700 (1973); Parks v. State, 46 Ala.App. 722, 248 So.2d 761 (1971). Cf. Fields v. Stat......
-
German v. State
... ... Collins v. State, 391 So.2d 1078, 1084-86 (Ala.Cr.App.1980); Grissom v. State, 386 So.2d 514 (Ala.Cr.App.1980); Reed v. State, 368 So.2d 326 (Ala.Cr.App.1979); Temple v. State, 366 So.2d 740, 742 (Ala.Cr.App.1979); Shipman v. State, 51 Ala.App. 80, 282 So.2d ... 696, cert. denied, 291 Ala. 484, 282 So.2d 700 (1973); Pryor v. State, 48 Ala.App. 465, 265 So.2d 907 (1972); Parks v. State, 46 Ala.App. 722, 248 So.2d 761 (1971). Mere presence is insufficient to establish constructive possession. Smith v. State, 351 ... ...