Nootenboom v. State

418 P.2d 490, 82 Nev. 329, 1966 Nev. LEXIS 239
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 26, 1966
Docket5097
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 418 P.2d 490 (Nootenboom v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nootenboom v. State, 418 P.2d 490, 82 Nev. 329, 1966 Nev. LEXIS 239 (Neb. 1966).

Opinions

[331]*331OPINION

By the Court, Thompson, J.:

Two informations were filed against Nootenboom in the district court charging him with the commission of four different offenses, each relating to the same transaction or event. The first information alleged first and second degree kidnaping in separate counts; the second, rape and robbery. Counsel stipulated that the two cases be consolidated for trial. The court allowed each side four peremptory challenges. During trial, evidence was received over the objection that it was secured by an unreasonable search and seizure. At the close of the evidence and before jury argument, the state dismissed the first degree kidnaping and robbery charges. Only the second degree kidnaping and rape charges were submitted to the jury. The jury convicted Nootenboom of each crime. He was sentenced to prison for a term of not less than 10 years nor more than 15 years for second degree kidnaping, and to a term of not less than 5 years nor more than 10 years for rape. The sentences are concurrent. This appeal followed.

[332]*332Three errors are claimed. First, that the trial court should have allowed each side eight peremptory challenges since the crime of first degree kidnaping is punished by death or imprisonment for life, and the crimes of second degree kidnaping and rape carry sentences which may be extended to life. Second, that conflicting jury instructions were given about the credit to be accorded the testimony of the complaining witness. Third, that the arrest of Nootenboom without a warrant was unlawful, thereby precluding the reception of evidence taken from his person. We turn to consider these claims.

1. The legislature has provided that each side shall have eight peremptory challenges “If the offense charged is punishable with death or by imprisonment for life”; otherwise, each side shall have four peremptory challenges. NRS 175.085.1 Clearly the trial court should have allowed each side eight peremptory challenges since, among other offenses, the defendant was accused of first degree kidnaping which is punished by death or life imprisonment. However, that charge was dismissed before the consolidated cases were submitted to the jury and cannot, therefore, be the predicate for reversible error. The question remains whether second degree kid-naping (NRS 200.330) and rape without extreme violence and great bodily injury (NRS 200.360 (1)), each carrying a fixed minimum which “may be extended to life,” come within the legislative mandate for eight peremptory challenges. This question was considered in State v. Squier, 56 Nev. 386, 54 P.2d 227 (1936), but not resolved.

We conclude that NRS 175.085 providing for eight peremptory challenges when “the offense charged is punishable by imprisonment for life,” does not apply to [333]*333crimes carrying a fixed minimum prison term which may be extended to life. That part of NRS 175.085 applies only when no shorter sentence than life may be imposed. See People v. Shaw, 237 Cal.App.2d 606, 47 Cal.Rptr. 96 (1965), where the California cases since 1884 are cited. There is authority contrary to the California view. However, since our statute was borrowed from California, along with the judicial interpretation given by the California courts, we are persuaded to follow.

Since the first degree kidnaping charge was dismissed and none of the other offenses call for eight peremptory challenges, there can be no substance to the first claim of error.

2. Two jury instructions concerning the credit to be accorded the testimony of the victim are challenged as conflicting.2 We do not see any conflict. When read together they simply advise the jurors that they may be persuaded solely on the basis of the testimony of the complaining witness, but to exercise caution because of the grave dangers attending. Similar instructions were reviewed and approved in People v. Scott, 24 Cal.App. 440, 141 P. 945 (1914). This claim of error is without merit.

3. The last issue is whether there was probable cause for the arrest of the defendant leading to the search of [334]*334his person, which produced items of evidence important to the conviction. The constitutional prohibition of the Fourth Amendment is enforcible against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961). It commands that no warrants for either searches or arrests shall issue except upon “probable cause * * *.”3 Our statute, NRS 171.235,4 suits the constitutional standard, for it restricts the authority of an officer, to make a felony arrest without a warrant, to offenses committed in his presence or to instances where he has reasonable cause to believe that the person arrested has committed a felony. Thus, the constitutional validity of an arrest for a felony not committed in the officer’s presence depends upon whether, at the moment the arrest is made, he had probable cause to make it. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 85 S.Ct. 223, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964); Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949); Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134 (1959). Probable cause exists if the facts and circumstances known to the officer warrant a prudent man in believing that a felony has been committed by the person arrested. Henry v. United States, supra. A review of the relevant evidence is required.

On the afternoon of April 25, 1965, the victim, while in her parked car, was accosted by a man. With the aid [335]*335of a long knife he forced her to drive into the countryside near Las Vegas. Thereafter, he bound her hands with her stockings, gagged her with her kerchief, blindfolded her with the jacket of her suit and raped her in the rear seat of the car. When finished, the assailant drove her back to Las Vegas, removed about $15 from her purse, and fled.

The assailant was unknown to her. She described him to the investigating officers, Huggins and McHale, as about thirty, with a light tan, crew-cut dish-water blond hair, about six feet tall, slimly built, but with muscular arms and large hands, wearing a light grey sport shirt and dark grey trousers, and smelling strongly of body odor. She added that the assailant had an odd nose.

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Bluebook (online)
418 P.2d 490, 82 Nev. 329, 1966 Nev. LEXIS 239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nootenboom-v-state-nev-1966.