Dejnozka v. State

397 So. 2d 240, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2138
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 20, 1981
Docket8 Div. 372
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 397 So. 2d 240 (Dejnozka v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dejnozka v. State, 397 So. 2d 240, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2138 (Ala. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

BOOKOUT, Judge.

First degree burglary; sentence: 150 years’ imprisonment.

This case is the culmination of a massive investigation in Madison County involving burglaries and sexual attacks on women commonly referred to as the “Southwest Molester” case.

Around 10:30 p. m. on September 19, 1979, the prosecutrix saw that all the doors and windows of her house were closed, and she went to bed. In the early morning hours before daylight, she was awakened by a man standing over her. He bound and gagged her and put tape over her eyes. He [241]*241likewise bound her seven-year-old son who was in the bed with her.

The assailant rolled the prosecutrix off the bed and cut her clothes off her. He then cut her inside the vagina, down the length of one leg, and around the breast area. However, he did not rape her. Before leaving he demanded money, but she had none.

During the ensuing investigation, a passer-by informed the police that he had seen a “small blue car” parked in the area close to the scene of the crime around the time in question. Officers made plaster casts of tire prints found in the soft ground in the area and took them to local tire dealers for possible identification. They found the tread pattern to be that of a Bridgestone tire, a brand of tire used as standard equipment on Japanese cars such as Honda, Subaru, Toyota, Mazda and Datsun. The condition of the tire tread indicated it had been driven for 4,000 or 5,000 miles.

With the tire brand known, the officers then went to a foreign car dealer in the area. They found the tire print to match exactly the tires on a new Subaru. The Subaru dealer gave the officers the name of the appellant from a sales contract, and a background investigation was started on him. Officers found that the appellant had been charged earlier with an offense in Alton, Illinois, which had many similarities to the offense being investigated. A further check with the Alabama Department of Public Safety revealed that the appellant had an Alabama driver’s license which had expired.

Based upon the above information, Huntsville Police Detective Charlie Norment sent officers to arrest the appellant and bring him in for questioning. The appellant was arrested while driving his automobile and was brought to the police station on September 21, 1979, around 6:30 p. m. No warrant for his arrest was procured prior to his questioning although one of the officers swore out a warrant after he was questioned.

The appellant argues two grounds for reversal on appeal: (1) that his warrantless arrest was illegal for lack of probable cause, thereby making his later confession inadmissible, and (2) that the confession was improperly induced as the result of promises made to obtain psychiatric help for him and to drop all but one charge if he made a statement.

I

Section 15-10-3, Code of Ala.1975, provides that an officer may make a warrant-less arrest when “a felony has been committed and he has reasonable cause to believe the person arrested committed it.” Pursuant to that section, our courts have held that a warrantless arrest of a defendant is lawful where the officer had reasonable cause to believe the person arrested committed a felony. Seals v. State, 282 Ala. 586, 213 So.2d 645 (1968); Aaron v. State, 54 Ala.App. 71, 304 So.2d 625 (1974).

In Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed.2d 1879 (1949), it is stated:

“The rule of probable cause is a practical, nontechnical conception affording the best compromise that has been found for accommodating .. . often opposing interests. Requiring more would unduly hamper law enforcement. To allow less would be to leave law-abiding citizens at the mercy of the officers’ whim or caprice.”

In Maples v. State, 44 Ala.App. 491, 214 So.2d 700 (1968), our former court of appeals adopted á statement from Schook v. United States, 337 F.2d 563 (8th Cir. 1964):

“ ‘Reasonable grounds for suspicion when accompanied by facts or circumstances strong enough to justify a reasonably cautious man to believe the guilt of the suspect, suffice to constitute probable cause necessary for arrest without warrant.’ ”

See also Miller v. State, 53 Ala.App. 213, 298 So.2d 633, cert. denied, 292 Ala. 741, 298 So.2d 639 (1974).

In the instant case, the facts unearthed by the investigating officers clearly establish reasonable or probable cause to [242]*242believe the appellant committed the instant offense. Therefore, on determining that probable cause to arrest existed, the next question is whether the arrest was legal where the officers failed to formally procure an arrest warrant before making the arrest.

In Rickman v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 361 So.2d 22, reversed, Ala., 361 So.2d 28 (1978), officers had probable cause to obtain a search warrant at 11:00 a. m. on the particular day in question. However, they failed to obtain a warrant and instead set up surveillance at a particular point around 1:00 p. m. and waited for the appellant to arrive by automobile. The appellant appeared at 4:15 p. m. and was stopped, seized and searched at that time without a warrant. Our supreme court held that the officers, on first having probable cause, were not required to obtain a warrant before making the seizure. The court there cited United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653 (1950), which held:

“The judgment of the officers as to when to close the trap on a criminal committing a crime in their presence or who they have reasonable cause to believe is committing a felony is not determined solely upon whether there was time to procure a search warrant. Some flexibility will be accorded law officers engaged in daily battle with criminals for whose restraint criminal laws are essential.”

In another case dealing with the fourth amendment, more particularly automobile searches, the Supreme Court in Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583, 94 S.Ct. 2464, 41 L.Ed.2d 325 (1974), said:

“Assuming that probable cause previously existed, we know of no case or principle that suggests that the right to search on probable cause and the reasonableness of seizing a car under exigent circumstances are foreclosed if a warrant was not obtained at the first practicable moment. .. . The exigency may arise at any time, and the fact that the police might have obtained a warrant earlier does not negate the possibility of a current situation’s necessitating prompt police action.”

In the instant case, for all the investigating officers knew, the appellant may have been committing or preparing to commit another sexual assault at the time his arrest was ordered. Considering the circumstances surrounding this case, we do not find that it was mandatory for the police officers to first seek out a magistrate and attempt to obtain an arrest warrant before dispatching officers to pick up the suspect and bring him to the police station.

Both Brown v. Illinois, 442 U.S. 590, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975), and Dunaway v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Stone v. State
501 So. 2d 562 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1986)
Agee v. State
465 So. 2d 1196 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1984)
Cole v. State
443 So. 2d 1386 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1983)
Garrett v. State
440 So. 2d 1151 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1983)
Reynolds v. State
396 So. 2d 1076 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
397 So. 2d 240, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dejnozka-v-state-alacrimapp-1981.