State v. Millsap

• Decision Date: 04 May 1971
• Docket Number: No. 50797,50797
• Citation: 258 La. 883,248 So.2d 324
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. James Willie MILLSAP.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 324

248 So.2d 324

258 La. 883

STATE of Louisiana v. James Willie MILLSAP.

No. 50797.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 4, 1971.

Rehearing Denied June 7, 1971.

Kidd & McLeod, Paul Henry Kidd, Monroe, for plaintiff-appellant.

Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen., Harry H. Howard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert W. Kostelka, Dist. Atty., for defendant-appellee.

SUMMERS, Justice.

James Willie Millsap was jointly indicted with George A. Square for the murder of Mrs. Ezell Jordan. A severance was granted, and they were separately tried. In a trial in which Millsap appeared as a witness for the State, Square was convicted and the death penalty was imposed. We affirmed that conviction. State v. Square, 244 So.2d 200 (La.1971). In this separate trial of Millsap a verdict of guilty without capital punishment was entered, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The victim, Mrs. Ezell Jordan, was 58 years of age. She was employed as a practical nurse at a nursing home in West Monroe, Ouachita Parish. About 4:30 or 5 o'clock on Saturday morning, April 13, 1968, she left her home for work driving a white Falcon automobile. When she did not arrive for work at the usual time, the Sheriff's Office was advised of her disappearance. An intensive search resulted in the discovery of her body about 6:45 that evening in the trunk of her automobile which was found between the levee and the river at the end of Lazarre Street in West Monroe.

The victim's body revealed several stab wounds, though there was little blood in the car trunk. Grass fragments were present in her wet clothing. These facts suggested to the investigating officers that the fatal wounds had been inflicted outside the car trunk, and that the body had been dragged from the water at the river's edge across the grassy levee to the car. Because Mrs. Jordan was a large woman, the investigating officers theorized that at least two persons were required to lift the body into the car trunk.

A number of papers and other belongings of the victim were found at the scene, principally her checkbook. The name 'John Thomas Roy' was written on one of the checks in the victim's handwriting. Officers immediately checked on Roy's whereabouts and learned that he was, and had been for some time, incarcerated in the state penitentiary. With this knowledge, they began inquiries to learn who Roy's friends or associates were. By questioning Roy's relatives, and on the basis of their own recollection that Roy and George A. Square had served time together on a previous conviction, it became apparent to the officers that Square would be likely to use Roy's name. Square was taken into custody.

Meanwhile a 1961 blue Ford was reported abandoned in another area of the parish. When the car was brought in, it was noted that fender damage and paint smears on the Ford and on the victim's Falcon indicated the vehicles had collided. Another significant link in the chain of evidence occurred when Dan Slakter, manager of Kirchoff's clothing store, reported to the Sheriff's Office on Sunday, April 14, that two Negro males had come to his store the previous day to cash a personalized check of Mrs. Ezell Jordan, but he refused to accommodate them. Slakter was prompted to report this incident by the news of Mrs. Jordan's murder in the newspapers and on Television.

Interrogation of Square and two of his known companions, Modicue and Broussard, satisfied officers that Modicue and Broussard were not involved in the crime. Inconsistencies in Square's story, and discovery of a blood-stained coat in his home, as a result of a search with a search warrant, convinced the officers that Square should be held in custody, and the investigation should proceed on the basis that an accomplice was involved.

While these events were transpiring, Officer Fred Davis recalled that during his patrol on the night of April 12 and the early morning of April 13 he saw Square and Millsap together at the 'tin building', a bar in West Monroe owned and operated by Hudson Johnson. Questioning of Johnson and others who were present at the time confirmed Davis' recollection.

With this information the officers returned to the Sheriff's Office and, by reference to their files, ascertained that Millsap lived not far away in Union Parish. On Monday, April 15, the Union Parish Sheriff's Office was contacted and requested to send a deputy to a rendezvous point near Millsap's home. The officers met and proceeded to Millsap's house where he was arrested.

