State v. Shy
| Decision Date | 25 June 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 63832,63832 |
| Citation | 373 So.2d 145 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Webster SHY. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Arthur L. Harris, Sr., New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., George Mustakas, II, Abbott J. Reeves, Asst. Dist. Attys., Gretna, for plaintiff-appellee.
Webster Shy was approached at New Orleans International Airport by two Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies who identified themselves, then asked for his identification. Asked by Shy why they had stopped him, one officer informed him that he was suspected of possibly carrying narcotics. Shy disclaimed possession of any such substance. Thereupon one officer asked Shy if he would mind permitting them to look inside the piece of hand luggage he carried. Shy responded that he had nothing to hide and stated the officers could look "in anything you want." The officers then requested that Shy accompany them to the airport office, where he placed the luggage on the table, opened it, stood back and invited the officers' inspection. The deputies found two amber glass bottles containing phencyclidine wrapped in a towel. Shy was arrested and a prosecution for possession of phencyclidine with intent to distribute (R.S. 40:967) ensued. An unfavorable ruling on a motion to suppress earlier taken under advisement by the court was announced on the date trial was to commence. The testimony of only that one state witness, Officer Schwabe, comprised the hearing on the motion to suppress; the defendant neither testified, nor presented other defense witnesses at the hearing on the motion. After the trial court announced its ruling Shy withdrew his former plea of not guilty and entered a guilty plea conditioned upon his right to appeal the court's denial of the motion to suppress. 1 We review only that ruling on this appeal.
On February 6, 1978, at about 11:00 A.M., Officer Schwabe of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was contacted by a Los Angeles Police Department officer on duty at the Los Angeles airport. The Los Angeles policeman advised Schwabe that he had observed at the Los Angeles Airport a black male, by the name of Shy, acting in a nervous and apprehensive manner when he purchased with small bills a one-way ticket to New Orleans. These characteristics prompted a suspicion that Shy may have been transporting narcotics. The Los Angeles Officer described Shy in detail and told Officer Schwabe that Shy was carrying only one small piece of hand luggage; had left New Orleans on Sunday night, February 5, 1978; had been scheduled to return to New Orleans from Los Angeles on the morning of February 6, 1978, just a few hours after his Los Angeles arrival; had apparently missed his planned return flight and would be returning to New Orleans on a designated afternoon flight. Officer Schwabe was also told that while checking his bag, Shy talked with an unknown man who likewise continually looked around, appearing nervous and apprehensive.
Upon receiving the information from the Los Angeles officer, Officer Schwabe ran a record check of the name given to him and learned that one Webster Shy whose address was given as Hollygrove Street in New Orleans, was then on probation for a heroin possession conviction; the physical description of Webster Shy carried by the crime computer was similar to that given by the Los Angeles officer. These events prompted Officer Schwabe to call for another officer to assist in surveillance of the arrival flight. When the awaited plane landed, the officers observed a man deplane who met the description given by the Los Angeles police officer. Defendant was followed by the Jefferson officers as he walked slowly down the concourse, letting his fellow passengers pass him by; as he walked he continually looked around, stopped and looked over his shoulder. Arriving near the airport gift store Shy stopped and asked directions of a person, who pointed toward the lobby. Shy proceeded toward the lobby, then stopped, turned around and walked as if to enter the gift shop. He then stopped again, turned, and looked down the concourse, before taking the stairs to the baggage area where he retrieved one small piece of hand luggage. In possession of this bag, Shy proceeded toward the cab stand, but stopped before he arrived where it was located, turned around, and walked back toward the stairs leading up to the lobby. At this time the Jefferson officers approached him, and there transpired the events related in the Outset paragraph of this opinion.
On this appeal, defendant conceives the legality of the police-initiated encounter to be the key issue in this case. The state urges that the crucial issue is the consent to search given by Shy. Both elements are critical to a proper determination of the case.
The mere fact that a defendant's behavior while under surveillance at the airport correlates with various elements of a drug courier profile does not by itself provide reasonable cause to stop and detain him for questioning. State v. Brown, 370 So.2d 547 (La.1979). However, the observation of those characteristics may be considered along with other factors known to the surveilling officer in determining whether the requisite reasonable cause to stop and detain a subject exists. State v. Brown, supra. In the instant case, in addition to personally observing behavior which the officer judged to be consistent with that often displayed by drug transporters, the Jefferson Parish officers knew from the computer check that a "Webster Shy", with a New Orleans address, had a prior narcotics conviction and physical characteristics compatible with the suspect, and had been told that the suspect had given the name "Shy" in Los Angeles. They were thus certain that the man under surveillance had prior narcotics involvement. But the right to effect a temporary detention for investigatory purposes exists only with respect to persons whom the detaining officer has reasonable cause to believe is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a crime and sufficiency of the officer's cause depends on whether he has adequate articulable knowledge of particular facts, enough to warrant infringement upon the individual's constitutional right to be left alone. State v. Wilson, 366 So.2d 1328 (La.1978).
In the instant case we determine that the knowledge possessed by Officer Schwabe, even considered with his observation of defendant's behavior and the report of similar behavior at the Los Angeles Airport, did not give the...
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...9.2(h) at 407 (briefly discussing propriety of considering subjective intentions of police officers). See also State v. Shy, 373 So.2d 145, 148 (La.1979) (Dennis, J. dissenting) (when police had admitted in their testimony that they would have stopped defendant by force if he had attempted ......
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...approaches a suspect and asks to speak to him. Contra, e. g., United States v. Mendenhall, supra (opinion of Stewart, J.); State v. Shy, 373 So.2d 145 (La.1979).9 Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).10 See, e. g., State v. Ramos, 378 So.2d 1294, 1298 (Fla. 3d DCA......
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State v. Jarrell, No. 2007 KA 0412 (La. App. 9/19/2007)
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