Cheatham v. State

1971 OK CR 48, 483 P.2d 1172, 1971 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 574
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 3, 1971
DocketA-15237
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1971 OK CR 48 (Cheatham v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cheatham v. State, 1971 OK CR 48, 483 P.2d 1172, 1971 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 574 (Okla. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

BUSSEY, Presiding Judge.

Howard Lee Cheatham and Harry Ray Sheffield, a/k/a Harry Dean Sheffield, hereinafter referred to as defendant Cheat-ham and defendant Sheffield, were charged, tried and convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County with the crime of Burglary in the Second Degree After Former Conviction of a Felony; their punishment was fixed at fifteen years imprisonment, and from said judgment and sentence, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

Briefly stated, the evidence at the trial revealed that at approximately 5:15 a. m. on April 21, 1968, Officers Hunter and Mercer observed a car without lights at the end of an alley in Oklahoma City. The car pulled into the street and turned the lights on and proceeded east. The officers followed and clocked the car at speeds of fifty miles per hour in a thirty-mile per hour zone, and stopped the car approximately six blocks from the original scene. Defendant Cheatham, the driver, immediately got out of the car and started back to the police car. He was asked for his driver’s license and was unable to produce the same. Officer Mercer approached the defendant’s car and observed defendant Sheffield sitting in the front seat with a tire between his legs and several other tires, tools and a tool chest in the back seat of the automobile. He directed defendant Sheffield to get out of the car and placed both defendants in the police unit. He asked where they had obtained the items and then placed both subjects under arrest. The subjects were transported back to the scene where they had been originally observed and discovered that the glass had been broken out of an Auto Supply building.

Arthur Hacklar, the owner of the business, identified two of the tools found in the defendant’s car as having been taken from his place of business. He also testified that similar tires found in the defendant’s automobile were also missing from his store. He did not have serial numbers on any of the items.

Officer Gregory of the Stolen Goods Division of the Oklahoma City Police Department, advised defendant Cheatham of his Miranda rights and obtained a search waiver to search the automobile. He dis *1174 covered three new tires and motor oil in the trunk of the vehicle.

Defendant Cheatham testified in his own behalf that he had been gambling the night of April 20, 1968. Defendant Sheffield asked to borrow his car and returned at approximately 4:30 a. m. of the following morning. He noticed a tire in the front seat, but did not inquire where it came from. They drove to the location where they were first observed by the officers to collect some money owed defendant Cheat-ham by a porter in an adjacent hotel. They were stopped by the officers shortly after leaving the hotel. He denied driving fifty miles per hour and testified that he could not have exceeded thirty-five miles per hour because of the wet pavement. He further denied breaking into the store or having any knowledge of how the items got into the automobile.

Earnest Slaughter testified that he was present at a poker game on the evening of April 20th. Defendant Sheffield borrowed defendant Cheatham’s car and was gone for some period of time. Both defendants left at approximately 4:00 a. m. Defendant Sheffield testified that he borrowed defendant Cheatham’s automobile at the poker game. He went to the hotel and attempted to collect Cheatham’s money from the porter. He observed the tires and tools laying against a building and put them in the automobile. He did not have any conversation with defendant Cheatham about the merchandise until they were stopped by the police. He also denied that their car was speeding prior to being stopped by the officers.

Officers Gregory and Shook testified in rebuttal, that defendant Cheatham made an oral statement wherein he stated that he had found the merchandise near the hotel. Both defendants stipulated as to the prior felony convictions.

The defendants’ first proposition of error alleges that the court erred in failing to sustain defendant’s Motion to Suppress the state’s evidence. The defendants timely filed their Motion to Suppress the evidence of the state and the court conducted a pre-trial hearing. Officers Hunter and Mercer testified at this hearing concerning events leading up to and following the stopping of the defendant’s automobile. The defendants contend that Officer Hunter conducted a visual search of the defendant’s car under circumstances that would not warrant his inquiry and searching eye. They also contend that the officers could not have made an accurate clock as to the speed of the automobile and that the whole incident was nothing more than a subterfuge to justify searching the car.

We have carefully considered the entire record and have reached the following conclusions. Both officers testified that the defendant’s automobile was traveling at a rate of speed of from fifty to sixty miles per hour in a thirty mile per hour speed zone. Title 22 O.S.1961, § 196 provides, in part, that a police officer may, without a warrant, arrest a person for a public offense, committed or attempted in his presence. In the case of Thompson v. State, Okl.Cr., 453 P.2d 314, we stated in the fourth paragraph of the Syllabus :

“As a rule, two elements must concur to constitute an offense in the presence of an officer, the facts or elements constituting the offense must be revealed in the presence of the officer, and the officer must perceive and have knowledge that such offense is being committed.”

We are of the opinion that obtaining a visual clock of a speeding vehicle meets these tests and the officers were justified in originally stopping the defendant’s automobile.

It is our further findings that the actions of the police officer looking at the items in plain view was not, in fact, a search. In a very similar case, Smith v. State, Okl.Cr., 456 P.2d 626, a police officer observed the defendant backing out of a used car driveway at a high rate of speed. He stopped the car and while issuing a citation for improper backing, observed merchandise in the back of the defendant’s station wagon. In affirming the *1175 decision Judge Brett favorably quoted from the Attorney General’s brief:

“ ‘If the defendant is objecting to the observance of the merchandise in the defendant’s car as the unreasonable search and seizure, instead of the later search of the car assumed to have taken place when the defendant was booked, the issue is not one of search and seizure. The officer saw the goods in the car while making the ordinance arrest. The observance of these articles in plain sight was not a search. Like in the liquor cases during prohibition, the observance of whiskey bottles in a defendant’s car was “the commission of the offense in the officer’s presence”, not a search in itself. Franklin v. State, Okl. Cr., 281 P.2d 204 (1955). By analogy the observance of the fruits of a felony is not a search, but information furnishing probable cause coming freely to the officer without a search. State v. Chro-nister, OkI.Cr., 353 P.2d 493 (I960).’”

This Court does not, and will not, condone actions of police officers manufacturing offenses to justify eventual searches. In the instant case the record does not support the defendants’ contention that the stopping was a subterfuge.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1971 OK CR 48, 483 P.2d 1172, 1971 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 574, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cheatham-v-state-oklacrimapp-1971.