Washington v. State
| Decision Date | 08 October 1968 |
| Docket Number | 3 Div. 343 |
| Citation | 214 So.2d 867,44 Ala.App. 516 |
| Parties | Glen Ray WASHINGTON v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Appeals |
Joe B. Thompson, Jr., Brewton, for appellant.
MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., and Lloyd G. Hart, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
This appellant stands convicted of burglary in the second degree.
The evidence presented by the State tends to show that on the night of June 16, 1967, a service station operated by Alton Ray Jones in Flomaton, Alabama, was broken into and entered.
Mr. Jones testified that shortly before this someone had gained entrance to the station by breaking a small hole in the wash rack window, reaching in and unlatching the wash rack door. The window had not been replaced and Mr. Jones had nailed a board over the hole in it. Before closing the evening before the present breaking he had nailed a bar on the inside of the wash rack door and locked the front door. When called to the station around 3:30 or 4:00 A.M. he found the hole in the window had been enlarged and the bar on the inside of the door 'had been knocked off and then stuck back on because the nails wasn't completely embedded in the wood, * * *.' The front door was open. The Cigarette machine had been broken into and the box that catches the money was gone. The cash register was open. A small amount of money had been left in it the night before and about a door (sic) in quarters and dimes had been taken, leaving nothing but pennies. He checked the gas pumps to see if any gasoline was missing and found the box from the cigarette machine, with the money still in it, on the island up next to the gas pump.
Officer Mullins of the Flomaton police department, testified that around 3:30 a.m., June 16, 1967, he saw defendant standing in the door of the Jones Service Station. The door was open and defendant reached back and pulled it shut. As the officer drove into the station defendant stepped out to about halfway between the door and the gas pumps and stopped. The officer momentarily lost sight of defendant as he was parking the car, but when he had stopped his car defendant had stepped up on the gas island and was leaning on a gas pump.
The policeman approached defendant and asked what he was doing there. Defendant replied that he worked there and was fixing a flat tire, 'If you don't believe me go around in the back and see.' The witness walked to the door where the had been defendant standing and tested to see if it was locked. The door was unlocked and he left it unlocked. He did not check the premises for signs of a forcible entry and did not go inside the station. Defendant was arrested and placed in the back seat of the patrol car. 'The car has got a cage that runs between the front seat and back seat.' There is no way for a person to get out once he is placed in the back. As he was leaving the premises witness received a call to investigate reports of a prowler at the depot. He asked the radio operator to notify Mr. Jones that his front door was open and proceeded to the depot where he stayed for a short time and then drove defendant to the police station. He opened the car door, defendant got out and walked to the cell door, stopped and asked what he was being arrested for. Witness replied that he had already told him 'for breaking in that station,' and to wait till Mr. Jones got there. Defendant refused to go in the cell and about that time the radio operator said Mr. Jones wanted 'us' to go to the service station, so witness told defendant to get up and let's go to the station. Defendant walked to the front door of the car, but found it locked. He said Defendant returned voluntarily to the police station about nine o'clock.
This witness testified on cross examination that when he searched defendant before putting him in the police car he found a pocket knife and a pocket book, but he didn't know whether there was any money in the pocket book; that he didn't know then whether anything had been taken out of the station.
The defendant testified he had worked...
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