After Millsap was placed in the police car, he was given the Miranda warnings by one of the officers. Thereafter, while on the way to the Sheriff's Office, he made certain inculpatory statements. Some time after arrival at the Sheriff's Office Millsap agreed to record a statement, and at that time he signed a written waiver of counsel acknowledging that he received the Miranda warnings. Two days later he gave a second recorded statement and signed another written waiver of counsel acknowledging that he had been informed of his constitutional rights as required by the Miranda decision. (See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966)). These statements gave a detailed account of both Square and Millsap's activities and established their joint participation in the crime--Millsap denying only that he inflicted any wound which caused the victim's death.

After his arrest Millsap's fingerprints were found to match fingerprints taken from the rear-view mirror of the 1961 blue Ford. There were no known records of Millsap's fingerprints prior to his arrest.

Developing a lead suggested by the information furnished by Dan Slakter that two Negro males tried to cash Mrs. Jordan's personalized check, and information contained in Millsap's statements that the check was torn and thrown away after he and Square left Kirchoff's Department Store, one of the officers undertook a careful search of the area and found a piece of the check in a nearby parking lot.

Prior to trial, defense counsel filed a motion to suppress the three statements made by Millsap to the Sheriff's Deputies, the comparison of Millsap's fingerprints with the print found on the 1961 blue Ford, and the piece of Mrs. Jordan's personalized check found in the parking lot.

After trial of the motion at which the facts recited above were established, the trial court refused to suppress the evidence, and Bill of Exceptions No. 1 was reserved. Thereafter the evidence was received at Millsap's trial on behalf of the prosecution. Defense counsel contends the evidence should have been suppressed because it was obtained as a result of an illegal arrest without a warrant and without Probable cause. It is contended also that, prior to making the statements to the Sheriff's Deputies, Millsap did not understand the nature of the warning, and hence his waiver of the right to counsel and the right to the Miranda warnings was not an intelligent waiver.

Conceding the arrest of Millsap was without a warrant, the State's attorney contends the arrest was nevertheless valid, for the peace officers who arrested him had Reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested had committed an offense although not in the presence of the officers. Such an arrest is considered valid under Article 213(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. ¹

In State v. Johnson, 249 La. 950, 964, 192 So.2d 135, 140 (1966), we discussed this issue in light of Article 60 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in effect at that time. Since revision of the Code, Article 213(3) applies. But the meaning of the term Reasonable cause to believe has not changed. Reasonable cause to believe--or 'probable cause' as it is termed under the federal standard--to make an arrest, without a warrant, exists when the facts and circumstances within the arresting officer's knowledge, and of which he has reasonable, trustworthy information, are sufficient in themselves to justify a man of average caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed.

Compliance with these standards is, in the first instance, a substantive determination to be made by the trial court from the facts and circumstances of the case.

And in determining compliance with these standards it is not the proof required for conviction which is relevant. Proof required to satisfy the requirement of reasonable cause to believe, or probable cause, is less and is what the terms imply: probabilities and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable men could reasonably be expected to act.

In such cases, because only factual issues are presented by the contentions, the setting in which the arrests took place becomes a factor of prime importance; facts and circumstances known to the arresting officers from which they might draw conclusions warranted by their training and experience become the focus of our attention with due allowance for the discretion vested in the trial court.

Viewed in the light of these announcements, the facts amply establish the reasonable cause to believe, or probable cause for believing, that an offense had been committed and that Millsap was an accomplice in the crime.

The victim's mutilated body was a stark physical reality. Square's implication in the crime was a logical deduction from the use of Roy's name on the check Mrs. Jordan had been forced to write, from the bloody coat found at Square's house, and from the inconsistencies in his story.

A reasonable inference was drawn by the investigating officers that two persons were involved in the crime from the movement of the victim's large body into the car trunk. This inference was reinforced by the report of Dan Slakter that two Negroes tried to cash Mrs. Jordan's personalized check. Another car abandoned in another area of the parish, which had collided with the victim's car, tended to confirm that two persons were involved in the crime. Finally, Officer Davis saw Millsap and Square together...