Houston v. State

593 S.W.2d 267, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 392
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 7, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by128 cases

This text of 593 S.W.2d 267 (Houston v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Houston v. State, 593 S.W.2d 267, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 392 (Tenn. 1980).

Opinions

OPINION

COOPER, Justice.

This case is before us on appeal by Richard Houston from a judgment entered in the Criminal Court of Knox County, Tennessee. See T.C.A. § 39-2406. Specifically, the judgment approved the jury’s verdicts (1) finding appellant guilty of robbery by use of a deadly weapon and fixing his punishment at life imprisonment in the state penitentiary, and (2) finding appellant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixing his punishment at death by electrocution. The victim of both crimes was Far-ris Stanley Balsinger, operator of Stan’s Gulf Station in Knoxville, Tennessee. For reasons hereinafter stated, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

Stanley Balsinger’s body was found at about 7:15 p. m. on April 21, 1978, in the restroom of the service station he operated. The customer of the station who found the body, Kenneth Hill, gave the police a detailed description of a man he saw leaving the vicinity of the men’s restroom moments before the body was discovered, and of the automobile in which the man left the scene. The description was that of a black male, approximately six feet tall, 165 to 170 pounds, with a short afro, wearing a brown leather coat, and driving a white '64 or ’65 Ford Fairlane with square tail lights and chrome missing from the passenger’s side.

Detectives called to the scene to investigate the crime determined that Mr. Bal-singer had been shot three times, once in the mouth, once in the heart, and once in the upper abdomen. The latter two wounds were powder marked and slugs were found on the tile floor under Mr. Balsinger’s body near the exit wounds, indicating that Mr. Balsinger was lying on his back on the floor of the restroom when two shots were fired into him at close range. Mr. Balsinger’s wallet and receipts of the business were missing.

Approximately three hours later, two detectives of the Knoxville Police Department saw an automobile fitting the description of the get-away automobile as given by Mr. Hill. After a brief chase, but at speeds of up to seventy miles an hour, the automobile was stopped. There were two occupants— appellant, who fit the description of the suspect seen leaving the service station area except for the fact he was not wearing a leather jacket, and a female companion. On learning appellant’s identity and knowing that he had been a suspect in an earlier robbery, the detectives called for the officers assigned to the Balsinger investigation. A search of the automobile .at the scene turned up Mr. Balsinger’s wallet and credit card receipts from the service station. A gun, later shown by laboratory tests to have been the gun used to kill Mr. Balsinger was also found.

While the search of the automobile was being made, appellant was seen trying to surreptitiously pass a “roll” of money to his companion. The officers took possession of the money, discovered that several bills were stained with blood, and formally placed appellant under arrest.

A subsequent search of a motel room rented to appellant and his companion turned up a leather jacket, such as the one worn by the person seen leaving the scene of the robbery and murder. The officers also found trousers and other clothing belonging to appellant that had been laundered, and were still wet. Appellant’s companion stated that appellant had laundered his clothing to remove blood stains.

Thereafter, appellant gave a statement to the investigating officers in which he stated the robbery was a spur-of-the moment action, that Mr. Balsinger grabbed the gun, that he (appellant) sought to break away and escape, and that the gun went off accidentally in the struggle. Appellant ad[270]*270mitted taking a billfold from Mr. Balsinger’s pocket after the shooting.

Appellant insists the trial court committed prejudicial error in failing to suppress evidence found by the officers in the search of the automobile and that taken from appellant at the time of his arrest. Specifically, appellant insists his automobile was stopped without probable cause, and that the subsequent search, being without benefit of a search warrant was illegal. We see no merit in either insistence under the evidence in this case.

In Wilson v. Porter, 361 F.2d 412, 415 (9th Cir. 1966), the Court held that a founded suspicion is all that is necessary to justify the brief detention of a person in the course of a police investigation — “some basis from which the court can determine that the detention was not arbitrary or harassing.”

We take it as settled that there is nothing ipso facto unconstitutional in the brief detention of citizens under circumstances not justifying an arrest for purposes of limited inquiry in the course of routine police investigations. ... A line between reasonable detention for routine investigation and detention which could be characterized as capricious and arbitrary cannot neatly be drawn. But due regard for the practical necessities of effective law enforcement requires that the validity of brief, informal detention be recognized whenever it appears from the totality of the circumstances that the detaining officers could have had reasonable grounds for their actions. A founded suspicion is all that is necessary, some basis from which the court can determine that the detention was not arbitrary or harassing. Wilson v. Porter, supra at 415.

In this case, a crime had been committed. The officers who stopped appellant’s automobile had been given a specific description of the person suspected of robbing and killing Balsinger, and also had been given a detailed description of the automobile in which the suspect left the crime scene. Appellant’s automobile fit that description. He also attempted to elude the officers by driving at an excessive rate of speed. We think the information possessed by the officers, coupled with the manner of driving of appellant, was sufficient to justify the officers stopping appellant’s automobile as part of the ongoing police investigation of the robbery and death of Stanley Balsinger.

Appellant was not arrested until after the automobile was stopped and incriminating evidence found in the automobile and on appellant’s person. This evidence, coupled with the fact that appellant fit the detailed description of the person seen leaving the service station after the killing, constituted probable cause and justified the arrest of appellant. See State v. Goad, 549 S.W.2d 377 (Tenn.1977); State v. McLennan, 503 S.W.2d 909 (Tenn.1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1112, 94 S.Ct. 843, 38 L.Ed.2d 739 (1973); Wilson v. Porter, supra.

Appellant insists that even if the stop of his automobile were legal, the subsequent search of the automobile, being without benefit of a warrant, was invalid.

A search of an automobile conducted without the authority of a warrant issued by a magistrate upon probable cause is, presumptively, an unreasonable one. State v. Hughes, 544 S.W.2d 99 (Tenn.1976). But there are well recognized exceptions to this rule. An officer of the law may search an automobile without a warrant if the owner of the automobile voluntarily gives consent.

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Bluebook (online)
593 S.W.2d 267, 1980 Tenn. LEXIS 392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-v-state-tenn-1980.