Ellis v. State

705 S.W.2d 261, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12432
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 15, 1986
DocketNo. 04-84-00063-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 705 S.W.2d 261 (Ellis 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
Ellis v. State, 705 S.W.2d 261, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12432 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinions

OPINION

BUTTS, Justice.

In its first decision this court determined it was unnecessary to address the denial of appellant’s motion to suppress evidence where he had entered a plea of guilty to the offense and the evidence sought to be suppressed had not been introduced in evidence against him. This is an appeal from a conviction for attempted burglary of a habitation. Relevant facts are published in Ellis v. State, 686 S.W.2d 329 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1985). Because we delivered our opinion in this cause before Morgan v. State, 688 S.W.2d 504 (Tex.Crim.App.1985) was decided, the Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the cause for our determination of the ruling on the written motion to suppress evidence.

The Morgan court stated that just as the plea itself no longer waives the right to complain of pretrial rulings on appeal, so the [judicial] confession or admission [on a [262]*262plea of guilty] will not bar an appellate court from reaching the merits of the complaint. See TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 44.02 (Vernon 1979). The court then expressly overruled Ferguson v. State, 571 S.W.2d 908, 910 (Tex.Crim.App.1978), which held that if the guilty plea is supported by evidence independently of the matter contested in the pretrial motion, then any erroneous ruling on that motion does not vitiate the conviction.

In the present case the only evidence of which appellant complains on appeal is one item mentioned, along with others, in his motion to suppress, a screwdriver. Since that item did not come into evidence at the plea hearing and was never actually admitted into evidence in the suppression hearing, we held nothing was presented for review, relying on Prochaska v. State, 587 S.W.2d 726, 728 (Tex.Crim.App.1979) and Stiggers v. State, 506 S.W.2d 609, 611 (Tex. Crim.App.1974), and declining to rule on the propriety of the denial of the motion.

We now review the sole ground of error: It was error to overrule the motion to suppress the screwdriver recovered by police officers in the locked trunk of appellant’s vehicle. We find the search of the trunk and seizure of the screwdriver was proper.

The arresting officer also conducted the inventory search of the impounded automobile driven by appellant. He testified that the procedure for that kind of police station search was made antecedent to a wrecker service removing the automobiles impounded by that police department. He testified this was done to secure any valuables found in the automobiles for the owners. See South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976); Benavides v. State, 600 S.W.2d 809 (Tex.Crim.App.1980); Evers v. State, 576 S.W.2d 46 (Tex.Crim.App.1978). An inventory search conducted in accordance with standard police procedures serves three purposes: to protect personal property in the vehicle; to protect the police against claims of lost or stolen property while in their custody; to protect police from unforeseen dangers contained in the automobile.

The searching officer was the same one who initially arrested appellant and his companion as they sped away from the scene of an attempted burglary. He candidly admitted he wanted to find fruits of the crime when he conducted the inventory search at the police station. When he found glass particles (windows had been broken at the residence) and dirt on the floor and retrieved a tire tool from under the driver's seat, he took the keys from the ignition and opened the trunk. From there he removed a screwdriver, which is the only subject of this ground of error on appeal. (The other items referred to in the written motion filed prior to trial are not mentioned herein.)

In Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970) the court, in the context of the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment, held that if police officers have probable cause to justify a warrantless seizure of an automobile on a public roadway, they may conduct an immediate search of the contents of that vehicle. Given probable cause to search, either course (obtaining a warrant to search or carrying out a warrantless search immediately) is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Further, that court held that if an immediate search on the street is permissible without a warrant, a search soon thereafter at the police station is permissible if the vehicle is impounded. See Texas v. White, 423 U.S. 67, 96 S.Ct. 304, 46 L.Ed.2d 209 (1975); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925); Sanchez v. State, 582 S.W.2d 813 (Tex.Crim.App.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1043, 100 S.Ct. 728, 62 L.Ed.2d 728 (1980).

A lawful search of fixed premises generally extends to the entire area in which the object of the search may be found and is not limited by the possibility that separate acts of entry or opening may be required to complete the search. A warrant to search a vehicle would support a search of every part of the vehicle that might contain the [263]*263object of the search. When a legitimate search is under way, and when its purpose and its limits have been precisely defined, nice distinctions between closets, drawers, and containers, in the case of a home, or between glove compartments, upholstered seats, trunks, wrapped packages, in the case of a vehicle, must give way to the interest in the prompt and efficient completion of the task at hand. United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 821-22, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 2171, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982). The scope of a warrantless search based on probable cause is no narrower — and no broader— than the scope of a search authorized by a warrant supported by probable cause. Id. at 823, 102 S.Ct. at 2172. The scope of a warrantless search is defined by the object of the search and the places in which it may be found. Id. at 824, 102 S.Ct. at 2173.

The circumstances of the officer seeing appellant leaving the premises of the habitation, driving erratically, fleeing the scene, coupled with the officer’s hearing the burglar alarm at the habitation, all supported the search of the automobile. Within minutes he was told there were “pry marks” and broken windows. He arrested appellant and his companion. The car was removed from the busy street. In looking for instrumentalities of the offense, attempted burglary, the officer saw the glass particles and dirt in plain view on the floor. He looked under the occupants’ seats, and in doing so, he found the tire tool, a common burglary tool.

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705 S.W.2d 261, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12432, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellis-v-state-texapp-1986.