Pope v. State

695 S.W.2d 341, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 11927
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 1, 1985
Docket01-84-0614-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 695 S.W.2d 341 (Pope v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pope v. State, 695 S.W.2d 341, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 11927 (Tex. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

EVANS, Chief Justice.

A jury convicted the appellant of the misdemeanor offense of unlawfully carrying a handgun and assessed his punishment at 6 months confinement.

In three grounds of error, the appellant contends that (a) his warrantless arrest was illegal; (b) that his oral admission to the investigating officer was inadmissible; and (c) that the state failed to prove a chain of custody establishing his possession of the weapon.

About 10 p.m., on June 1984, the appellant approached a security guard at an automobile dealership in southwest Houston. The appellant told the guard he had been robbed, and he asked the guard if he had seen anyone on the premises. The guard advised the appellant to notify the Houston Police Department, and the appellant replied that he was carrying something “to take care of the matter, and that he would in fact take care of it in his own way.” The appellant then pulled out a magazine clip that had 9mm ammunition in it, and extracting one of the rounds handed it to the guard. The guard again suggested that the appellant call the police department, and the appellant called the man who had robbed him a name, and tapping his right leg, said he would handle it. The guard then left the appellant’s presence for a few minutes to call the Houston Police Department. The guard returned and continued his conversation with the appellant. According to the guard, the appellant asked him what would happen if he had shot the man in the apartment and he had fallen outside. The appellant then said he was going home and call the police department. The appellant left the premises, and the guard last observed him walking down the street.

Two police officers in a patrol car responded to the guard’s call within 5-10 minutes, and obtained the security guard’s report of what happened. They were also given the appellant’s physical description. A second police car then arrived on the scene and the officers in that car were verbally given the same information. The second police unit then drove down the street where the guard had last observed the appellant. A few minutes later, the officers in that car radioed back to the first unit that a car driven by a man matching the appellant’s description, was heading in their direction. The first police unit turned on its overhead lights, and the officers placed their vehicle in a diagonal position across the street to block the path of the oncoming vehicle. The police officers, with *343 drawn weapons, ordered the appellant out of his car. One of the officers called to the appellant and asked, “Where is the gun?”, and the appellant replied that it was in the automobile glove box. The second police unit had by this time parked their vehicle behind appellant’s automobile, so that appellant was under observation by officers from both units. One of the officers from the first police unit approached the appellant’s vehicle, and looked inside the front window. On the seat he saw a shoulder holster for a handgun, but no other evidence of a weapon. He then opened the glove compartment, which was closed but not locked, and found a semi-automatic 9mm pistol and a separate magazine clip loaded with 9mm ammunition. The appellant told the officer that he had been at his girlfriend’s apartment, that he had been robbed and knocked unconscious, and that he was looking for the person who did it.

Appellant complains that his warrantless arrest was in violation of state law. He contends that the officers had no legal authority to stop his car as he legally drove it down a public street and that the pistol and his statements concerning it which followed immediately thereafter were fruits of the illegal arrest.

The burden of proving the legality of a warrantless arrest is upon the state. Wilson v. State, 621 S.W.2d 799, 804 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). It has been observed that the state law governing search and seizure is more protective of the defendant than is the United States Constitution. Milton v. State, 549 S.W.2d 190, 192 (Tex.Crim.App.1977). The decisions of the United States Supreme Court construing the fourth amendment to the constitution do not control a decision as to whether an arrest is authorized under Texas law. Id. at 192.

Arrests made without warrant are generally governed by Chapter 14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The state contends only that the arrest was legal under article 14.01(b), which provides that a peace officer may arrest an offender without warrant for any offense committed in his presence or within his view. It is undisputed that the appellant did not commit an offense within the presence of the peace officers. No pistol was seen by the officers before they stopped appellant’s car, ordered him out of it, asked him for identification, and searched his glove compartment. A warrantless arrest or search must be justified by what is known to the police officers at the inception of the search and cannot be justified by evidence seized as a result of the arrest and search. Colston v. State, 511 S.W.2d 10, 13 (Tex.Crim.App.1974).

No other statutory provision in Chapter 14 or elsewhere has been relied on by the state in its brief as justification for the appellant’s warrantless arrest.

We recognize the duties imposed on police officers to prevent threat and injury to persons or property. Tex.Code Crim.P. Ann. art. 6.05 (Vernon Supp.1985) provides:

It is the duty of every peace officer, when he may have been informed in any manner that a threat has been made by one person to do some injury to himself or to the person or property of another, including the person or property of his spouse, to prevent the threat and injury, if within his powers; and, in order to do this, he may call in aid any number of citizens in his county. He may take such measures as the person about to be injured might for the prevention of the offense. (Emphasis supplied).

Article 6.05 expressly limits the peace officer to “such measures as the person about to be injured might use to prevent the offense.” The statute authorizes a peace officer only to prevent a wrong from being committed or attempted and does not otherwise confer authority to arrest without a warrant. Heath v. Boyd, 141 Tex. 569, 175 S.W.2d 214, 217 (1943); Allen v. State, 66 S.W.2d 671, 673-74 (Tex.Crim.App.1902).

We also recognize that a temporary detention for purposes of investigation may be justified, even though the circumstances fall short of probable cause for arrest. See Meeks v. State, 653 S.W.2d 6, *344 12 (Tex.Crim.App.1983); Schwartz v. State, 635 S.W.2d 545 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); Ebarb v. State, 598 S.W.2d 842, 844 (Tex.Crim.App.1979); see also Adams v. Williams,

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Bluebook (online)
695 S.W.2d 341, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 11927, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pope-v-state-texapp-1985.