State v. Ebberson, 43684
| Decision Date | 22 May 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 43684,43684 |
| Parties | STATE of Nebraska, Appellee, v. Larry D. EBBERSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Criminal Law: Investigative Stops. A police officer may in appropriate circumstances and in a proper manner approach a person for the purpose of investigating possible criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest.
2. Criminal Law: Investigative Stops. The test of whether an investigative stop is justified is whether the police officer has a reasonable suspicion founded upon articulable facts which indicate that criminal activity has occurred or is occurring and that the suspect may be involved.
3. Criminal Law: Investigative Stops. An investigatory stop must be justified by objective manifestation that the person stopped is, has been, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity. In determining what cause is sufficient to authorize police to stop a person, the totality of the circumstances the whole picture must be taken into account.
James S. Jansen, Omaha, for appellant.
Paul L. Douglas, Atty. Gen. and G. Roderic Anderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Heard before KRIVOSHA, C. J., and BOSLAUGH, McCOWN, CLINTON, BRODKEY, WHITE, and HASTINGS, JJ.
The defendant was found guilty by a jury of robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was sentenced to 10 to 15 years' imprisonment on the robbery count and 5 to 10 years' imprisonment on the firearm count, the sentences to be served consecutively.
On the morning of February 1, 1980, at approximately 12:40 a.m., two black males entered a Kwik Shop at 50th and Grover Streets in Omaha, Nebraska. One of the men pointed a shotgun at an employee and ordered him to open the cash register. The man carrying the gun was described by the employee as about 5 feet tall, wearing a green jacket, black gloves, and a hat. The other man was described as approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall, also wearing a hat. The taller of the two men emptied the cash register. The gunman then ordered the employee to open the safe and the tall man took the contents of the safe, which included a green moneybag with a lock, a blue moneybag, and some rolls of change. The robbers left the store and ran north. The employee immediately called the police.
At approximately the same time two police officers in a cruiser were just leaving Interstate 80 at the 42nd Street exit. At that point Interstate 80 runs generally east and west. Grover Street is also an east-west street, a very short distance to the north of Interstate 80 in that area. The officers received a broadcast over police radio that a robbery had just occurred at the Kwik Shop at 50th and Grover Streets. The broadcast described the robbers as two small black males armed with a shotgun. The officers immediately drove north on 42nd Street to the intersection of 42nd and Grover Streets, which was 8 blocks east of the Kwik Shop, and parked their cruiser in a lot on the northwest corner of that intersection. Forty-second Street is the first north-south arterial street east of 50th Street which has an entrance to Interstate 80.
Within a minute after the officers parked the cruiser, they observed an automobile approaching the intersection from the west on Grover Street. The car stopped at the traffic signal at the intersection of 42nd and Grover Streets. The car was under a street light approximately 30 feet from the officers. The windows of the car were steamed up, except that the driver's window was rolled down and the passenger window in the front seat was covered by a plastic trash bag. The officers observed two black males in the front seat of the automobile and the driver appeared to be short. The car turned north on 42nd Street and the officers followed it and stopped the car.
The officers asked the driver to produce his driver's license and registration. One of the officers noticed a movement in the rear seat, turned on his flashlight, and observed two individuals and a green coat which was bundled up on the back seat. He returned to the cruiser to request more information over the radio as to the description of the suspects, and was advised that one of the suspects had been wearing a khaki or green-colored jacket and black gloves. With this information the officers asked the occupants to get out of the car. Another police officer had arrived on the scene by that time and the officers found a green army field jacket and a pair of black gloves on the back seat. They also found a shotgun, a green and a blue moneybag, and some rolls of change on the floor. The defendant and the other suspects were placed under arrest. The evidence at trial established that the amount taken in the robbery was approximately $1,300 and the amount seized from the car was almost exactly the same amount.
The employee of the Kwik Shop was unable to identify the defendant at trial, but one of the other suspects testified as a witness for the State and testified that he and the defendant were the two robbers.
The jury found the defendant guilty on both counts and he was sentenced to 10 to 15 years' imprisonment for robbery and 5 to 10 years' imprisonment for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, the sentences to be served...
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...45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). .... This lesser standard for investigative stops was recently articulated by this court in State v. Ebberson, 209 Neb. 41, 305 N.W.2d 904 (1981), and reiterated in State v. Nowicki, 209 Neb. 640, 309 N.W.2d 89 (1981). Therein, relying on United States v. Cortez, 449 ......
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McGill v. State
...Deputy Kerns' remark concerning the quality of the case. Roderick v. State, 858 P.2d 538, 549 (Wyo.1993) ; see also State v. Ebberson, 209 Neb. 41, 305 N.W.2d 904, 908 (1981) (“Ordinarily, when an objection to improper evidence is sustained and the jury is instructed to disregard it, such a......
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State v. Longa
...379, 227 N.W.2d 409 (1975). This lesser standard for investigative stops was recently articulated by this court in State v. Ebberson, 209 Neb. 41, 305 N.W.2d 904 (1981), and reiterated in State v. Nowicki, 209 Neb. 640, 309 N.W.2d 89 (1981). Therein, relying on United States v. Cortez, 449 ......
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State v. Kavanaugh
...379, 227 N.W.2d 409 (1975). This lesser standard for investigative stops was recently articulated by this court in State v. Ebberson, 209 Neb. 41, 305 N.W.2d 904 (1981), and reiterated in State v. Nowicki, 209 Neb. 640, 309 N.W.2d 89 (1981). Therein, relying on United States v. Cortez, 449 ......