State v. McQueen
| Decision Date | 07 May 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 52961,52961 |
| Citation | 278 So.2d 114 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Enoch F. McQUEEN, Jr. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Polk, Foote, Randolph, Percy & Ledbetter, Edward G. Randolph, Jr., Alexandria, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Edwin O. Ware, Dist. Atty., Robert P. Jackson, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Pursuant to a jury trial, defendant was convicted of the simple burglary of a building in Pineville, Louisiana (R.S. 14:62) and was sentenced to serve nine years imprisonment at hard labor. During the proceedings, defendant reserved forty bills of exceptions, which he relies upon in this appeal.
During the early morning hours of August 28, 1970, it was reported to the Rapides Parish sheriff's department that six rolls of copper wire, together weighing approximately fifteen hundred pounds, had been stolen from D & E Construction Company in Pineville. This information was immediately dispatched to all patrol units. Deputies Elvin Savage and Louis Robinson received the information and shortly thereafter sighted a white sedan traveling south on the Lake Charles highway near Alexandria. The rear-end of the sedan was observed to be almost dragging the ground, apparently from heavy loading. The deputies began to follow the car which was weaving down the highway. As the deputies approached the car, they noticed that there was no license tag on the automobile. The deputies stopped the car for questioning. As the deputies approached the car, they noticed that there was no current inspection sticker on the car.
One of the deputies immediately recognized the driver of the automobile, defendant McQueen, as a convicted felon. The deputies questioned McQueen about the overloaded condition of the car. He explained tht he was carrying an old engine head and a 'spare tire and stuff' in the trunk of the car. The deputies noticed that a spare tire, jack and lug wrench were on the floor behind the front seat of the car. McQueen either could not or would not open the trunk of the car upon the request of the deputies. He was also unable to produce proof of ownership of the car.
After communicating with the sheriff's office, the occupants of the car were formally arrested. 1 Although the officers had not told defendant that he was under arrest prior to their communication with the sheriff's office, their testimony at the hearing indicates that defendant was under arrest prior to the communication. C.Cr.P. art. 201. During the communication with their headquarters, the arresting deputies learned that McQueen was a convicted burglar and that a confidential, reliable informer had notified the sheriff's department that McQueen was involved in thefts of copper wire in the Pineville-Alexandria area.
McQueen and his two companions were then transported to jail for booking and a wrecker brought the automobile to the sheriff's office. Shortly after the car arrived at the sheriff's office, a deputy opened the trunk of the car. In the trunk were found the six rolls of stolen copper wire. No warrant was obtained authorizing the search of the car's trunk.
Defendant moved to suppress the evidence obtained pursuant to the search of the trunk of the automobile. Bill of Exceptions No. 4 was reserved to the denial of the motion to suppress.
Defendant contends that the motion to suppress should have been sustained because (1) the search was not made pursuant to a valid arrest and (2) no warrant was obtained authorizing the search of the trunk of the automobile. Defendant's contentions are without merit.
The search and seizure were valid because the arresting officers had probable cause to believe that the car contained contraband or other articles which the officers were entitled to seize. Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970), Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925), State v. Dell, 258 La. 1024, 249 So.2d 118 (1971). When the deputies made the decision to arrest defendant and to search the trunk of the car, they knew that a burglary had recently occurred in the vicinity; that fifteen hundred pounds of copper wire had been stolen during the burglary; that the rear-end of defendant's automobile appeared to be extremely heavily loaded; that defendant was a convicted felon; that defendant's explanation of the articles contained in the trunk was inconsistent with the existence of a spare tire, lug wrench and jack in the back seat of the automobile; and that defendant was either unwilling or unable to open the trunk of the automobile for the officers' inspection.
The officers had probable cause to perform a warrantless search of the automobile while it was still located on the side of the highway. However, they did not possess the necessary equipment to open the trunk of the automobile. Thus, the officers had to decide whether to remain with the automobile until the proper equipment was obtained or to transport the automobile to headquarters immediately. The deputies chose to transport the automobile to their headquarters immediately before making the search. This decision was reasonable and did not invalidate the warrantless search of the automobile. Chambers v. Maroney, supra, 399 U.S. at 52, 90 S.Ct. at 1981.
Bill of Exceptions No. 4 is without merit.
