Stanton v. State

743 S.W.2d 233, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1988 WL 2554
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 20, 1988
Docket1200-84
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 743 S.W.2d 233 (Stanton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stanton v. State, 743 S.W.2d 233, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1988 WL 2554 (Tex. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

W.C. DAVIS, Judge.

Appellant contends that the jury’s verdict finding him guilty of aggravated robbery must be reversed because his war-rantless arrest was unlawful under Texas law. Appellant argues that his confession which was given right after this unlawful arrest should therefore have been excluded as a product of an illegal warrantless arrest. The Fort Worth Court of Appeals held that the warrantless arrest of appellant was permissible under Art. 14.04, V.A. C.C.P. because appellant got into his car and “was leaving the premises where they knew he was, so that in that sense he was ‘escaping’ or ‘getting away’ from them.” Stanton v. State, 678 S.W.2d 305 (Tex.App.—Ft. Worth 1984). We granted appellant’s petition for discretionary review to determine whether, under the facts, this holding and analysis of Art. 14.04 is correct. We will reverse and remand.

A short time after midnight on January 9, 1983, five masked men robbed the manager and several patrons of the Texas Tumbleweed Restaurant in Potter County. Two of the witnesses told the police that they believed one of the robbers was an ex-employee of the restaurant by the name of Tony Sastaita. Sastaita was arrested at approximately 2:00 a.m. on January 10th and during interrogation admitted his participation in the robbery. He implicated appellant in the crime and later identified appellant from a photo pulled from police files. After speaking with the accomplice Sastaita, the officers knew appellant’s first name, the general location where he lived and that he drove a fancy orange Oldsmobile.

At about 5:50 a.m. on January 10th, Officer Fred Perez spotted appellant’s car parked in the driveway of a residence. He and several other officers observed the car until about 7:40 a.m. when appellant and his little sister walked out of the house and got into the car. Appellant drove about three blocks when the officers converged, stopped appellant and arrested him.

The State relies upon Art. 14.04 as legal justification for the warrantless arrest.

Art. 14.04 states:

Where it is shown by satisfactory proof to a peace officer, upon the representation of a credible person, that a felony has been committed, and that the offender is about to escape, so that there is no time to procure a warrant, such peace officer may, without warrant pursue and arrest the accused.

Officer James Mitchell, one of the arresting officers, testified that he did not get an arrest warrant because the Court was not [235]*235open that early in the morning. Mitchell further testified:

Q. Officer Mitchell, at the time of the arrest of Mr. Stanton, is it true that you had no arrest warrant?
A. That is correct, sir.
Q. What was the basis for your arrest?
A. A suspect in a vehicle — moving vehicle and — no, a suspect in a vehicle, moving vehicle, and time to secure a warrant-ee Are you saying that you had information that Mr. Stanton was a — was about to flee?
A. I had no knowledge as to whether he was fleeing or not.
Q. Did you have any factual basis to believe that he might be fleeing, other than the fact that he was in a motor vehicle leaving his residence?
A. I did not.
Q. Who was he with when you were arresting him?
A. I believe it turned out to be his little sister.
Q. You have no factual basis to believe that he that he (sic) was going to leave the country?
A. I didn’t, no.
Q. If you could, just answer my question.
A. I’m sorry, no, sir, we did not.
Q. Why did you not obtain an arrest warrant?
A. We were waiting for the Court to open up so we could get with the prosecutor and everything, sir.
Q. How long would it have been before the Court opened up?
A. From the time of the arrest, probably an hour.
Q. And, in fact, less than an hour?
A. I guess, sir. I don’t know. What, 9:00 are court hours?
Q. That was how long after the offense itself ...
A. From the time of the robbery, sir?
Q. Yes, sir.
A. Twenty-four hours, I would say. More — twenty-four hours, about twenty-eight hours.

Officer Perez testified that “our goal was to — to—if the suspect came out of the house we were to stop him and arrest him.” The defense attorney then asked:

Q. Did you have knowledge or any reason to believe that Mr. Stanton was about to leave the city?
Perez: I didn’t have any information, no. Defense Counsel: Were you aware of any other officer who had any such information?
Perez: No.

The Fort Worth Court of Appeals held that since appellant “was leaving the premises where they knew he was” — leaving his residence in a motor vehicle — he was escaping. Stanton v. State, supra. The Court of Appeals’ opinion states that the arrest was justified under Art. 14.04 “when the suspect was going from one place to another, at a time when the officers did not have time to procure a warrant.” Id. We believe that such a rationale is incorrect and abrogates the escape provision of Art. 14.-04.

The issue before us is whether there is a showing that appellant was “about to escape" so as to permit a warrantless arrest because officers had no time to procure a warrant. From the “ ‘concrete factual situation’ spread on the record,” it must be apparent to the arresting officers that the offender is, in fact, “about to escape.” King v. State, 631 S.W.2d 486, 497 (Tex.Cr.App.1982), citing Honeycutt v. State, 499 S.W.2d 662 (Tex.Cr.App.1973), and Brown v. State, 481 S.W.2d 106 (Tex.Cr.App.1972). Compare, e.g., Tarpley v. State, 565 S.W.2d 525 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) with Hardison v. State, 597 S.W.2d 355 (Tex.Cr.App.1980) and Honeycutt, supra.

Very recently, in Dejarnette v. State, 732 S.W.2d Art. 14.04, supra:

[I]n order for an arrest to be justified under the Art. 14.04 exception to the warrant requirement, there must be some evidence amounting to satisfactory proof, either related by a credible person [236]*236to an officer or observed by the officer him/herself indicating that the defendant was about to escape so that there was no time to procure a warrant.

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Stanton v. State
743 S.W.2d 233 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
743 S.W.2d 233, 1988 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1988 WL 2554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stanton-v-state-texcrimapp-1988.