State v. Bray

278 S.W.2d 49, 1955 Mo. App. LEXIS 16
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 22, 1955
Docket29039
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 278 S.W.2d 49 (State v. Bray) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bray, 278 S.W.2d 49, 1955 Mo. App. LEXIS 16 (Mo. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

ROBERT L. ARONSON, Special Judge.

Defendant was chargéd by an information with the offense of petit larceny; was found guilty by a jury, which assessed her punishment at imprisonment in the City Workhouse for one year and a fine of $100; and now has brought. her appeal to this court. Her assignments of error relate to the overruling of her motion to suppress evidence obtained by means of. an allegedly unlawful search and to the claimed admission into evidence of improper exhibits and testimony. .

It is always our duty to be certain of our jurisdiction of a cause. In her brief, defendant directs attention to Art. I, § 15 of the 1945 Constitution of Missouri, V.A. M.S., forbidding unreasonable searches and secures. Sometimes appellate jurisdiction of a prosecution for a misdemeanor is vested in the Supreme Court because a consti *51 tutional question is involved, Art. V, § 3, Constitution of Missouri 1945, V.A.M.S., and has been properly raised and preserved. See State v. McBride, 327 Mo. 184, 37 S.W.2d 423.

However, a party must present his constitutional issue at the first available opportunity, in order that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court be invoked, Harris v. Pine Cleaners, Inc., Mo.App., 274 S.W.2d 328, 332; Baker v. Baker, Mo.App., 274 S.W.2d 322, 325, and must later keep it alive throughout the, proceedings. Obviously, the first opportunity available to defendant to raise a constitutional point here was in her motion to suppress evidence. Examination of said motion discloses1 that while same has assertions that the searches and seizures were “made without warrant, * * ■* not, made as incidents to any lawful arrests, * * * made without the consent of the defendant,” and that the. officers had no reasonable grounds at the time to believe defendant was guilty of a felony, yet there is not one word of reference to the State or Federal Constitutions. In this situation we have jurisdiction under the above cases and others cited therein. The general provisions of Section 479.250 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., covering appeals from the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction are applicable..

The information charged defendant with the theft of “one dress” of the value of $23 on November 28, 1953, which was the property of Thomas W. Garland, Inc., a corporation. Later an amendment was made, showing the value as $23.75.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress, the grounds of which have been quoted above, Officer Joseph C. Kelly of the Clayton Police Department, who arrested defendant on November 30, 1953, testified that a call had been received from- the Famous-Barr store which caused him and his partner, Officer McHale, to go to the Clayton shopping area to look for a certain Cadillac automobile and two women who were described; - no claim of theft was made in that call; that at the Scruggs Store they were informed that two women of the same description had just left the store, and had taken, without payment therefor, four sweaters of the value of “around seven dollars a piece”; that as he drove east on Forsyth Avenue alone, he observed the Cadillac on a parking lot; that two colored women soon got into it and defendant drove it east; that he caused the car to be stopped, and as he got out of the police car to talk to the women their automobile was suddenly started up again by .defendant who was driving and a green shopping bag was tossed out of its right front window; that he re-entered the. police car, pursued the Cadillac and stopped-it-again, this time in University City. Police of that City joined him, the women were taken to the University City Police Station and then released to the Clayton department. He returned to the automobile and drove it to the Clayton station at 10 o’clock P.M. The front and rear seats were searched, nothing important being found but the trunk was locked and defendant said she had lost her key.

Officer McHale testified that shortly after midnight he made a second search of the automobile which defendant had been driving; that the trunk key was found in a space between the two movable front seats; that defendant’s husband was then present and gave permission to open the trunk; that the red dress involved in-the instant charge and other articles were found there. The officer conceded that he had no search warrant. He identified a certificate of title showing that the Cadillac convertible was owned by Maxine Bray, the defendant.

The court overruled the motion to suppress, and defendant complains of this ruling. Her argument includes the contentions that her arrest was unlawful'because the police officers had no grounds to believe that a felony had been committed (since the value of the four sweaters reportedly taken at the Scruggs store was about $7 each, or a total of $28, wherefore any wrongful taking would be no more than *52 petit larceny, a misdemeanor) and' because . arrest cannot be made without warrant for a misdemeanor, unless the misdemeanor was committed in the presence, of the arresting officer; and that since the arrest was unlawful there could be. no valid search of defendant’s automobile without • a search warrant. Counsel for the State make various responses to these contentions, including the assertion that the offense was being committed in the presence of the officer if .flight was in his presence, but we consider it- unnecessary to rule upon these issues.

It appears that these questions are ■ of only academic interest, under the controlling decision of our Supreme Coúrt. By her own later conduct in giving testimony, defendant has lost the right to complain of any infringement of her constitutional rights as to search and seizure. In other words, if we assume (without deciding) that defendant’s constitutional rights were violated, yet we could not hold the ruling bn the motion to suppress to be prejudicial, in view of defendant’s own testimony; and hence it would be futile and without benefit to decide whether the search of the automobile and the seizure of personal property found therein were illegal.

The authoritative case is State v. Smith, 357 Mo. 467, 209 S.W.2d 138, decided by Division 2 of the Supreme Court of this state in 1948, never since repudiated or criticized, and binding on us as the law on the point now under consideration. Therein, it was specifically held that since a search and seizure were beyond the authority of the State Highway Patrol under the then existing statute, same were unlawful, and a motion to suppress should have been sustained, yet the defendant had lost the right to insist upon the strict enforcement of his -Constitutional rights or to complain of their infringement. Said defendant (also charged with larceny) had testified voluntarily, had denied the theft, had admitted possession of the seven typewriters charged to have been stolen,.but had claimed that he purchased same from - a named man in a named city on 'a given day; and had given further explanation on-details of the State’s case.

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

Related

State v. Nevels
537 S.W.2d 824 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1976)
State v. Toney
537 S.W.2d 586 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1976)
Good v. State
195 S.E.2d 264 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1972)
State v. Merritt
460 S.W.2d 591 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1970)
Stallings v. State
235 N.E.2d 488 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1968)
Commonwealth v. HARGRAVE
240 A.2d 570 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1968)
State v. Holbert
416 S.W.2d 129 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1967)
State v. Brown
404 S.W.2d 179 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1966)
Contestible v. Brookshire
355 S.W.2d 36 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1962)
State v. Brookshire
353 S.W.2d 681 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1962)
State v. Ball
339 S.W.2d 783 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1960)
State v. Butler
309 S.W.2d 155 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
278 S.W.2d 49, 1955 Mo. App. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bray-moctapp-1955.