United States v. Combs

• Decision Date: 10 October 1972
• Docket Number: No. 72-1137.,72-1137.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Elisha COMBS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

468 F.2d 1390 (1972)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Elisha COMBS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 72-1137.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

October 10, 1972.

Eugene E. Siler, Jr., U. S. Atty., Lexington, Ky., for plaintiff-appellant.

Dan Jack Combs, Pikeville, Ky., Francis D. Burke, Pikeville, Ky., on briefs, for defendant-appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and EDWARDS and KENT, Circuit Judges.

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge.

The government appeals from the District Judge's grant of a motion to suppress evidence (a sawed-off shotgun) which had been seized after a search of defendant Elisha Combs' Cadillac automobile. The Cadillac had been parked in a lot adjoining the home of Elisha's father, Pearl Combs.

The facts in this case are complicated. They start with a phone call from the Police Chief of Newport, Kentucky, telling the Police Chief of Hazard, Kentucky, that he had an arrest warrant for Raymond Combs (another of the sons of Pearl Combs) for possession of stolen property. He said that Raymond might be in Hazard, driving a 1968 Chevrolet. The Hazard Police Chief thereupon went to Pearl Combs' house with three other officers. The testimony accepted by the District Judge was that as they approached the house, one of the officers who knew Raymond saw him on the porch and saw him turn and go into the house. The police entered the house and went through it thoroughly, observing in the process a large number of firearms. Raymond had escaped.

Thereupon the officers reported to the Newport Police Chief what had happened and he told them that Pearl Combs (and Elisha) had previously been convicted of a felony. The Hazard Chief then went to the United States Commissioner and obtained a search warrant for "the premises," including Pearl Combs' house and "all outbuildings and vehicles thereon, including any and all adjacent properties used by the said Pearl Combs."

The Hazard police then searched Pearl Combs' house and seized a veritable arsenal of weapons, including 48 firearms and over 500 rounds of ammunition. Also searched was a Cadillac automobile which the officers had observed parked about twenty feet from the house. It was a new Cadillac. It had the spare tire in the rear seat and the car was sitting low to the ground in the rear. There is testimony that it was parked where the Combs family generally parked their cars, although it appears that the ground on which it was parked may not actually have belonged to Pearl Combs.

The officers asked Elisha for the key to the trunk and he denied that he had it. Shortly thereafter he slipped away from the officers and disappeared. Under these circumstances, they broke into the trunk and found a large inventory of stolen goods, and 29 shotguns, rifles and automatic weapons. The sawed-off shotgun which this appeal concerns was found later when the contents of the trunk were inventoried at the police station.

We believe that the warrant, under a nontechnical reading, see United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965), authorized what the officers did here. The principal question appears to us to be whether or not the...