Kindred v. State

312 N.E.2d 100, 160 Ind. App. 418, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1061
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 18, 1974
Docket1-773A134
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 312 N.E.2d 100 (Kindred v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kindred v. State, 312 N.E.2d 100, 160 Ind. App. 418, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1061 (Ind. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

Lowdermilk, J.

— Defendant-appellant was convicted by a jury on March 3, 1973, for the commission of a felony, robbery, while armed with a dangerous or deadly weapon, and was later sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Motion to correct errors was timely filed and was overruled. Three issues are presented by appellant in his appeal and will be treated herein.

Defendant-appellant entered Geraldine’s Truck Stop south of Martinsville, Indiana, on September 25, 1971, at about 11:00 P.M. and announced “This is an armed robbery.” Robert Gerrard, an employee, gave the hold up man forty to forty-five dollars, after which the felon left, driving a 1963 or 1964 Ford, emitting a loud noise caused by a faulty muffler, and headed toward Martinsville.

Sheriff Paul Mason, in response to Gerrard’s call, came promptly to the truck stop where Gerrard and his wife described the hold up man as being about five feet eight or nine inches tall and weighing 145 to 160 pounds, being of square build and having dark hair and eyes and wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt tied under his nose, blue jeans and carrying a dark colored 22 caliber automatic pistol. They also informed Mason they recognized the man as having eaten in the truck stop several times, but they did not know *421 his name. Mr. Gerrard also informed the sheriff as to the identity of the get-away car by describing the round tail lamps as those of a 1963 or 1964 Ford automobile and the excessive noise from a defective muffler or exhaust pipe.

At about 3:00 o’clock A.M. on the morning of September 26, 1971, Sheriff Mason heard a Martinsville police dispatch on the radio that defendant-appellant was armed and creating a disturbance at the home of Jody Mathers in Martinsville. Sheriff Mason and numerous deputies and other police went to the Mathers home and saw a tan 1963 Ford Thunderbird sitting in an alley next to the house with its motor running and the exhaust making an unusually loud noise. They later determined this car was registered to defendant-appellant.

Mrs. Mathers and one Nina Hamblin were outside the home and informed the sheriff that Mrs. Mathers and appellant had had an argument and that the appellant had a gun and had hit Mrs. Mathers and Mrs. Hamblin’s four year old daughter. At that time the sheriff was told appellant had left on foot and they looked for him in the neighborhood for an hour or so. After giving up the search at that time the sheriff later received a dispatch that Kindred had returned to the Mathers home and was trying to get in. The sheriff and his deputies returned, knocked on the door of the Mathers home and one Janet Bolyard, a neighbor and friend of Mrs. Mathers, answered and said appellant Kindred was not there but she gave police permission to enter the house and look around. A deputy sheriff found appellant Kindred hiding in a clothes closet with a 22 caliber automatic pistol on the floor and a gray hooded sweat shirt was found under the bed. Appellant Kindred was then taken to jail and his car towed to a service station in Martinsville.

The following day Sheriff Mason had appellant Kindred’s car photographed at the service station and also had it raised on the hoist and a photograph taken of the exhaust system, which showed a large hole in the exhaust pipe just *422 before it entered the muffler and from which the excessive sounds came when the motor was running.

The first issue is — was the warrantless arrest of Kindred without probable cause and therefore illegal?

Appellant Kindred contends that Sheriff Mason had no more than a hunch or suspicion that Kindred had committed the armed robbery at Geraldine’s Truck Stop, which was insufficient to constitute probable cause and therefore his arrest was illegal. He further contends that this being an illegal arrest the evidence seized incident to the arrest— the sweat shirt, pistol and photographs of his impounded car — were illegally obtained and should not have been admitted into evidence at trial.

Sheriff Mason did testify that he was looking for appellant Kindred on a hunch. However, he further testified that his hunch was based on the identification given him by the hold up victims shortly after the robbery; further, that police had received a report that Kindred was armed and causing a disturbance in Martinsville where the robber had headed after the hold up and further, on arrival at the scene of the disturbance at Mrs. Mathers’ home, he and other deputies discovered appellant Kindred’s car, a 1963 Ford Thunderbird, the motor running, with the exhaust pipe emitting unusually loud noises, all of which matched the description of the car and the emission of noises from the exhaust that the robber had fled the scene of the hold up in.

The court, in the case of Smith v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 603, 271 N.E.2d 133, 136, in speaking of the right to arrest without a warrant and discussing probable cause, said:

“The test for probable cause to make an arrest is whether at the time of the arrest the facts and circumstances within the knowledge of the officers and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man of reasonable caution in believing that the arrestee had committed or was committing an offense. . . .”

*423 In the case of McGowan v. State (1973), 156 Ind. App. 344, 296 N.E.2d 667, Division 2 of this court, in discussing probable cause, cited the test in Smith, supra, and further held that when the officer did not have a warrant he must have probable cause to effectuate an

arrest.

Following the test in Smith, supra, we are of the opinion that Sheriff Mason had sufficient evidence on which to base probable cause and that the arrest of appellant Kindred was made under facts and circumstances within the sheriff’s knowledge of which they had reasonably trustworthy information and were sufficient to a prudent man of reasonable caution in believing that the arrestee had committed the hold up of the truck stop. It is our further opinion that the arrest and impoundment of the appellant’s motor vehicle was legal.

Appellant’s second issue is — did the trial court err in admitting the sweat shirt and photographs of Kindred’s car obtained after it was towed to the service station into evidence ?

Appellant Kindred relies on the case of Johnson v. State (1973), 157 Ind. App. 105, 299 N.E.2d 194, from which he quotes:

“The scope of a search incident to a valid arrest without a search warrant is circumscribed by the area within the arrestee’s immediate control — the area in which the ar-restee might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.”

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Related

Kindred v. State
674 N.E.2d 570 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)
Borkholder v. State
544 N.E.2d 571 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1989)
Kindred v. State
524 N.E.2d 279 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1988)
Lee v. State
419 N.E.2d 825 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1981)
McHenry v. State
401 N.E.2d 745 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1980)
Williams v. State
387 N.E.2d 1317 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1979)
Moss v. State
344 N.E.2d 859 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1976)
Reidhaar v. State
332 N.E.2d 117 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1975)
Layne v. State
329 N.E.2d 612 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
312 N.E.2d 100, 160 Ind. App. 418, 1974 Ind. App. LEXIS 1061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kindred-v-state-indctapp-1974.