State v. Lewis, 57262

• Decision Date: 21 May 1975
• Docket Number: No. 57262,57262
• Citation: 229 N.W.2d 234
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Cliffton A. LEWIS, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 234

229 N.W.2d 234

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Cliffton A. LEWIS, Appellant.

No. 57262.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 21, 1975.

Rehearing Denied June 16, 1975.

Comito, Roehrick & Vincent, Des Moines, for appellant.

Richard C. Turner, Atty. Gen., David M. Dryer, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Ray A. Fenton, County Atty., for appellee.

Heard before MOORE, C.J., and MASON, RAWLINGS, UHLENHOPP and McCORMICK, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal involves questions which arose during trial of the defendant on a charge of breaking and entering.

In October 1973, defendant Cliffton A. Lewis moved into apartment 8 at 1128 Sixth Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa. Directly across the hall was apartment 6, occupied by two young women. One of the women, a nurse's aid, left for work daily about 6:30 a.m., while the other, a state employee, left about 7:30 a.m. The women had a stereo tape player and related equipment in their apartment. Directly below their apartment was apartment 2, where the building manager lived.

On December 5, 1973, about six weeks after defendant moved into apartment 8, the two women went to work at the usual times. Shortly before noon an Oldsmobile car stood in the alley behind the apartment house with its trunk lid raised. At that time, the building manager in apartment 2 heard noises overhead in apartment 6. She went upstairs and saw a man, one Eddie Lee Pack, run from the wall next to apartment 6 into defendant's apartment, which he entered without knocking. The manager returned to apartment 2 and tried unsuccessfully to call one of the tenants of apartment 6 at work. About this time the manager saw Pack go past her living room window outside the building. He then returned to the apartment house.

The manager continued to hear noises in apartment 6, so she called the police. Shortly a uniformed police officer arrived and went with the manager to the rear of the building. Just then pack and defendant came around the side of the building toward the Oldsmobile. Pack was carrying two or three sacks and defendant was carrying a coat, all of which they placed in the Oldsmobile. After closing the trunk lid, they got into the car, defendant entering on the passenger side.

The police officer pounded on the side of the car, shouting for the men to stop. The men looked at him, but the car sped down the alley.

Two other police officers, who had heard the original police radio call, stopped near the end of the alley. One of them got out, stood at the end of the alley, and shouted, 'Halt, police officer.' The Oldsmobile did not stop. The officer tried to get out of its path, but a fender struck him and threw him onto the curb. He got to his feet and observed that the passenger in the car appeared to be leaning over the seat and pointing something in the officer's direction. The officer opened fire at the car. The car careened down the street, hit a parked car, knocked off a fire hydrant, and ran into a building. Defendant and Pack got out of the car and fled. The police officers were unable to overtake them but did impound the car.

The lock on the door to apartment 6 had been knocked off, and the tenants' stereo and related equipment had been taken. The officers found those articles in the rear seat of the impounded Oldsmobile.

The county attorney charged defendant and Pack with breaking and entering. This case involves defendant. By the testimony of the police officers and others, the State introduced evidence of the matters we...