Bill of Exceptions No. 10 was reserved when the trial court allowed Chief Deputy Reynolds to testify at the hearing on the motion to suppress concerning information about McQueen's activities which was communicated to him by a confidential informer. It is not necessary to consider this bill. The arresting deputies had probable cause for the search even if the information communicated to them by Chief Deputy Reynolds were disregarded.
Bills of Exceptions Nos. 6, 8 and 9 were reserved at the hearing on the motion to suppress. The bills were reserved during the testimony of certain deputies who arrived at the scene of the arrest after the arrest was made. The critical question at the motion to suppress was whether the arresting officers had probable cause to search. We have found that the arresting officers had probable cause to search based on their own knowledge of defendant and their own observations made immediately prior to the arrest.
Bills of Exceptions Nos. 6, 8 and 9 are without merit.
Bill of Exceptions No. 20 was reserved when the State handed to a witness a photograph marked 'State 5' and asked him whether or not he recognized the photograph. Defendant objected that the photograph was exposed to the jury before it was admitted into evidence and that the photograph was only derivative evidence. The trial court did not find that the photograph had been exposed to the jury prior to its introduction. The court found that the State was following the proper procedure for having the photograph identified for introduction as evidence. Defendant's argument that the photograph was not the 'best evidence' of the fact that the copper wire was found in the trunk of the automobile driven by defendant is also without merit. R.S. 15:436.
Bills of Exceptions Nos. 21 through 25 were reserved during the testimony of Deputy Mount, the officer who opened the trunk of the automobile. Mount's testimony laid the foundation for the introduction of the D & E Construction Company tags found on the rolls of copper wire and the photographs of the trunk and its contents, which photographs were taken shortly after the trunk was opened. Defendant argues that the proper foundation was not laid for the introduction of such evidence and that the tags and photographs were not the 'best evidence.' Defendant's arguments are without merit.
The proper foundation was established for the introduction of the photographs and tags.
R.S. 15:436 provides:
'The best evidence which from the nature of the case must be supposed to exist, and which is within a party's control, must be produced.'
From the nature of this case, the D & E Construction Company tags taken from the rolls of copper wire and the photographs of the trunk of the car and its contents were the 'best evidence' of the rolls of the copper wire and their relationship to defendant. The actual copper wire need not have been produced in court because it was extremely heavy and a valuable commodity which need not have been removed from commerce during the pendency of defendant's trial.
Bills of Exceptions Nos. 26 through 30 were reserved during the testimony of Deputies Perry and Cosenza concerning the search of the trunk of the automobile and its contents. Defendant objected that the evidence should not be admitted because it was the fruit of an illegal search; that the proper foundation...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Searle
... ... Yee Hem v. United States, 268 U.S. 178, 45 S.Ct. 470, 69 L.Ed. 904 (1925). See also United States v. Gainey, 380 U.S. 63, 85 S.Ct. 754, 13 L.Ed.2d 658 (1965); State v. Curry, 319 So.2d 917 (La.1975); State v. Womack, 283 So.2d 708 (La.1973); State v. McQueen, 278 So.2d 114 (La.1973) ... Assignment 3 ... Searle argues that the conviction should be reversed because in the prosecutor's closing argument he told the jury, in effect, that unless they convicted Searle of burglary in the cases before them he could not later be charged with ... ...
-
State v. Womack, 53510
...We considered and rejected a similar constitutional challenge to this statute in our recent decision in the case of State v. McQueen, La., 278 So.2d 114 (1973). In that case we reviewed exhaustively both the state and federal jurisprudence on the subject and concluded that the statute in qu......
-
State v. Spencer
... ... Coolidge v. New Hampshire, supra; Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925); State v. Gordon, supra; State v. Tant, 287 So.2d 458 (La.1974); State v. McQueen, 278 So.2d 114 (La.1973) ... In the instant case the officers clearly had probable cause to believe that the two trucks contained contraband which they were entitled to seize. The officers had received information from a reliable informant, who had previously furnished ... ...
-
State v. Tant
... ... Penitentiary v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967) ... One exception to the general rule is that a moving vehicle may be stopped and searched where 'exigent circumstances' make the securing of a search warrant impracticable. State v. McQueen, 278 So.2d 114 (La.1973); United States v. Childez-Castro, 430 F.2d 766 (7th Cir. 1970); Brinegar v. United States, Supra; and Carroll v. United States, Supra ... Two recent cases have dealt with the exception: ... In Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 48--52, 90 ... ...