State v. Tippett
| Decision Date | 20 September 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 38568,38568 |
| Citation | 558 S.W.2d 288 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. James Edward TIPPETT, Defendant-Appellant. . Louis District, Division Four |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Karl F. Lang, St. Louis, for defendant-appellant.
John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Paul Robert Otto, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for plaintiff-respondent.
Appellant, James Edward Tippett, was charged, tried, found guilty by a jury and sentenced under the Second Offender Act to five years for the offense of carrying a concealed weapon, §§ 564.610, 556.280, RSMo. He appeals. We affirm.
On April 1, 1976, an officer of the St. Louis Police Department received a telephone call from an informant who had given him information previously. The officer arranged to meet the informant. The informant met two officers and gave information that three men, including appellant, were enroute to a local lounge in an automobile which he described (including the last three digits of the license), that there were handguns in the car and that the men were enroute to obtain a sawed-off shotgun for the purpose of shooting someone. The informant was not identified but had given information in the past which led to several arrests and one conviction. A short time later, at about 1:05 a. m., the two officers proceeded to the lounge and soon an automobile fitting the description pulled up in front of the lounge. The officers observed appellant and another man get out of the car and walk to the window of the lounge. Appellant peered in the window and engaged the other man in brief conversation. Appellant returned to the automobile, opened the door, reached beneath the seat and handed "some type of small dark object" to the other man. Appellant then reached again beneath the seat and removed another object and placed it in his jacket pocket. The officers came up to the men and informed them that they were being investigated. One of the officers then conducted a pat down search of appellant's outer clothing. Appellant was then placed under arrest and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
Appellant filed a pre-trial motion to suppress the revolver which was overruled. The trial was held and the jury found him guilty of carrying a concealed weapon. After allocution and after overruling a motion for new trial, appellant appealed.
Appellant's only contention on appeal is that the trial court erred in overruling the motion to suppress the gun because the seizure was "unlawful" and "violated" his "constitutional rights." He argues that the information obtained from the unnamed informant, together with the observations of the officers, did not give reasonable grounds to search appellant. He reasons that before the information given by the informant "will suffice as a basis for probable cause in which an arrest can be made or a search warrant issued, it is necessary to establish the basis for the officer's belief that the informer's information is reliable" and that in this case the informant was not proven reliable because (a) the officers could not identify some person who had been convicted on the basis of previous information given by the informant and (b) there was no underlying factual basis for the reliability of the information furnished. The State argues that the court did not err because the seizure was made incident to a limited pat down search after the officers concluded that criminal activity was afoot.
We find appellant's point to be without merit. The facts and circumstances, based upon the information furnished and the officers' own observations, were sufficient to give the officers sufficient grounds to approach appellant for purposes of investigating criminal behavior and conduct a limited search to discover weapons under the principles established in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972); and State v. Sanders, 530 S.W.2d 749 (Mo.App.1975). The circumstances here and the arguments made are closely akin to the decision in Adams v. Williams. 1
The appellant contends that, before the information from the informant will suffice as a basis for probable cause in which an arrest can be made or a search warrant issued, it is necessary to establish a basis for the officer's belief that the information is reliable. There is no absolute requirement that the informant be one of...
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State v. Giffin, 62775
...information is reliable and whether the information is corroborated through other sources even though hearsay. State v. Tippett, 558 S.W.2d 288 (Mo.App.1977), cert. denied, Tippett v. Missouri, 435 U.S. 946, 98 S.Ct. 1530, 55 L.Ed.2d 544 (1978). In the instant case, two witnesses came to th......
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Tippett v. Roberts, 78-1483
...to the Missouri Supreme Court was denied, and his writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied. See State v. Tippett, 558 S.W.2d 288 (Mo.App.1977), Cert. denied, 435 U.S. 946, 98 S.Ct. 1530, 55 L.Ed.2d 544 A post-conviction petition pursuant to Mo.Ann.Stat. Rule 27.26 (V......
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Tippett v. State, 41637.
...Second Offender Act to serve a term of five years in the Department of Corrections. That judgment was affirmed on appeal. State v. Tippett, 558 S.W.2d 288 (Mo.App.1977). Subsequently, movant filed this Rule 27.26 motion which was denied after an evidentiary hearing. We Movant's primary cont......