State v. Evans
| Decision Date | 14 January 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 54435,54435 |
| Citation | 193 N.W.2d 515 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Francis M. EVANS and Gene Allen Knudtson, Appellants. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Paul H. Kinion, and John C. Platt, Cedar Rapids, for appellant.
Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., Richard N. Winders, Asst. Atty. Gen., and John W. Shafer, County Atty., for appellee.
Defendants, Gene A. Knudtson and Francis M. Evans, were jointly charged, tried and convicted of the crime of breaking and entering in violation of Code section 708.8. Each was sentenced to serve a term not to exceed ten years in the Anamosa reformatory. They have jointly appealed and assign the same two errors. We affirm as to each defendant.
Defendants first assert the trial court erred in overruling their motion to suppress evidence regarding items of clothing taken from them after their warrantless arrest.
The thrust of their contention is that their rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were violated. They argue their warrantless arrest was without probable cause and therefore evidence obtained incident thereto was obtained by an unreasonable search and seizure.
I. A search without a warrant is, within limits, permissible if incident to a lawful arrest. However such an arrest to support an incidental search must be made with probable cause. Henry v. United States 361 U.S. 98, 102, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134, 138, 139.
II. The rules involving probable cause for arrest without warrant and searches incident thereto have, after review of numerous state and federal authorities, been announced in many of our recent cases. State v. Post, 255 Iowa 573, 123 N.W.2d 11; State v. Raymond, 258 Iowa 1339, 142 N.W.2d 444; State v. Brown, 261 Iowa 656, 155 N.W.2d 416; State v. Vallier, Iowa, 159 N.W.2d 406; State v. Ricehill, Iowa, 1970, 178 N.W.2d 288.
In State v. King, Iowa, 191 N.W.2d 650, 653, filed November 11, 1971, we recognize the well established rule by this quote from Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 313, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327, 332:
"In dealing with probable cause, * * * as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.' Brinegar v. United States, supra, 338 U.S. (160) at page 175, 69 S.Ct. (1302) at page 1310. Probable cause exists where 'the facts and circumstances within their (the arresting officers') knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information (are) sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that' an offense has been or is being committed. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543, 555, 39 A.L.R. 790.'
For a recent thorough analysis of authorities from other jurisdictions see 24 Vand.L.Rev. 317, 'Probable Cause to Arrest'. The author's observations include 'flight is frequently acknowledged as a factor properly considered in determining whether the known data reached the level of probable cause'. Page 326.
III. Code section 755.4 provides a peace officer may make an arrest without a warrant where a public offense has been committed and the officer has reasonable grounds for believing the person to be arrested committed it. The record clearly shows a breaking and entering had been committed. The narrow question raised by defendants here is whether the arresting officers had probable cause to believe defendants committed the offense.
IV. The probable cause issue must necessarily be resolved upon the particular facts in each case. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 479, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441, 450; Jackson v. United States, 8 Cir., 408 F.2d 1165, 1171.
About midnight November 1, 1970 Waukon police officer Darrell Stone noticed an out of county car which he had not seen around town before. It was parked near the bowling alley. He again saw the car at 1:15 a.m. and wrote down the license number 57--42941. It was a gray 1960 Pontiac. Between 2:00 and 2:15 a.m. while making his rounds Stone saw the same car parked alongside the loading door of the Super Valu store. He then saw it driven away and observed the two male occupants, one of whom had a dark beard. After following the Pontiac for several blocks Stone returned to the store and found the door had been broken open and the safe 'peeled'. He immediately reported his information by radio to all law enforcement agencies in the area.
Ronald Makin, an agent with the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation, on receiving the Waukon break-in report immediately started to drive from his Oelwein home to Waukon. En route he received an Allamakee County Sheriff's radio message that the vehicle believed used in the Waukon breaking and entering was parked behind the Winneshiek Hotel in Decorah. Decorah is approximately 20 miles west of Waukon. He also heard a police radio report that possibly one of the persons involved in the breaking and entering was Gene Knudtson. Makin knew Knudtson and was aware of his criminal record. Makin drove to Decorah and learned from officers at a roadblock the car behind the hotel had license plates matching the number reported by officer Stone. He also learned two male subjects had checked into the Winneshiek Hotel but had later run away. Makin then went to the hotel and to room 105 which had been rented by the two men. They had not registered by their true names. Outside the room window he observed a scattering of change on an adjacent roof. It appeared the money had been thrown from the window.
Shortly thereafter a police radio report, based on an anonymous phone call to the Waukon Sheriff's office, was broadcast that the two men sought for the breaking and entering were at the Freeport trailer court, a short distance outside Decorah. Makin, Garland Morse, an Iowa Highway Patrolman, Al Etteldorf, Jr., Decorah Assistant Police Chief, and Deputy Sheriff Mel Lee, converged upon the trailer court....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Young v. City of Des Moines
...for the lawfulness of plaintiff's arrest is whether it was made with 'probable cause.' " (Emphasis supplied). See also State v. Evans, 193 N.W.2d 515, 517 (Iowa 1972). To the extent State v. Small, Snyder v. Thompson and other like interpretations of § 755.4(1) conflict herewith, they are n......
-
Children v. Burton
...cause must be determined on the particular facts in each case. State v. Harvey, 242 N.W.2d 330, 340 (Iowa 1976); State v. Evans, 193 N.W.2d 515, 517 (Iowa 1972). The significant point is that courts look to the facts within the officers' knowledge at the time the arrest is made. State v. Va......
-
State v. Dunn
...(Iowa). Compare State v. Hopkins, 192 N.W.2d 747, 748--752 (Iowa).2 See State v. Davis, 196 N.W.2d 885, 894 (Iowa); State v. Evans, 193 N.W.2d 515, 518 (Iowa); State v. Grady, 183 N.W.2d 707, 719 (Iowa); State v. Entsminger, 160 N.W.2d 480, 482--483 (Iowa); State v. Davis, 261 Iowa 1351, 13......
-
State v. Houston, 55494
...1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 925, 91 S.Ct. 908, 27 L.Ed.2d 828 (1971) and State v. Hinsey, 200 N.W.2d 810 (Iowa 1972) with State v. Evans, 193 N.W.2d 515 (Iowa 1972) and Lessenhop v. Norton, 261 Iowa 44, 153 N.W.2d 107 (1967). We need not turn this case on that technical ground, however, b......