Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 15 December 1976
• Docket Number: No. 4635,4635
• Citation: 557 P.2d 135
• Parties: Robert Lee WILLIAMS, Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 135

557 P.2d 135

Robert Lee WILLIAMS, Appellant (Defendant below), v. STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff below).

No. 4635.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Dec. 15, 1976.

Donald P. Prehoda, Jr., Corthell, King, McFadden, Nicholas & Prehoda, Laramie, for appellant.

V. Frank Mendicino, Atty. Gen., Craig E. Kirkwood, Deputy County and Pros. Atty., Albany County, Laramie, for appellee; Frank R. Chapman, Law Clerk, Cheyenne, on the brief.

Before McCLINTOCK, PAPER, THOMAS and ROSE, JJ., and ARMSTRONG, District Judge, Retired.

ARMSTRONG, District Judge, Retired.

Defendant was convicted by a jury on October 29, 1975, of two counts of burglary and one count of receiving stolen goods all on July 24, 1975, in Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. Defendant was sentenced on November 19, 1975, to serve four to six years on each count to be served concurrently. He appeals to this Court on four grounds:

1. That his arrest was illegal because the arresting officer in Montana did not have an arrest warrant nor probable cause.

2. The search of his residence was illegal and the consent to search given by defendant's wife was coerced and involuntary.

3. That search of defendant's car in Billings, Montana, was illegal.

4. That defendant has standing to object to the search of his home and his car.

The Court affirms the judgment in all respects.

The facts may be briefly stated as follows: Around one o'clock in the morning of July 24, 1975, a Laramie police officer had reported a two-toned 1959 car bearing Montana license plates numbered 47518 in the area of Montgomery Ward's downtown store. Later, that day when an attempted unlawful entry of that store, and a burglary at Gibson's Discount store (with the loss of 45 hand guns, a quantity of ammunition and two duffle bags) and another break-in at Ward's warehouse (with the loss of two television sets and stereo equipment) were reported and investigated, the Laramie detectives about 1:00 p.m. located a car of the description and bearing the same license as the one reported at 1:00 a.m. Ms. Watts was in possession of the car and said she lived at 1213 South 4th Street in Laramie. She proceeded to that address, followed by the officers, but entered a house numbered 1213 1/2 South 4th. An officer entered the second house with the permission of the occupant, Sharon Williams, the wife of the defendant. While there Ms. Watts said her name was Bernadette Watts Lande. The officers asked her for and received permission to enter 1213 South 4th to look for and question Mr. Lande. He was not there, but in the course of looking for him, the officers observed a new Ward's Airline 19 inch television set and an 8-track tape stereo record player and speakers which were identical to those reported stolen from Ward's warehouse early that day. One officer initialed the items so noticed and departed.

Later that evening the officers returned to 1213 1/2 South 4th Street (the defendant's house) and seized a 19 inch color television and two stereo speakers which were also identical in model to Ward's description. They returned to 1213 South 4th and seized the other Ward's 19 inch color television, a stereo with an 8-track tape player and two speakers which they had observed earlier.

In the interim, Lueras Oldsmobile salesroom reported a break-in and the loss of a 17 inch General Electric television.

The Laramie officers had found empty plastic bags at Gibson's which had contained duffle bags. They also took photographs of boot prints found in the mud at Gibson's, which were also entered in evidence. The pictures compared favorably with Lande's boots and the unusual marking on the heels shown in the photographs. The same heel markings were found at Ward's warehouse. The boots were allowed in evidence.

Legality of Billings Arrest

Appellant relies on Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971) and State v. Richards, 110 Ariz. 290, 518 P.2d 113 (1974) for his proposition that probable cause for a warrantless arrest was lacking in Laramie ergo it was also missing in Billings where appellant and Lande were arrested after receiving information by phone and teletype from Laramie police. Whiteley, Richards and the appellant agree that the Billings officers were entitled to act on the strength of the police bulletins, subject, however, to the risk that Laramie police then had the required facts upon which to base a conclusion that appellant probably committed the crimes charged.

