People v. Walker

181 N.W.2d 639, 25 Mich. App. 418, 1970 Mich. App. LEXIS 1591
Michigan Court of Appeals·Decided July 28, 1970·No. Docket No. 7,467·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

Holbrook, P. J.

Defendant was convicted by a jury in Kent County Circuit Court of having possession or having under his control, narcotics without a license, contrary to MCLA § 335.153 (Stat Ann 1957 Rev § 18.1123). On June 28,1968, the defendant and two others were arrested without a warrant for the offense of which he was convicted. The defendant was a passenger seated in the back seat of an automobile operated by one Evelle White. One other passenger, Charles Parrish, was seated beside the driver in the front seat. The arresting officer had received the information that defendant and the other two persons were transporting narcotics from Detroit to Grand Rapids. The arresting officer was in the police car following defendant’s automobile on highway 1-96 and had to maintain speeds up to 85 miles per hour in order to keep within range of [420]*420defendant’s car. Defendant’s car exited at the College Avenue exit in Grand Rapids, and the police car blocked and stopped defendant’s vehicle. The arresting officer, revolver drawn, leaped from the police car and ordered the passengers in the automobile to put up their hands where he could see them. The defendant and the other two persons got out of the car. Prior to this time, however, the defendant dropped his hands down towards the floor, and the arresting officer ordered him to put his hands back up. The arresting officer testified that he first saw the four packets containing heroin on the floor of the back seat of the car by looking through the rear window an instant before he opened the door and told the passengers to get out of the car. The search of defendant at the time of the arrest produced four pills of methadone and a fix kit. The search of the car produced quantities of heroin contained in the four packéts which were on the floor of the back seat where defendant had been seated.

Defendant made a motion to suppress the evidence seized by the search at the time of the arrest at the preliminary examination, and renewed the motion before trial in the circuit court.

In addition to the motion to suppress, a motion to quash the information for lack of probable cause to make the arrest was made at the preliminary examination and renewed at trial. From a denial of these motions and the subsequent conviction, this appeal has been taken. Defendant raises three issues for review as follows:

(1) Whether the arrest and subsequent search of the defendant and the automobile in which the defendant was a passenger was a violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights, in that the people failed to show probable cause for the arrest and subsequent search, all contrary to the Fourth and Four[421]*421teenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 11, of the Michigan Constitution of 1963?

(2) Whether people’s exhibits 1, 2, and 3 were seized by the police pursuant to an illegal search and contrary to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 11, of the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and, therefore, should have been suppressed?

(3) Whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to dismiss at the conclusion of the proofs on the grounds that the people had failed to prove that the defendant was in possession of a narcotic drug within the meaning of the statute?

We join the first two issues and consider them together.

Defendant asserted at the preliminary examination, at the hearing on the motion to suppress in circuit court and in this Court that the provisions in Const 1963, art I, § 11 permitting the admission in any criminal proceeding of certain objects, including any narcotic drug “seized by a peace officer outside the curtilage of any dwelling house in this state”, is unconstitutional as conflicting with the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Mapp v. Ohio (1961), 367 US 643 (81 S Ct 1684, 6 L Ed 2d 1081, 84 ALR2d 933). We need not rule on this issue because of our ruling on the arrest and search and seizures as stated herein.

The people claim that the arrest without a warrant was legal and the search conducted contemporaneously was lawful and the evidence seized was legally admitted into evidence. The reason for this claim is based on asserted facts made known to the arresting officer by information from a reliable source which caused him to have probable cause to believe that de[422]*422fendant had committed and was committing a felony offense.

Now it is true that the testimony of these facts were not elaborately stated in the testimony at the preliminary examination, nor in the first hearing on the motion to suppress before the Honorable Fred W. Searl. Judge Searl, however, specifically left the door open to a further hearing on the matter to be conducted by the trial judge. Honorable Roman J. Snow considered the motions again before trial on March 3, 1969, and on March 4, 1969, before the actual trial commenced. On March 4, the trial court permitted the people to show that the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest the defendant without a warrant. This pertinent testimony of William E. Freeman is in part as follows:

“Q. Sir, are you chief investigating officer in the case against Evelle White, Charles Parrish, and Charles Walker concerning possession of a narcotic, that is heroin, and were you the officer physically making the arrest and search on June 28,1968 in the City of Grand Rapids ?

“A. Yes, sir.

* # #

“Q. Were you working on the vice investigation prior to June 28, 1968 in regard to narcotics in the City of Grand Rapids?

“A. Yes.

“Q. Did knowledge come to your attention that heroin was purchased or trafficking in the City of Grand Rapids prior to June 28, 1968?

“Q. How did that knowledge come to your attention?

“A. Are you speaking of prior to this arrest?

“Q. Yes.

“A. Through two phone calls that I received.

[423]*423“Q. The nature of the information that you received by these phone calls?

“A. It stated that Mr. White, Mr. Parrish and Mr. Walker had left for Detroit,-Michigan in a 1966 Pontiac two-door dark blue with the front-end damaged, 1968 license John Frank 3488 to purchase the drug heroin.

“Q. Date and time you received this phone call?

“A. I received the first phone call approximately in the area of 10 a.m. or shortly before.

“Q. The information as to the time that the car had left Grand Rapids?

“A. Yes, that it had left somewhere between 7 and 8 o’clock, as best I could recall.

“Q. Any information as to the time it was expected back?

“A. They expected that the car would go right there, make the purchase, and possibly return somewhere between 1 and 1:30 p.m. on this date.

“Q. The purpose of the trip was given as what?

“A. To purchase the drug heroin.

“Q. The second phone call?

“A. This was from another party whom I don’t know the name of that gave part of this information, stating a car, a Pontiac belonging to Mr.

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People v. Walker, 181 N.W.2d 639, 25 Mich. App. 418, 1970 Mich. App. LEXIS 1591 (Mich. Ct. App. 1970).

181 N.W.2d 639 (People v. Walker) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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People v. Charles D. Walker
189 N.W.2d 234 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1971)