State v. Bryson, 56981

• Decision Date: 11 March 1974
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 56981,56981,1
• Citation: 506 S.W.2d 358
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Edmund Joseph BRYSON, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 358

506 S.W.2d 358

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Edmund Joseph BRYSON, Appellant.

No. 56981.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

March 11, 1974.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., G. Michael O'Neal, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Donald L. Schmidt, and Christopher Hexter, for appellant, Legal Aid Society of St. Louis, St. Louis.

BARDGETT, Presiding Judge.

Defendant-appellant, Edmund Joseph Bryson, was found guilty by a jury of the felony of illegal possession of stimulant drugs. Secs. 195.240 and 195.270, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S. The court, pursuant to the second offender act, Sec. 556.280, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S., sentenced defendant to seven years' imprisonment. Defendant's notice of appeal was filed prior to January 1, 1972. This court has jurisdiction. Mo.Const., Art. V, Sec. 31(4), V.A.M.S.

Defendant's point IV is that the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict of guilty. This point is directed particularly to the question of whether or not there was evidence sufficient to support a jury finding that the defendant was in possession of the stimulant drugs. The drug was methamphetamine hydrochloride.

The evidence relative to this point was as follows. At about 11:00 p.m. on November 12, 1970, seven or eight police officers went to a two-story apartment building at the address of 1032 Russell in St. Louis, Missouri, for the purpose of either arresting defendant or conducting an investigation relative to information they had received that defendant had some illegal drugs in his possession. The defendant was believed to be in the second-floor apartment at 1032a Russell.

Detectives Stolte and Ruediger went to the door of the second-floor apartment and knocked on the door. A voice from inside answered and Stolte said, 'Police officers, open the door.' He heard a scuffling noise from inside the apartment. Other officers stationed themselves at various places around the building. Detectives Schnarre, Marbs, and Vaughn were located on the 10th street sidewalk on the east side of the building. The area was sufficiently illuminated by a street light across from the apartment building. Det. Schnarre testified he saw a second-floor window open and saw the defendant lean out of that window and throw an object upwards. It hit the top of the window and then fell to the sidewalk about five or six feet from Det. Schnarre. It looked like a brown paper bag. Det. Vaughn picked it up and opened it, revealing a plastic vial and a plastic syringe with a needle.

Det. Vaughn was located on the 10th street sidewalk. He heard a window open, saw an object falling to the pavement, and picked it up. He opened the brown paper and found a plastic syringe with a needle and some tablets soaking in a yellow watery substance. Vaughn had specific training in identifying drugs and had identified desoxyn hundreds of times by sight. He testified that the vial contained desoxyn. Vaughn told the other officers that desoxyn had been thrown out the window. The vial was later turned over to the police laboratory personnel and identified in court as containing methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Det. Marbs was also located on the 10th street side of the building. He testified he saw the defendant lean out the window and throw an object upward. It hit the window and fell to the ground. The object was recovered by Det. Vaughn who opened it and said it contained desoxyn. Det. Marbs then went to the door of the second-floor apartment and informed Detectives Stolte and Ruediger what had happened.

Det. Stolte testified that Marbs informed him 'that the subject, Mickey Bryson had thrown an outfit and some desoxyn on the east side of the building.'

Detectives Stolte and Ruediger then knocked on the door again. There was no response, so Det. Ruediger forced the door open and they went in. Det. Stolte saw the defendant, whom he had known for about a year, and arrested him for illegal possession of a stimulant drug.

Defendant points out certain conflicts in the testimony of the various officers concerning their purpose in going to 1032a Russell--to investigate or to arrest; whether the object thrown from the window was a brown paper bag or a vial; the improbability of a person being able to identify another at nighttime; the presence of others in the apartment who could have been the owner of the object thrown from the window.

Defendant's argument is an attack upon the credibility of the state's witnesses and that was a matter for the jury to determine. State v. Harris, 485 S.W.2d 612, 613 (Mo.1973). On appeal the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. There was sufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict. The point is overruled.

Defendant's points IA, IB, II, and III are:

'I. The trial court erred in denying appellant's motion to suppress evidence, because the warrantless arrest and search violated appellant's rights to be free from 'unreasonable searches and seizures' under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 15 of the Missouri Constitution. A. The warrantless, forcible entry of Appellant's brother's home and subsequent warrantless arrest of Appellant, absent exigent circumstances, violated Appellant's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. B. The warrantless search of the brown paper package and subsequent seizure of the drugs contained therein violated Appellant's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

'II. The threat of an illegal search which caused appellant allegedly to throw some drugs out of the window resulted in a seizure of the drugs in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

'III. The package containing the vial of drugs, which was admitted into evidence, was seized from a constitutionally protected area.'

On December 30, 1970, defendant filed a motion to suppress as evidence the methamphetamine hydrochloride that the police seized in the manner set forth supra on the grounds that the officers had no search warrant and the officers had no probable cause to believe defendant had committed a felony; that the arrest, search, and seizure were in violation of Mo.Const., Art. I, Sec. 15, and the U.S. Const., Amends. 4, 5, and 14.

The motion was heard and overruled on January 14, 1971, by the Hon. Harold Satz. The trial was held February 2--4, 1971, before Hon. Michael Scott and there were no objections made to the admission into evidence of the objects and substance that the police claimed to have been thrown from the window by the defendant on any constitutional grounds. The only objection defendant made to the syringe and tablets was that they (more precisely 'the tablets') had not been identified as a stimulant drug, which was properly overruled.

In State v. Simone, 416 S.W.2d 96, 100 (Mo.1967), the court held: 'In the event the trial court rules on the motion to suppress adversely to defendant's position, and if the evidence claimed to have been unlawfully seized is subsequently offered in evidence at the trial, defendant must then object to the admission of the evidence with a proper statement of the reasons for that objection, and also present the matter in his motion for new trial...