Harris v. State

486 S.W.2d 88, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1850
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided September 25, 1972·No. 45140·Published·Cited by 47 cases

Opinion

OPINION

DAVIS, Commissioner.

This is an appeal from a conviction for possession of heroin. After the jury had found appellant guilty, punishment was assessed by the court at forty-five years.

Special Agent Roberts testified that he and four other officers of the Dallas Police Department went to the China Doll *89 Lounge, after receiving information from an individual who had provided him with reliable information for a period of two years, that “Cadillac Joe,” whom Roberts knew, would be arriving there shortly in a white Cadillac automobile bearing License No. LTC 92 with “around 100 capsules of heroin and a bunch of red birds.” The officers saw the appellant arrive in the described vehicle, park it, lock it, and enter the lounge. They followed the appellant into the lounge, arrested him, searched him, found nothing, and then took him back outside to the automobile which they then searched and in which they found the contraband which constitutes the basis of this prosecution.

Appellant’s first ground of error is that the court erred in overruling appellant’s motion to suppress and in admitting into evidence the fruits for the search of the 1961 Cadillac. The facts surrounding the arrest and search in the instant case bear great similarity to the facts in Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959); Almendarez v. State, 460 S.W.2d 921 (Tex.Cr.App.); United States v. Drew, 436 F.2d 529 (5th Cir., 1972). In each case, the suspect was identified with sufficient detail to permit location. Each informant had a tested period of reliability. Each suspect appeared or was located at the exact place, in the exact manner, and during the time designated. In the instant case, appellant was identified by name and a specific description of the vehicle and license number was given. See Almendarez v. State, supra; United States v. Acosta, 411 F.2d 627 (5th Cir.). In the instant case, Officer Roberts testified that the informant had cooperated with him in investigative work for about two years, had assisted him in developing cases against thirty or forty people and that informant was credible and worthy of belief. Here, as in Draper, Almendarez, and Drew, the informant did not state that he had seen the contraband on the suspect, but the officers were able to verify numerous details supplied by the informer. Where and when appellant would be found, the details concerning the car he would be driving including the license number thereon were facts supplied by the informer and verified by the officers’ surveillance. Thus there was probable cause to believe that the remaining bit of information supplied by the informer, that appellant would be arriving with “around 100 capsules of heroin and a bunch of red birds,” would likewise be true. The information supplied was sufficient in detail to enable adequate corroboration of its trustworthiness. United States v. Drew, supra. It is apparent that the informer had not been fabricating his report out of the whole cloth and that all but the critical fact with respect to the possession of narcotics had been verified. Almendarez v. State, supra. We find that under the facts and circumstances in the present case, there was probable cause to believe that appellant had a quantity of narcotics in his possession.

The informant’s report did not specify whether the contraband would be on appellant’s person or in the automobile appellant was driving.

Appellant urges that, since he had been arrested inside the “China Doll,” the Cadillac being locked and capable of being secured, no exigent circumstances existed authorizing the search of the Cadillac on the scene. Appellant argues that the Cadillac should have been taken into custody by stationing police officers around it until a search warrant could be obtained.

Recent cases in which the United States Supreme Court and this Court have held that a search warrant should have been obtained before a vehicle was searched are Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) and Stoddard v. State, 475 S.W.2d 744 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).

In Coolidge v. New Hampshire, supra, the defendant was arrested in his home upon a warrant for murder and taken to jail. Two days after the arrest, defend *90 ant’s cars were searched at the police station where they had been towed by officers. The cars were kept in custody and searched twice again over a year later. The arrest warrant and search warrant for defendant’s home and cars were found defective.

In Stoddard v. State, supra, the defendant was arrested at his office where a quantity of dangerous drugs was found. Defendant was arrested and taken to the police station. Defendant’s automobile parked on a street near the office building where the arrest was made was kept under surveillance by officers until a search warrant was obtained and the trunk of defendant’s car was searched and marihuana was found therein. As in Coolidge, the search warrant was invalid.

In both Coolidge and Stoddard, it was held that even though there was probable cause for the search of the vehicle, there was an absence of exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless search.

In the instant case, if the officers had reached appellant and his vehicle and conducted the search before appellant left his car and entered the lounge, the question before us would have undoubtedly been limited to probable cause for the search. Having failed to arrest appellant and search him and his automobile before appellant departed his vehicle, was it incumbent upon the officers to seek a magistrate and obtain warrants before the officers could proceed further upon the informer’s tip which had ripened into probable cause? Clearly not, since appellant could in the meantime have moved the vehicle out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must have been sought or destroyed the contraband. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543; Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879.

Having searched appellant and found no contraband, would the officers have been justified in taking appellant into custody to await the procuring of a search warrant for the car and the execution of same? Such a course of action would have clearly been an intrusion upon appellant’s constitutional rights. Herein lies an important distinction between the instant case and Coolidge v. New Hampshire, supra, and Stoddard v. State, supra, where the defendants were already in jail before the search was initiated.

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Harris v. State, 486 S.W.2d 88, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1850 (Tex. 1972).

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