The Court in Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. at 568, 91 S.Ct. at 1037, held that the basic complaint for an arrest warrant signed by a sheriff in another county was fundamentally eroneous because it contained only conclusions. However, the radio bulletin giving descriptions of the suspects and their car, as well as details of the burglary, was relied on by the arresting officer in an adjoining county to effect an arrest and search. The Court said:

'We do not, of course, question that the Laramie police were entitled to act on the strength of the radio bulletin. Certainly police officers called upon to aid other officers in executing arrest warrants are entitled to assume that the officers requesting aid offered the magistrate the information requisite to support an independent judicial assessment of probable cause. * * *'

Earlier the Supreme Court had said in U. S. v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 111, 85 S.Ct. 741, 747, 13 L.Ed.2d 684,

'* * * Observations of fellow officers of the Government engaged in a common investigation are plainly a reliable basis for a warrant applied for by one of their number. * * *'

As said in State v. Richards, supra, and to the same effect in many other authorities:

'* * * Probable cause exists where the arresting officers have reasonably trustworthy information of facts and circumstances which are sufficient in themselves to lead a reasonable man to believe an offense is being or has been committed and that the person to be arrested is committing or did commit it.'

A brief review of the evidence in this case leads the Court to observe that the Laramie police, unlike the San Diego police in Richards, had exercised excellent detection functions to arrive at probable cause for the arrest of appellant.

While talking to the Laramie (Albany County) prosecuting attorney, in the presence of Officer Roylance, on July 24, 1975, Roylance testified that appellant's wife asked a rhetorical question: 'Those television sets are stolen, aren't they?'. She further stated that the television sets had arrived at her house while she was working, between 11:00 p.m. on July 23 and 7 o'clock the next morning; that her husband had given them to her as an anniversary present; that his driver's license had incorrect initials preceding his name; that he was an escapee from the Michigan State Prison at Marquette, Michigan; that he was sentenced there to serve 2 1/2 to 5 years; that there was a warrant out for him; that she had last seen her husband at about 1:00 p.m. on July 24th; that he might be going back to Billings, Montana; she gave the Laramie officials a vehicle registration in her name for a 1959 Oldsmobile; that her husband was driving that car; the registration certificate gave the license number and other descriptions of the car; that she readily gave permission to the seizure of the television set and stereo equipment; that the model numbers of the equipment were identical to those taken from Montgomery Ward's warehouse; Mrs. Williams also advised the police that her husband would probably use his gun to avoid going back to prison, if he had a gun with him.

When Mrs. Willams made the foregoing statements she was not under arrest nor was she taken into custody. The record is devoid of any evidence of coercion, as appellant now claims. The statements were voluntarily made in 15 minutes in a police car parked near her house. Carpenter v. U. S., 463 F.2d 397, 401 (10th Cir. 1972)

Both Mrs. Williams and Ms. Watts disappeared soon after the incident and did not appear as witnesses at the trial. The testimony from which most of the above facts were taken came in large part from direct and cross-examination of Officer Roylance, who was present at all times. His testimony was not controverted. The officer also connected Lande and his footprints to both burglaries and in the company of appellant. He also related that Ms. Watts told him that the television and stereo equipment in her house had been brought there the night before by Lande. The equipment was identical to that taken from Ward's warehouse.

There is no merit in the assertion that Mrs. Williams' statements were unreliable. The statements against her husband's interest would indicate the reverse. The fact finders found nothing untrustworthy in her statements which the officer related.

As a result it is clear that the facts, and reasonable inferences from them, were sufficient to meet the definition of probable cause.

With that background the Billings officers had every fact necessary to effect the arrest of appellant for the Gibson's and Ward's warehouse burglaries.

The above recitation disposes of appellant's first two issues on appeal, namely the arrest without probable cause and the coerced and involuntary consent to search given by appellant's wife.

Appellant's third issue on appeal concerns the legality of the search of his car in Billings.

Acting on the information received from the Laramie Police Department, two Billings, Montana, officers observed a car of the description given them leaving the Interstate at an exit in Billings. They stopped the vehicle, ordered the occupants out of the car, patted them down, gave each of them the Miranda rights, placed them under arrest, recognized Lande as a parolee of Montana having been arrested by them before. Both officers, Hensley and Timarco, testified that appellant consented to a search of 'his' car, and that he had said the trunk lock was broken and would not open. Appellant...