State v. Billings

242 N.W.2d 726, 1976 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1016
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMay 19, 1976
Docket58384
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 242 N.W.2d 726 (State v. Billings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Billings, 242 N.W.2d 726, 1976 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1016 (iowa 1976).

Opinions

McCORMICK, Justice.

Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for burglary without aggravation in violation § 708.3, The Code. He contends the trial court erred (1) in overruling his pretrial motion to suppress evidence, (2) in allowing a witness to express an opinion on an issue of law, (3) in providing the jury an incorrect definition of nighttime, and (4) in refusing to instruct on breaking and entering as a lesser included offense. We reverse and remand because we find merit in his third and fourth contentions.

The charge was based on the alleged burglary of the Kipton Prendergast farm home in Webster County in the evening of January 29,1975. The State produced sufficient evidence to send the case to the jury against defendant.

Prendergast testified he left home to drive to Fort Dodge at about 6:00 p. m. He locked the doors of the home. He said the sun had set and it was dusk but not dark. He did not remember whether he used his automobile headlights while driving to the city. When he returned home about 9:00 p. m. he found the front door open and his stereo equipment and TV missing. He reported the theft to the Webster County sheriffs office and provided that office with the serial numbers of his equipment.

Michael Bradwell, an alleged accomplice of defendant, testified he and defendant drove to the Prendergast home that evening for the purpose of breaking in to steal Prendergast’s stereo equipment. He said Prendergast passed them on his way to Fort Dodge. He said they forced the front door open, took the equipment, and put it in defendant’s automobile. He estimated the time of the theft as 7:30 or 8:00 p. m. He said they were able to see the equipment without turning lights on in the house. Although the yard light was on, he said he would have been able to see well enough outside without it to recognize a person with whom he was acquainted. Bradwell testified they drove to Des Moines where they planned to sell the equipment to a friend of his. He called his friend from the downtown Holiday Inn in Des Moines. They were stopped near there by police who though they had seen defendant drinking a can of beer. When the police inquired about the stereo equipment in the car, defendant said it was his. With defendant’s help they recorded the serial numbers of the equipment. Then the police said Brad-well and defendant could go. Bradwell said he and defendant later sold the equipment to his friend for $350 and split the proceeds.

Ned Osborn, a Des Moines police officer, testified he and another officer observed defendant and Bradwell in defendant’s car at about 10:00 p. m. on the day involved pulling out of the downtown Holiday Inn parking lot. Osborn saw defendant drinking from a can the officer believed contained beer. He said he directed Morris to follow and stop the ear because of the apparent violation of § 123.46, The Code, proscribing consumption of alcoholic beverages on a public highway. When they stopped defendant’s car, Osborn checked his driver’s license. He also saw some of the stereo equipment in the back seat. Defendant got out of the car. In doing so, according to Osborn, he attempted to hide the beer can under the seat and it spilled. Defendant first denied but then admitted he had the beer. The officer confirmed Bradwell’s testimony about subsequent events. He testified defendant gave him permission to search the car, including the trunk. He also testified he warned defendant about the beer violation but did not then charge him with that or any other offense.

Through the testimony of other witnesses, the State showed the Des Moines police contacted the Webster County sheriff’s office the next morning and inquired whether that office had received a report regarding stolen stereo equipment. The sheriff’s office sent the serial numbers of the Prender-gast equipment to the Des Moines police, and it was determined the numbers matched those recorded by officer Osborn. The equipment was later recovered, and [729]*729defendant and Bradwell were charged with burglary.

Defendant now appeals his subsequent conviction and sentence.

I. The motion to suppress. Defendant moved before trial to suppress evidence of the search of his automobile in Des Moines. After hearing, the trial court overruled the motion, and defendant assigns this ruling as error.

Under principles explained in State v. Cooley, 229 N.W.2d 755, 760 (Iowa 1975), the officers were justified in making an investigatory stop of defendant’s vehicle because they had specific and articulable cause to believe defendant was consuming beer on a public highway in violation of § 123.46, The Code. Having lawfully stopped the vehicle, they were in a place they had a right to be when they observed the stereo equipment in plain view in the back seat. The ensuing search was with defendant’s consent, and its fruits were admissible. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973); State v. Knutson, 234 N.W.2d 105, 107 (Iowa 1975).

The trial court did not err in overruling defendant’s motion to suppress.

II. The evidentiary ruling. During the course of direct examination, the alleged accomplice Bradwell estimated the time of the offense as 7:30 or 8:00 p. m. The prosecutor then asked, “And it was night at 7:30 or 8:00 on a winter night, is — ?” Defense counsel objected that the definition of night is a legal one and the witness was not shown to know it. The court overruled the objection, and Bradwell answered, “Yes, it was night”.

Proof the offense occurred “in the nighttime” is an element of burglary. § 708.1, The Code; State v. Osborn, 200 N.W.2d 798, 807 (Iowa 1972). The term has a definite legal meaning as an element of burglary, explained in Osborn and discussed further in Division III infra. In view of the specialized legal meaning of the term as used in the definition of burglary, Bradwell was called upon to express an opinion on a question of mixed law and fact. The subject matter was inappropriate in this context for opinion testimony. Grismore v. Consolidated Products Co., 232 Iowa 328, 361, 5 N.W.2d 646, 663 (1942); see State v. Oppedal, 232 N.W.2d 517, 524 (Iowa 1975); State v. Johnson, 224 N.W.2d 617, 622 (Iowa 1974); Hegtvedt v. Prybil, 223 N.W.2d 186, 190 (Iowa 1974).

The State argues defendant’s objection to the question was not sufficient to alert the trial court to his present theory that the question called for Bradwell to express an opinion on a subject not proper for opinion testimony because involving an issue of law. Because this case is reversed and remanded on defendant’s remaining two assignments of error, we do not reach that issue. We assume the situation will not recur on retrial.

III.The trial court’s definition of nighttime. Over defense counsel’s timely and adequate exception, the trial court instructed the jury that “nighttime”, as an element in a burglary charge, “is defined as the period between sunset and sunrise”.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Commonwealth v. Bulicki
518 A.2d 577 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
State v. Link
341 N.W.2d 738 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1983)
State v. Furnald
263 N.W.2d 751 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1978)
State v. Metcalf
260 N.W.2d 857 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1977)
State v. Nimmo
247 N.W.2d 228 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)
State v. Redmon
244 N.W.2d 792 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)
State v. Ogg
243 N.W.2d 620 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)
State v. Billings
242 N.W.2d 726 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 N.W.2d 726, 1976 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 1016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-billings-iowa-1976.