Covan v. State

374 So. 2d 833, 1979 Miss. LEXIS 2397
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 5, 1979
DocketNo. 51249
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 374 So. 2d 833 (Covan v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Covan v. State, 374 So. 2d 833, 1979 Miss. LEXIS 2397 (Mich. 1979).

Opinion

SMITH, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

Johnny Lee Covan was charged by indictment with the crime of rape. He was tried and convicted of that offense in the Circuit Court of Jackson County and sentenced to life imprisonment. He has appealed, assigning as grounds for reversal the following:

(1) There was no probable cause for his arrest.

(2) The trial court erred in refusing to dismiss the case upon the ground that the State had failed to comply with the court’s rules of discovery; and

(3) The trial court erred in refusing defense counsel’s request for a hearing regarding a photographic lineup at which appellant was identified.

A synopsis of the case follows.

A few minutes after midnight on the morning of August 3, 1976, a 31 year old woman was raped at knifepoint in her apartment in Pascagoula. The victim had retired for the night at 10:30 and was awakened between 11:45 and 12:00 to find, in her words:

A black man standing over me with a stocking over his head and a knife at my throat, and his hand was over my mouth. At first I thought it was just a dream. Then I realized that it wasn’t. I asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted a little loving. Then he pulled me on the floor and proceeded to rape me. He asked me if I had any money and I said I didn’t. He asked me if I had a telephone and I said I didn’t. I had lied, and then I said yes I do. He asked me where the telephone was, and I showed him. He cut the telephone cord. And he kept telling me to be quiet and don’t say anything or he would hurt me with the knife. Then after he cut the telephone cord, he told me to sit against the wall and not to say anything or make any kind of noise; if I did, he would come back and hurt me. Then he left out the front door. I sat there for a while. Then I checked to see if he was gone and I went upstairs to a [835]*835neighbors and knocked on their door and told them what had happened.
(R. 325).

The police were called as was the victim’s physician. The rapist was described as having been a black man, about 5 feet 11 inches tall, wearing a nylon stocking mask and naked from the waist up. The victim stated that his features had been discernible through the mask. It was discovered that entry into the apartment had been effected through a living room window, from which the screen had been removed. When the police arrived the victim was hysterical. The window was found open and the screen out. Prints were taken from the screen, bookshelves located by the window, and other objects, which it was thought the rapist might have touched. These prints were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The floor was vacuumed and the sweepings were sent to the Crime Laboratory.

The victim was examined by a doctor at 12:50 on the same morning, August 3, 1976. He found her to be in mild shock. Vaginal specimens were taken and submitted to a pathologist who found .sperm present of which 70 percent were “motile or moving.” The examination was concluded at about 1:30 in the morning, it having been estimated that intercourse had taken place perhaps two hours earlier.

Shortly after the crime had been committed, the victim moved to Northshore Apartments on Chicot Road. She began receiving mysterious telephone calls. About two months after the rape the victim had determined that the person making the calls was the same person who had committed the rape. Moreover, he identified himself on the telephone as having been the rapist. The victim then enlisted the aid of the police and a tracer was put on the line. Some time passed and, no more calls having been received, the tracer was removed. Thereafter, however, the rapist called two or thee more times. On the morning of January 9, 1977 he called and asked the victim if he could see her again and she encouraged him to do so in order that he might be apprehended. She called the police and arrangements were made to arrest the caller. During that day he called numerous times, and she consented to meet him that night. Police were alerted and when he called at about 8:15 that evening the call was prolonged to some 40 minutes. In this conversation the caller told the victim that he was not going to be able to meet her “as planned.” During the course of this conversation a detective stood beside the victim monitoring the call. The caller finally said “Uh oh, I have got to go; there’s a cop driving up.” He repeated these words and hung up. This information that the call was in progress had been radioed by a detective to all police units and they were directed to begin checking pay phones in the Chicot Road area and to be on the lookout for a black man approximately 5 feet 10 or 11 inches tall and weighing about 150 or 160 pounds.

Officer Gilbert was in the Chicot Road area pursuant to these radio directions, and all units proceeded and were on the lookout for a black man of the above description, who might be using a pay phone. As he proceeded along Chicot Road, Gilbert observed a black male of the approximate description using a pay phone. Gilbert made a U-turn into the parking lot directly in front of the phone booth having been informed by radio that the caller was “hanging up” or about to hang up. This corresponded with the actions of Covan which were being observed by Gilbert. Gilbert picked up appellant Covan and drove him to police headquarters. It was discovered that appellant had been on the police department’s suspect list compiled during the six months investigation of the rape. At headquarters Covan was fingerprinted and photographed. He was placed under arrest and given the Miranda warnings but refused to waive any of the rights explained to him, denying that he had been involved in the rape. He did allow specimens of his pubic hair to be taken.

Among fingerprints taken at the scene after the rape, the prints on the window screen (which had been removed from the [836]*836window) were positively identified as those of appellant Covan. Also, pubic hairs found on the carpet, after microscopic study, were found to be similar to those of Covan and in the opinion of an expert of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were from the same person as those taken from Covan which he had also examined. Fragments of pubic hair of negroid origin taken from the body of the victim could not be identified.

In the course of one of the telephone conversations between the victim and her unidentified caller, she had asked him why he had selected her and he had answered that he lived nearby and had seen her by the apartment pool several times. It developed at the trial that Covan lived in an adjoining apartment complex at the time the rape was committed. The caller also told the victim in the course of the last conversation on January 9 that he would not be able to meet her that night as planned earlier as he was expecting a friend from Gulfport. It was shown that the brother of Covan’s “live-in” girlfriend, who lived in Gulfport, was expected to visit Co-van that night.

Covan’s defense was an alibi in which he was supported by the testimony of his girlfriend. He also presented a number of witnesses who testified to his previous good character.

Covan was indicted and charged with the rape. The case against him was first tried on November 9, 1977. At the conclusion of the trial the jury was unable to agree and was discharged.

The case was tried a second time on January 18, 1978.

PROPOSITION NO. 1:

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Related

Jones v. State
481 So. 2d 798 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
374 So. 2d 833, 1979 Miss. LEXIS 2397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/covan-v-state-miss-1979.