People v. Guy

329 N.W.2d 435, 121 Mich. App. 592
Michigan Court of Appeals·Decided December 6, 1982·No. Docket 54359·Published·Cited by 26 cases

Opinion

W. F. Hood, J.

Defendant was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, MCL 750.227; MSA 28.424. He was convicted of that offense by jury verdict and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three to five years. He appeals as of right.

The charge grew out of events in the City of Battle Creek in the early morning hours of June 17, 1979. According to the testimony of Battle Creek city police officers, those events were as follows. At about 2:30 a.m. Officer Ronald Hattis, while on duty and in uniform, was sitting in his marked patrol car near a street intersection when he observed a white Lincoln Continental enter the intersection. The officer recognized the car as one owned by Robert Guy, and observed that Robert Guy was the driver. There were two passengers, one in the front seat and the other in the rear seat, but the officer did not recognize either passenger. The officer’s interest centered on the vehicle because he knew there was a felony warrant *596 outstanding for one Roy Guy who previously had been seen in this particular car.

The Continental turned at the intersection and proceeded up the street. The officer followed in his patrol car because he wanted to get a closer look at the passenger in the rear seat to see if he was Roy Guy or not. For a few blocks the distance between the two cars widened and when the patrol car again got close to the Continental the rear seat passenger was no longer in view, despite the fact that the Continental had not stopped at any time to discharge a passenger. The Continental turned on to Ann Avenue and after proceeding a short distance at a slow rate of speed pulled to the curb and stopped. The officer drove by the Continental and was still unable to see anyone in the back seat. The officer turned around and returned, stopping his patrol car close beside the Continental. At this time he could see a man lying down in the back seat. The officer then moved off to turn around again, intending to stop the Continental to see if the person in the rear seat was Roy Guy. As the officer was in the process of turning his patrol car around, the Continental pulled out from the curb and into the driveway of a nearby house. Hattis stopped the patrol car in such a manner as to partially block the driveway exit. He then walked to the Continental, at which time he observed that defendant, whom he knew, was the front seat passenger.

The rear seat passenger was asked for identification, and he gave the officer a driver’s license. As he did so, the officer saw his face for the first time and realized he was not Roy Guy. The license given, however, was that of Robert Guy, whom the officer knew to be the driver, not the rear seat passenger. Backup officers arrived on the scene *597 and were unable to identify the passenger. Further radio information was received that a warrant , had been issued for a Willie Scott Guy. Robert Guy indicated the passenger was Michael Guy. Hattis radioed for an Officer O’Connell who knew the Guy family fairly well to come to the scene. O’Connell came and identified the person in the rear seat as Willie Scott Guy, who was arrested. Robert Guy was also arrested.

The officers told defendant he was free to go. Officer Jeffrey Shouldice, one of the backup officers, observed defendant as he walked from the Continental toward the street and then angled directly toward a patrol car into which an officer was in the process of placing Robert Guy. When Shouldice realized defendant’s direction of travel he began to follow defendant, watching him to try to determine what his intentions were. As defendant neared the patrol car, Shouldice observed defendant’s right hand move toward the front of his body, out of Shouldice’s vision from the rear, and at the same time defendant’s left hand began moving in front of his body in such a manner that he appeared to be brushing his coat back away from his waist. Shouldice unholstered his gun, pointed it at defendant, and ordered him to freeze. Officer Hattis approached and was told by Should-ice, "I think he has a gun”. Hattis "took ahold” of defendant, and both he and defendant fell to the ground and a struggle began. Several other officers joined in the fray. The struggle ended after defendant was struck on the head with a pair of karate sticks which had been found in the Continental. A loaded pistol was removed from the left side of defendant’s waist by officers Hattis and O’Connell.

Just prior to trial, defense counsel moved to quash and dismiss the case for failure of the state *598 to provide a fair cross-section of the county population from which to select the jury. At a hearing on the motion, four maps of the greater Battle Creek area were placed in evidence showing the location of the residence, according to jury questionnaires, of 98% of the jurors on the four panels summoned for defendant’s trial that was about to begin and for a previous trial date that had been postponed. The exhibits disclosed only four persons from a northeast Battle Creek community which was an area, the court judicially noticed, with a heavy concentration of black population. The court found that such area was underrepresented on the jury panels when considering the proportion of the total county population living in such area.

Testimony was taken from the jury board clerk concerning the procedure used to select the panels. This testimony disclosed that the procedure mandated by statute was closely followed. The jury board clerk opined that underrepresentation on the panels of people from the area might be due to a lesser proportion registering to vote, and also that the people in the area may have been more mobile, making it difficult to contact them by mail. The jury clerk further testitifed that race or color was not a subject of inquiry on the questionnaires sent out by the board. The trial court found that the statutory procedure was not responsible for systematic underrepresentation of the area in question and denied defendant’s motion to dismiss.

A number of issues have been raised in this appeal pertaining to pretrial rulings as well as to matters occurring at trial. Further facts will be noted in discussing the issues raised.

I. Should the cause be remanded to the trial court for a further hearing to determine whether the composition of the jury array was a result of systematic exclusion of blacks?

*599 Defendant is entitled to a jury which contains a representative cross-section of the community. Taylor v Louisiana, 419 US 522; 95 S Ct 692; 42 L Ed 690 (1975). In order to establish a prima facie violation of the fair cross-section requirement, defendant must prove: "(1) that the group alleged to be excluded is a 'distinctive’ group in the community; (2) that the representation of this group in venires from which juries are selected is not fair and reasonable in relation to the number of such persons in the community; and (3) that this under-representation is due to systematic exclusion of the group in the jury-selection process.” Duren v Missouri, 439 US 357, 364; 99 S Ct 664; 58 L Ed 2d 579 (1979).

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People v. Guy, 329 N.W.2d 435, 121 Mich. App. 592 (Mich. Ct. App. 1982).

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