Coble v. State

624 S.W.2d 421, 274 Ark. 134, 1981 Ark. LEXIS 1438
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 26, 1981
DocketCR 81-28
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 624 S.W.2d 421 (Coble v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coble v. State, 624 S.W.2d 421, 274 Ark. 134, 1981 Ark. LEXIS 1438 (Ark. 1981).

Opinions

Richard B. Adkisson, Chief Justice.

Following a trial by jury appellant, Ronald A. Coble, was convicted of capital felony murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

On the afternoon of January 28,1980, at approximately 6:30 p.m., the body of Mrs. Bell Lloyd was found by her husband in their home near Jonesboro, Arkansas. She had been shot in the neck and upper chest with a .12 gauge shotgun. The victim’s white Chevrolet automobile, a .32 caliber pistol, and approximately $100 worth of old coins were missing from the premises. The description and license number of the car were immediately broadcast over the police radio.

The owner of a liquor store in nearby Poinsett County heard this broadcast on his police scanner and realized the license number matched one that he had jotted down about 5:00 p.m. that afternoon. He had become suspicious when a man purchased a six-pack of Budweiser in bottles with old silver coins. He copied down the license number of the white Chevrolet which the man was driving. Upon hearing the broadcast he reported the incident to the police.

The description of a hitchhiker seen in the vicinity of the Lloyd residence at approximately 2:00 p.m. that afternoon was reported to the police. Later that evening officers learned that two men were selling old coins at the Dew Drop Inn at Marked Tree. The description of one of the men selling the coins matched the description of the hitchhiker seen near the Lloyd’s residence at about the time of the crime. Having apparently determined that it was Coble who was selling the coins, Officers Graves, Morphis, Taylor, and Hallmark proceeded to Coble’s residence, arriving there at about 12:30 a.m. Mrs. Gray, appellant’s mother-in-law, answered the door. The officers asked to speak with the appellant. Mrs. Gray invited them in, they declined, but they waited on the porch after being told that Coble was in bed.

After about 15 minutes, Coble came to the porch. He went with the officers to a car parked in front of the residence to talk. It was determined that this car belonged to James Gray, Coble’s brother-in-law, who also lived in the house. Officer Taylor asked Gray about a pistol that had been seen in the floorboard of Gray’s car; Gray stated that the pistol belonged to Coble but that he had not seen Coble with the pistol before that night. The officers confirmed by radio that this pistol fit the description of the one taken from the Lloyd residence. The officers then placed Coble in custody and transported him and James Gray to the Trumann Police Department where Gray was released and advised to come back in the morning to make a statement.

Later Coble was transported to the Craighead County Jail in Jonesboro. A lineup was held around noon on January 29, and Coble was identified by J. L. Windley as the hitchhiker he had dropped off near the Lloyd residence. The owner of the liquor store also viewed the lineup but was unable to identify the appellant.

Shortly after the lineup, while he was being fingerprinted and processed, Coble told Deputy Sheriff Howell that he wanted to speak with someone in authority. Howell called Sheriff Floyd Johnson. At 2:27 p.m. Sheriff Johnson, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Parker, and Deputy Howell fully advised Coble of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) and took his statement. Before the statement was taken, they asked appellant several times if he would like to speak to Attorney David Rees or some other attorney but Coble refused the offer.

Appellant first argues that the trial court erred in failing to suppress the statement given by the appellant. He contends he was arrested without a warrant in his home in violation of the Fourth Amendment and relies on Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980) and Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200 (1979).

In Payton the police, with probable cause but no arrest warrant, used crowbars to break open the door and enter the defendant’s home when there was no response to their knock. The Court held that the Fourth Amendment prohibits police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect’s home in order to make a routine felony arrest. In a companion case, Riddick v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980), the Court held there was probable cause for an arrest but the Fourth Amendment was violated when the police entered defendant’s residence without consent and without an arrest warrant when a three year old child opened the door. In both of these cases evidence seized on the premises was suppressed as being the fruit of an illegal arrest.

In Dunaway the Supreme Court held that the police violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights when they seized him without probable cause and transported him to the police station for interrogation. The defendant’s statement was suppressed as being the exploitation of an illegal arrest. The Court found no intervening event of significance to break the causal connection between the illegality and the confession. See Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590 (1975).

Here, however, Coble voluntarily came out of his residence to talk with police officers and voluntarily spoke with them in the car. There is no nonconsensual police conduct which characterized Payton and Riddick; neither is there an absence of probable cause which characterized Dunaway.

Although it is not clear from the record whether there was a stipulation that probable cause existed at the time of Coble’s arrest, the record does reflect that there was, in fact, probable cause. Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances within the officers’ knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed by the person to be arrested. Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160 (1949); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925); McGuire v. State, 265 Ark. 621, 580 S.W. 2d 198 (1979). When the officers went to Coble’s residence they were able to verify the description they had of the hitchhiker seen in the vicinity of the victim’s home, as well as the description of the person selling coins at the Dew Drop Inn. These facts, coupled with Gray’s statement regarding the pistol and the fact that the pistol found in the car at Coble’s residence matched the description of the pistol taken from the victim’s home, gave the officers probable cause to arrest Coble.

Appellant also argues that his statement should be suppressed because his attorney was not notified that he wished to make a statement. It is not clear from the record whether Coble had counsel other than for purposes of the lineup, but we need not make this determination because Coble not only waived his right to counsel but also initiated the contact with the police that produced the statement.

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Bluebook (online)
624 S.W.2d 421, 274 Ark. 134, 1981 Ark. LEXIS 1438, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coble-v-state-ark-1981.