Humphries v. State

1951 OK CR 120, 235 P.2d 975, 94 Okla. Crim. 319, 1951 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 323
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 12, 1951
DocketA-11374
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1951 OK CR 120 (Humphries v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Humphries v. State, 1951 OK CR 120, 235 P.2d 975, 94 Okla. Crim. 319, 1951 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 323 (Okla. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

BRETT, P. J.

Plaintiff in error Sam D. Humphries, defendant below, was charged by information with the offense of unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor in the county court of Pottawatomie county, Oklahoma. The information alleged the offense was committed on March 25, 1949 on Kickapoo street in Shawnee. The defendant was tried by a jury, convicted, punishment fixed at $500 fine and 60 days in jail and judgment and sentence was entered accordingly. Prom said judgment, this appeal was perfected.

The pertinent facts involved herein briefly were as hereinafter set forth. Deputy Sheriff Glen Roberts of Oklahoma county and Police Officer J. G. Muse of the Oklahoma City police department, had received information that Sam D. Humphries was engaged in the business of transporting liquor by truck, and further that the defendant’s truck would be on the highway in Pottawatomie county with a load of whiskey on the night of the day the offense was alleged to have been committed. Without procuring a search warrant for the search of Humphries’ truck either in Oklahoma county or Pottawatomie county, the said officers left Oklahoma City in a radio equipped car, armed with pistols and a rifle. They located the truck near Tecumseh on Highway No. 18, and though no offense was being committed in their presence, and though they saw no whiskey they began a pursuit of said truck which was driven by a man who was driving the truck for Humphries. The officers admitted they had no personal knowledge of defendant’s truck containing whiskey. They admitted further that they stopped the truck by use of their flashlight and police whistle and by firing two shots in the air and one into the rear left fender of said truck. Thereafter the driver of the truck pulled over to the curb of Kickapoo street in Shawnee. The shot fired into the truck was fired from a 30-30 caliber rifle which the officers testified was a high power rifle the firing of which would endanger the life and limb of persons who happened to be in the vicinity at the time the rifle was fired. Officers Roberts and Muse said the driver, upon being questioned, told them he had a load of whiskey and *321 tlie defendant Sam D. Humphries who was later identified as the owner of the whiskey bad the key to the truck containing the whiskey. The officers had the driver of the truck proceed from that point into the sheriff’s office in Oklahoma county instead of taking the driver to the sheriff’s office in Pottawatomie county. (It is well here to observe that while .the officers were in pursuit of the truck the defendant Humphries who was not riding with the driver of the truck but who was tailing the truck, impeded the pursuit of the officers by pulling his Buick automobile over in front of the officers, checking their speed and slowing them down. At one point of the pursuit the truck got completely out of sight of the officers. They fired a shot into the automobile in ‘which Humphries was riding' and impeding their progress and caused him to stop, in stopping his automobile Humphries pulled it squarely across the highv ay. The officers Roberts and Muse required Humphries to remove his Buick from the highway and then they continued their pursuit overtaking ■ the whiskey truck as hereinbefore set forth.) After arriving in Oklahoma City the officers located Gam D. Humphries and booked him for investigation, searched him and found the keys to the truck which they used to open the truck and found the large quantity of whiskey it contained. To the charge of unlawful possession of whiskey the defendant filed his motion to suppress the evidence, amendment and supplement thereto. The gist of the motion, amendment and supplement thereto was that the evidence was obtained by subjecting the defendant to an unlawful search of his person by means of which the officers procured his keys to the truck with which they obtained the whiskey from the locked truck, all of which was done without the aid of a search warrant as well as the pursuit, arrest of the truck and the driver thereof and the removal thereof from Shawnee to Oklahoma City being done without the aid of a search warrant. The trial court overruled the motion, amendment and supplement thereto to suppress the evidence. The defendant urges that in so doing the trial court committed reversible error. With this contention we are in accord.

Moreover, the Attorney General filed no brief herein and confessed error in the record, stating he could not find support for the state’s position in the law. He concedes this case bears marked similarity to the recent case of Leach v. State, 94 Okla. Cr. 311, 235 P. 2d 96”. In the Leach case the pursuit was based upon suspicion as herein, accompanied by gunshots as herein, the arrest was predicated upon a subterfuge, and the search conducted without a warrant, In that case we said:

"Art. 2, § 30 of the Bill of Rights, Constitution of Oklahoma, provides: `The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches or seizures shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, describing as particularly as may be the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.'
"But the prohibition of Art. 2, § 30 of the Bill of Rights of unreasonable searches and seizures does not preclude search and seizure without a search warrant where incident to lawful arrest. Crim v. State, 78 Okla. Cr. 153, 145 P. 2d 444; Moore v. State, 90 Okla. Cr. 415, 214 P. 2d 966.
"We should keep in mind the difference between the federal `probable cause' rule and the state rule in this kind of a case. The test in the federal cases is whether the officers acted upon a belief reasonably arising out of the circumstances to the searching officers, that the motor vehicle contained whiskey. And a search without a warrant upon such reasonable belief would be valid. Such rule is followed in many decisions of the Federal Courts: Carroll v. United States, 267 U. S. 132, 45 S. Ct. 280, 69 L. Ed. 543, 39 A. L. R. 790, and in Brinegar v. United States, 338 U. S. 160, 69 S. Ct. 1302, 93 L. Ed. 1879. But as stated in State v. Simpson, 91 Okla. Cr. 418, 219 P. 2d 639, 642: `Oklahoma does *322 not follow the federal rule in this regard. The constitution and statutes of Oklahoma as interpreted by the decisions of this court for more than forty years is that where the offense is not a felony an officer cannot arrest without a warrant, unless the offense was committed or attempted in his presence, and, where the officer does not know of the act constituting the offense, it is not committed in his presence.' See cases cited.
"It is the further rule in this jurisdiction that whether search and seizure without a warrant is unreasonable within the constitutional provision forbidding unreasonable searches and seizures, is a judicial question to be determined in each case in view of all the facts and circumstances under which the search and seizure is made. Edwards v. State, 94 Okla. Cr. 11, 228 P. 2d 672; Jones v. State, 82 Okla. Cr. 91, 166 P. 2d 443; State v. Simpson, 91 Okla. Cr. 418, 219 P. 2d 639. All unlawful searches are unreasonable. McClary v. State, 34 Okla. Cr. 403, 246 P. 891; Mason v. State, 60 Okla. Cr. 392, 64 P. 2d 1238; O'Dell v. State, 80 Okla. Cr. 194, 158 P.

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

Related

McCormick v. State
1954 OK CR 145 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1954)
Amos v. State
1953 OK CR 128 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1951 OK CR 120, 235 P.2d 975, 94 Okla. Crim. 319, 1951 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humphries-v-state-oklacrimapp-1951.