State v. Hill
| Decision Date | 09 October 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,No. 52831,52831,1 |
| Citation | 419 S.W.2d 46 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Willie HILL, Jr., Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Frank Mashak, St. Louis, for appellant.
Norman H. Anderson, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, James R. Reinhard, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Paris, for respondent.
Defendant was charged with armed robbery with one previous felony conviction, waived trial by jury, was tried by the court and found guilty as charged, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, and appeals. Defendant is represented here by appointed counsel, who has briefed and argued the case.
Defendant first contends the state failed to make a submissible case. The state's witness Eddie Giles was a route salesman serving stores for a potato chip company. On August 30, 1966, around 12:30 p.m., in the 1300 block on North Leffingwell, in St. Louis, while working in the van part of his parked truck getting an order together, he was robbed by a man who stepped inside the truck with a pistol in his hand. The light inside the truck was good and Giles described the man as about five feet, ten inches in height, brown skinned, short haircut, wavy hair, shaved off around the forehead, face narrow, small, thin moustache, 25 or 30 years old, weighing 145 to 150 pounds or more, dressed without a hat, in a light blue sport shirt with the tail out, light blue trousers, holding a black derringer style pistol with one barred on top of the other, with a front sight. Giles said that when he saw the gun he was surprised, but that he wasn't frightened or excited until it was all over. The two stood facing each other four to six feet apart for what Giles estimated as a minute or two and then the man told Giles to turn around, put the pistol to his temple, took the money he had collected on his route from his front trouser pockets ($102.75) and told Giles to lie on the floor until he left. After remaining on the floor a few minutes, Giles left the truck and reported to the police and his employer. A week later Giles identified defendant at the precinct station as the man who robbed him and also identified defendant in the courtroom. Giles also identified at the trial a small black derringer pistol, with stacked barrels, which the police showed him at the station, as being the same size and appearance as the gun used in the holdup. 1 It is apparent from the foregoing that the state produced substantial evidence to support the charge and defendant's contention the state failed to make a submissible case is overruled.
Defendant next contends that he was illegally arrested and searched. The evidence on this was that on September 6, 1966, seven days after the robbery, two St. Louis police officers accosted defendant on the sidewalk in front of 1121 North Jefferson, around 12:30 p.m. There had been a pattern of four or five robberies in about a week's time in this general area at about the same time of day and in all of these the general description of the perpetrator was approximately the same--a negro male, around 25, five feet ten or eleven inches in height, weight 150 to 175 pounds, brown skinned, using the same sort of gun as in the Giles holdup. The police pulled their car over to the curb. Detective Fowler got out, showed his badge and said 'Police', and told defendant he wanted to talk to him. Defendant was wearing a light colored, knit type jersey slipover shirt and pair of slacks, no hat, and the detectives considered he fitted the description of the man they were looking for, although they did not know defendant and had no warrant. Defendant put his right hand under his jersey and stepped backwards into the street. Fowler pulled his revolver, again said 'Police', told defendant he was under arrest suspected of robbery, and to remove his hand from underneath his shirt. As defendant did so the officers saw something fall down his left trouser leg and drop into view on the street. It was a loaded 22 caliber stacked derringer, which the officers took into possession, marked, and which Giles identified at the trial as stated above. Under these circumstances, the arrest was legal, either on the ground that the officers had reasonable grounds based on bona fide information communicated to them in their police work, for believing defendant, who appeared to fit the description they had received, was involved in the recent holdups in the same area at about the same time of day, State v. Witt, (Mo.Sup.) 371 S.W.2d 215, 218--219, or on the basis that the response of ...
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