James Ray Anderson v. United States

399 F.2d 753, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 5695
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 27, 1968
Docket9874
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 399 F.2d 753 (James Ray Anderson v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Ray Anderson v. United States, 399 F.2d 753, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 5695 (10th Cir. 1968).

Opinion

HICKEY, Circuit Judge.

Appellant was convicted of bank robbery and incidental crimes. 1 This appeal is based upon the admission at trial of evidence of a voluntary oral statement made when the appellant was arrested, evidence obtained in a search of the appellant incident to his arrest, and evidence obtained in a search of the borrowed automobile driven by the appellant. The search of the automobile was conducted three or four hours after the arrest, when the appellant was in custody. Although the investigating officers did not obtain a warrant to search the automobile, they did obtain the written consent of the owner. All of the evidence called into question by this appeal was held to be admissible at a pretrial hearing on the appellant’s motion to suppress.

On January 30, 1967, the appellant was in possession of a borrowed 1960 Ford Falcon loaned him by Alice Martinez. At 2:00 P.M., a time when the appellant was in possession of the automobile, the Cerrillos Road branch of the Bank of Santa Fe was robbed. The lone robber presented a note to a teller directing her to put her $5’s, $10’s, and $20’s in a bag. The teller complied. The robber retrieved the note and departed. A description of the robber was broadcast to the Santa Fe police. Beginning at 3:15 P.M. police had the appellant under surveillance because he fitted the broadcast description.

Some time after 2:00 P.M. the appellant picked up the car owner’s sister, Mrs. Carmen Probst, at her place of employment. The appellant and Mrs. Probst proceeded on foot on a shopping tour, purchasing luxury items. It was during this time that the police began surveillance. After about an hour appellant and his companion retrieved the borrowed car from a parking lot and started to drive down the street. The arresting officers followed in a police car and stopped appellant.

Appellant said he did not have a driver’s license, refused to supply other identification, or tell the officers his name. Appellant was advised he was under arrest for driving without a license. Thereupon he pulled out his wallet from which a piece of paper fell to the ground. The policeman retrieved the paper, a note, which bore the inscription : “This is a hold up give me all your 5’s 10’s and 20’s.” The police immediately searched appellant and seized a considerable amount of money which was contained in his pockets. When the police proceeded to interrogate the woman companion, who remained in the car, appellant said, “[t]he girl had nothing to do with it. She was at work when I pulled it.” The police inquired, “[p]ulled what?” and appellant replied, “[t]he bank job.”

Appellant was taken to the police station, booked, and turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a charge of bank robbery and incidental crimes.

About 8:00 P.M. the F.B.I. obtained the written consent of the car owner and her sister to search the car. This search disclosed numerous items purchased during the shopping tour and a green jacket which fitted the description of the jacket worn by the robber. The jacket pocket contained a note upon which was written: “Lady! This is a holdup Put all your 5’s 10’s & 20’s.”

*755 At a pretrial hearing on the motion to suppress the court ruled the question, “[p]ulled what?” and the answer thereto, were inadmissible. The statements did not reach the jury. Testimony relating the voluntary statement of appellant was admitted. Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, at page 478, 86 S.Ct. 1602, at page 1630, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) clearly stated: “Volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the Fifth Amendment and their, admissibility is not affected by our holding today.” The statement objected to in this ease was wholly independent of police questions, was volunteered on the scene at the time of arrest and therefore is admissible. Stone v. United States, 385 F.2d 713 (10th Cir. 1967).

The trial court admitted the evidence obtained in the search of the appellant when he was arrested. This court has said, “[t]he right of law enforcement authorities to investigate crime by inquiry from suspects must not be totally unbalanced by the right of the accused to refuse incrimination. The proper balance lies in voluntariness and the test lies in the totality of circumstance.” Shultz v. United States, 351 F.2d 287, 289 (10th Cir. 1965).

Considering the totality of the circumstances related above along with the recent pronouncement of the Supreme Court of the United States in Sibron v. State of N. Y. (Peters v. State of New York), 392 U.S. 40, 88 S.Ct. 1889, 20 L.Ed.2d 917 (June 10, 1968) and Terry v. State of Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (June 10, 1968), we find the reasonableness of the search of appellant’s person at the time of arrest meets the tests therein laid down. The facts which the officers point to are the prior surveillance resulting from an accurate description of the apeused which disclosed suspicious conduct culminating in the voluntary exposure of the holdup note that fell from appellant’s wallet. Taken together with rational inferences, the police were warranted in the search of the appellant’s person at the time of arrest.

Appellant contends that the search of the automobile was unreasonable, therefore, it was error to admit the evidence produced by that search. The search was conducted with the automobile owner’s consent, but without a warrant, and clearly was not incident to the arrest.

The question posed by this fact situation is, in the absence of a search warrant, are the personal rights of the automobile owner to grant permission for the search superior or inferior to the personal rights of the appellant to withhold such permission? In the alternative, can the non-owner exclude evidence because his permission was not obtained? Clearly the court cannot recognize the rights of one of the parties without transgressing the rights of the other.

The courts have very specifically categorized the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure as a personal right. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 389, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); Warden, Md. Penitentiary v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 304, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967); Galbraith v. United States, 387 F.2d 617 (10th Cir. 1968); Sumrall v. United States, 382 F.2d 651 (10th Cir. 1967). It is, however, also true that the Fourth Amendment right is a personal right with property right overtones. If this is not so then reasoning must be strained to reconcile the results of many cases where one party gives consent to a search which may be binding on a second party. Compare Stoner v.

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Bluebook (online)
399 F.2d 753, 1968 U.S. App. LEXIS 5695, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-ray-anderson-v-united-states-ca10-1968.