Spikes v. State

460 N.E.2d 954, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 778
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 20, 1984
Docket282S68
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 460 N.E.2d 954 (Spikes v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spikes v. State, 460 N.E.2d 954, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 778 (Ind. 1984).

Opinions

PIVARNIK, Justice.

Defendant-Appellant Larry Bernard Spikes was found guilty of class B felony burglary, class A felony rape and class A felony eriminal deviate conduct by a jury in the Elkhart Circuit Court on July 8, 1981. On July 18, 1981, Appellant was tried by the Elkhart Circuit Court and found guilty of class D felony attempted theft and class A felony rape. The trial judge subsequently sentenced Appellant to concurrent imprisonment terms of ten years for burglary, fifty years for rape and thirty years for criminal deviate conduct. The trial judge also sentenced Appellant to concurrent imprisonment terms of two years for attempted theft and fifty years for rape. These two groups of concurrent sentences were ordered to be served consecutively. Appellant now brings his consolidated direct appeal and raises the following four issues:

1. whether there was a proper waiver from the juvenile court to give the criminal trial court proper jurisdiction over Appellant;

2. whether the trial court erred by denying Appellant's Motion to Suppress;

8. whether the trial court erred by denying Appellant's Mistrial Motion; and

4. whether a certain in-court identification of Appellant was based on an unduly suggestive line-up.

J.B. testified that shortly after 7:00 p.m. on October 9, 1980, she was alone in her home in Elkhart. While putting freshly laundered sheets on her bed, a man grabbed her from behind, demanded money and ordered her to take off her pants. He also put his arm around her neck and ordered her not to look at him. J.B. told him where to find some money which he took. While continuing to grip her neck, the man told J.B. that he would slash her throat if she did not take off her pants. The man pulled J.B.'s T-shirt around her head to prevent her from seeing him and forced her to engage in vaginal and anal intercourse as well as fellatio. When the man was finished with J.B., he left her in the bedroom and went into the kitchen looking for money. He opened a glass cookie jar before fleeing. J.B. said that she was able to see her assailant and that he was a dark skinned black man who was between 18 and 25 years old and 58" and 6' tall, had fairly short hair and wore a baseball type cap, a windbreaker and jeans.

At approximately 9:80 p.m. on October 20, 1980, A.H. was alone in her home in Elkhart when a man broke in through her kitchen door. The man told AH. to remove her pants and, when she refused, he threatened to cut her. The man then grabbed one of A.H.'s knives and, while holding the knife to her neck, forced A.H. to engage in sexual intercourse against her will. He also found her handbag and emptied it before leaving. After the man was gone, A.H. discovered that the man had taken a package of Kool-Aid. A.H. described her assailant as a black man who was in his late teens or early twenties, had an "afro" style hair cut and wore a light colored jacket and a blue baseball cap with "Cat Diesel" printed on it.

On October 21, 1980, Elkhart Police Officer Tuttle reported for duty, was briefed about the recent rapes and was given a description of the suspected rapist. Later that day, Tuttle saw Appellant and noted that he fit said description. Tuttle detained Appellant but did not arrest him at that point. After Appellant agreed to go to the police station, Tuttle transported him there where Appellant was fingerprinted. When it was determined that Appellant's fingerprints matched the latent fingerprints taken from the cookie jar lid at J.B.'s home, Appellant was officially placed under ar[956]*956rest. Since Appellant was sixteen years old when the crimes were committed, Appellant was charged as a juvenile delinquent in the juvenile court but subsequently was waived to the criminal court by the juvenile judge.

I

Appellant first claims that the juvenile court did not have jurisdiction to waive him to criminal court and that the criminal court, therefore, did not have jurisdiction to enter judgment in his case. He specifically claims that the juvenile court did not have jurisdiction because he was not properly arrested pursuant to Ind.Code § 31-6-4-4(b) (Burns 1980). Said statute provides:

"A child may be taken into custody by any law enforcement officer acting with probable cause to believe that the child had committed a delinquent act."

The State contends that Appellant was properly taken into custody under the instant facts and cireumstances. Appellant contends otherwise and claims that he did not agree to go to the police station with Tuttle but went because he thought he had to. At a pretrial suppression hearing, the State stipulated that Officer Tuttle did not have probable cause to arrest Appellant when Tuttle stopped Appellant. A stop, however, is different than an arrest. The United States Supreme Court has held:

"A brief stop of a suspicious individual, in order to determine his identity or to maintain the status guo momentarily while obtaining more information, may be most reasonable in light of the facts known to the officer at the time."

Adams v. Williams, (1972) 407 U.S. 143, 146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612, 617; See Terry v. Ohio, (1968) 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 LEd.2d 889. The Court of Appeals has held that a juvenile may be stopped under Ind.Code § 85-8-1-1 (Burns 1979) [repealed effective September 1, 1982] when an officer has observed the juvenile engaged in suspicious activity near the scene of a crime. Graddy v. State, (1978) 176 Ind.App. 518, 376 N.E.2d 506. A police officer, therefore, need not have probable cause to arrest in order to make an investigatory stop, he need only be in possession of facts sufficient to warrant a man of reasonable caution to believe investigation appropriate. Luckett v. State, (1972) 259 Ind. 174, 284 N.E.2d 738. In the instant case, Officer Tuttle observed Appellant who fit the description given to him of the man who had perpetrated the instant rapes. In particular, Appellant was wearing clothing described by both of the victims including a baseball type cap with "Cat Diesel" written on it. We now find that Tuttle properly made an investigatory stop of Appellant pursuant to Ind.Code § 35-3-1-1 and Terry, supra. Tuttle's testimony was that Appellant agreed to accompany him to the police station. We will neither weigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of the witnesses. Appellant was not searched, handcuffed, or questioned although he was fingerprinted. We have held that fingerprinting is a jail house procedure which does not violate a defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and does not constitute an unreasonable search and seizure of evidence from the defendant. Jones v. State, (1977) 267 Ind. 205, 369 N.E.2d 418. When Appellant's prints were found to match prints found at one of the erime scenes, the police had sufficient probable cause to make an arrest which they did.

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Related

Moore v. State
723 N.E.2d 442 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2000)
Baker v. State
485 N.E.2d 122 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)
Spikes v. State
481 N.E.2d 1304 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)
Jones v. State
472 N.E.2d 1255 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
460 N.E.2d 954, 1984 Ind. LEXIS 778, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spikes-v-state-ind-1984.