Carlos v. State

705 S.W.2d 359, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12358
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 26, 1986
DocketNo. 09-84-185 CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 705 S.W.2d 359 (Carlos v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carlos v. State, 705 S.W.2d 359, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12358 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

In a juried proceeding, the Appellant was found guilty of murder and was assessed punishment at life imprisonment.

At some hour during the nighttime of July 23, 1983, Lila Weems, a senior citizen and retiree from the telephone company, encountered a death of violence at the hands of an intruder — one or more — in her apartment residence, at the Hatfield Manor Apartments in Port Arthur. The Port Arthur police conducted an investigation. They discovered latent fingerprints at the scene. They discovered broken items indicating violence. The general condition of the apartment showed a struggle. During that investigation, an artist or reconstruction person of the police department sketched out one, and then a second, “composite” of a person who, apparently, had talked with the deceased woman a day, or maybe two days, prior to her death. The second composite sketch or drawing was considered to be more accurate.

Officer Waylon Hughes was performing his normal patrol duties in late July, 1983. He saw the Appellant. Hughes testified that the Appellant looked like the composite from a distance. Then Hughes lost sight of him. Later, the same day, he saw someone he believed to be the same person that he had seen at an earlier hour. Hughes then proceeded with an investigatory stop. He asked the Appellant his name and address, which the Appellant gave.

Officer Hughes explained that it was customary to have shift meetings every day before he went on patrol. During the shift meetings, “beat assignments” or the area that an officer would be patrolling would be made. The officers would go over offense reports or any other incident report that had been made prior to the first shift of the day. It was at one of these shift meetings that the officer became aware that a Lila Weems had been murdered in the Hatfield Manor Apartments. As a consequence, he became aware that the police department was looking for the person who killed Weems. At one of these shift meetings, in July, 1983, he was shown the first “composite”. He had just returned that day from his vacation and this was the first information he received about the Lila Weems’ murder. The next day, he saw a new or second composite stating that “our artist had done in a more updated [361]*361version of the drawing”. Two days later, while working the day shift, in what was called District Two (his assigned patrol district), he saw someone that looked like the composite. Since he was caught up in the traffic and because of a slow, drizzling rain, he first saw the subject near Howard’s Supermarket. By the time he could get his patrol car out of the traffic and through a red light signal, he had lost the subject. Later, the same afternoon, he saw the subject again and he stopped that person, the Appellant. He asked the Appellant for some identification. The Appellant said he did not have any. The Appellant asked the officer why the “stop.” The officer said crimes had been reported in the area and, since he had never seen the Appellant before, he wanted to identify him. Then, right away, the Appellant identified himself, his name being “Steven Carlos”. He pointed out his own house and told the officer that the subject Appellant lived with his grandmother in a residence at 3738 Seventh Street. The two talked for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then the officer identified the person he talked with as being the same person as the Appellant in the courtroom.

The officer testified that he did not arrest the Appellant. The officer did decide that Appellant bore such a close resemblance to the composite that, at the shift change, the officer went into the station and passed this information on to Detective Woods and Detective Donahoe who were handling this particular Lila Weems investigation.

We decide that the close resemblance of Appellant to the second, more accurate, composite amounted to more than a suspicion on the officer’s part. Under this record, we find that, whether this intrusion be classified as a stop or an arrest, it was reasonable for the officer to briefly interfere with the Appellant. There existed a legitimate State interest in crime prevention and detection. We deem there was justification for this particular intrusion upon Carlos since the police officer was able to point out specific and articulable facts which, together with reasonable and rational inferences, warranted the stopping of the Appellant and asking his name and address. We have made this decision against an objective standard. We decide that the facts available to the officer at the relevant moment were such as to warrant and justify a man of reasonable caution and prudence in the belief that the limited action taken was appropriate. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). We determine that this police officer made appropriate approaches under all the circumstances for the legitimate purpose of investigating probable criminal behavior. Officer Hughes’ actions were a reasonable and relevant part of his legitimate investigative function, especially in view of the information he obtained at the daily briefing before going on patrol. Terry v. Ohio, supra; Armstrong v. State, 550 S.W.2d 25 (Tex.Crim.App.1976). We maintain that the officer had more than a reasonable suspicion and, considering the totality of the circumstances surrounding this incident, his conduct in stopping the Appellant and asking him his name and address were reasonable. The officer’s experience and general knowledge reinforced the logic of his acts. The officer certainly had more than a mere hunch. Armstrong v. State, supra.

It is true that, later on, Detectives Donahoe and Woods went to the Appellant’s residence and requested that he accompany them to the police station for the purpose of taking photographs and fingerprints. The testimony amply supports the trial judge’s ruling that the Appellant did so freely and voluntarily, without duress or coercion. The Appellant was not under arrest. He could have refused to go and reentered his residence or place of abode after the officers’ request. Rather, according to one version of the facts (which the trial court believed), he reentered his room, put on a shirt, completed dressing and willingly entered the police car with the two detectives. He rode to the police station where, without objection, he was photographed and fingerprinted.

[362]*362The record shows that a third officer, Herbert Johnson, in the identification bureau at the police station, testified that the Appellant was quite cooperative. Johnson testified that he asked the Appellant: “ ‘You know why you’re here?’ ” Appellant said: “ ‘Yes’, they were investigating a robbery, and I said: ‘Well, it involves a robbery’ ”. Johnson then said: “ ‘You don’t have to give these prints. You know that?’ ” Appellant said: “ ‘Yes, he didn’t have anything to hide, and he didn’t care. There was no problem.’ ”

The Court stated, on a motion to suppress the fingerprints and photographs, that they were given voluntarily. The Court found for their admissibility on the basis of “Inevitable Discovery Doctrine” as set forth in Vanderbilt v. State, 629 S.W.2d 709 (Tex.Crim.App.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 910, 102 S.Ct. 1760, 72 L.Ed.2d 169 (1982).

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Bluebook (online)
705 S.W.2d 359, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlos-v-state-texapp-1986.