State v. Keeny
| Citation | 431 S.W.2d 95 |
| Decision Date | 09 September 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,No. 52873,52873,1 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Robert Gene KEENY, Appellant |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Missouri |
Norman H. Anderson, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Norman Humphrey, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Independence, for respondent.
H. H. McNabb, Jr., Butler, for appellant.
Defendant was convicted by a jury of first degree robbery and having also been tried under § 556.280, 1 the Second Offender Act, was sentenced by the court to 25 years' imprisonment. He appeals. We affirm.
Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting into evidence, over defendant's motion to suppress, a gun and testimony as to a pair of trousers found in the car in which defendant was riding, on the ground his arrest was unlawful and hence the ensuing search of the car was also unlawful.
A filling station located on the west side of U.S. Highway 71 in Butler, Missouri, near the south edge of town, was held up about 3:00 a.m. The attendant, William Coke, Jr., heard a car drive up and stop at the rear of the station. He saw a man walking fast, come around the south side of the station, enter the front door with a gun in his hand, come over to where Coke was seated at a desk, stick the gun at him and say, 'Take it easy, Pop' and at the same time reach in Coke's right shirt pocket and take a roll of $1 and $5 bills, about $175. The man had on a white shirt and light trousers. The man then left the station, went out of sight toward the car at the rear, and Coke heard the car leave. Coke stepped to the door and saw the car get on the highway and start south. He saw it was a black convertible, with a white top, had round taillights and the first numeral on the license was 3. Coke called the police dispatcher and then his boss.
City policeman Walter Grimes received a call from the dispatcher within a few minutes that the filling station had been robbed. He went there at once. The station attendant told him the person who robbed him had a blue steel pistol and wore tan pants and left in a black convertible with a white top, round taillights, loud mufflers and the first numeral in the license was a 3. A truck driver who arrived at the station about the same time as the policeman said he had just entered Butler from the east on Highway 52 and had met no car fitting this description. Grimes thereupon started out in his police car, went a few blocks south on U.S. 71 and then turned west on Highway 52, looking for the car. When he was 7 or 8 miles west of Butler he first saw taillights ahead. This was about 16 minutes after he first received the call about the robbery. He reported by radio to his dispatcher and kept going. As he got closer he saw the car was a black convertible with a white top, round taillights and the first numeral in the license was a 3. He could see there were two persons in the car. He stopped it with his siren and red light. This was about 10 1/2 miles west of Butler, apparently within 4--5 miles of the Missouri-Kansas line. The defendant was riding in the front seat on the passenger's side. Grimes made the occupants get out, put their hands on the top of their car, got their names, radioed this to the dispatcher and then handcuffed each man. He made a quick search of each man for hard objects and then made a quick search of the car. He found two $1 bills, one torn, lying on the front seat. He found a hand gun, .22 caliber, under the front seat on the driver's side. This gun was introduced into evidence. He also found a pair of tan colored pants, partly in view, under the front seat on the passenger's side. There was an open suitcase on the rear seat on the right side, containing clothing and a box of .22 caliber ammunition. The defendant was wearing a white shirt and dark trousers. Grimes took the two men back to the filling station. Coke, the attendant, identified defendant as the man who robbed him and the men were then taken to the city jail.
There was no evidence as to ownership of the car.
This arrest was lawful and this being so, the ensuing search of the automobile as here described, was lawful, as incident thereto. The fact that policeman Grimes was outside his jurisdiction does not make the arrest unlawful under the circumstances before us. A private citizen could lawfully have proceeded as Grimes did. The facts are that there was a robbery; within a few minutes after it occurred, Grimes learned from a reliable source that the perpetrator was a man with a gun who left the scene in a particular style and color car, with certain type taillights and with a license in which the first numeral was a 3. Grimes learned it apparently had not gone east on Highway 52. He decided to look for it on Highway 52 to the west, the direction of the Missouri-Kansas state line. Within 16 minutes from the time he was first called about the robbery he overtook such a car. It was then about 3:15 a.m. Under these circumstances, Grimes had reasonable grounds to believe that the men in the car were the ones who committed the robbery and could lawfully arrest them without warrant, Ker v. State of California, 374 U.S. 23, 34--35, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726; State v. Noland (Mo.Sup.) 229 S.W. 198, 199; State v. Berstein (Mo.Sup.) 372 S.W.2d 57, 59; State v. Brown (Mo.Sup.) 291 S.W.2d 615, 619; State v. Campbell (Mo.Sup.) 262 S.W.2d 5; State v. Peters (Mo.Sup.) 242 S.W. 894, 896; State v. Parker (Mo.App.) 378 S.W.2d 274, 282. This contention of defendant is overruled.
In support of his motion at the close of the voir dire examination to discharge the jury panel, defendant offered before the court a copy of the Bates County Democrat of July 29, 1965, which contained a news story of the arrest of the suspects, with a photograph of the two men, in handcuffs, as they were being transferred from the city jail. The news story gave the filling station attendant's account of what happened and told about Grimes finding and arresting the two men. It also said that defendant had served three terms in the Texas state penitentiary for burglary, larceny and forgery and that his companion had recently been released from the Missouri state penitentiary and had served eight prison terms for various crimes, including armed robbery. The source of this information, according to the news story, was the city marshal. Such prior criminal record would be inadmissible before the jury because defendant did not testify. Publication of such information in a given case might well operate to interfere with the judicial process, 2 but the question is whether it deprived defendant of a fair and impartial jury in the case before us. Here, upon an examination of the voir dire questioning and responses, we do not believe it appears that the article prejudiced or biased the...
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