State v. Cofhlin

412 P.2d 864, 3 Ariz. App. 182, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 576
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedApril 12, 1966
Docket2 CA-CR 34
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 412 P.2d 864 (State v. Cofhlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cofhlin, 412 P.2d 864, 3 Ariz. App. 182, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 576 (Ark. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

KRUCKER, Chief Judge.

Appellant, Charles Willard Cofhlin, was charged with six counts of burglary, first degree, and convicted by a jury on two counts. From denial of a motion to suppress evidence, from the verdict and judgment thereon, and from denial of a motion for a new trial, the appellant has appealed.

On March 31, 1965, Cofhlin was hitchhiking from Phoenix to Sierra Vista and was picked up in the vicinity of Tucson by several soldiers stationed at Fort Huachu-ca. Cofhlin told the soldiers he was a carnival worker and was going to Sierra Vista to join a carnival located there. During the journey to Bisbee, several stops were made for beer and sandwiches. The soldiers paid for these purchases since Cofhlin told them he had no money. Upon reaching Bisbee, Cofhlin in the company of one of the soldiers named Jorgenson, and the soldier’s wife, went to Naco, Sonora, had more beer and returned to Bisbee about 1:05 a. m. Cofhlin assisted Jorgenson’s *183 wife get her husband to bed and was asked to leave. He went outside the apartment building and claimed that he slept in Jorgenson’s car until, because of the cold, he went back into the apartment building and fell asleep in the hallway.

About 5 :00 a. m., April 1, 1965, another soldier living across the hall from Jorgen-son saw Cofhlin sleeping in the hall. He noticed that Cofhlin was wearing a new khaki shirt and trousers and suspected that Cofhlin had stolen the khakis from Jorgen-son’s foot locker in the hall. Hearing a commotion in the hall, Jorgenson and his wife appeared and all three checked the label in Cofhlin’s shirt. The shirt had a Penney’s Department Store label and was not Jorgenson’s. Cofhlin was ordered to leave the premises and did so.

During the early morning hours of April 1, 1965, six business establishments in Bis-bee were forcibly entered. One of the six establishments was the Penney’s Department Store from which a special order khaki shirt, khaki trousers and a cowboy belt were stolen. Another establishment burglarized was the Sugar Bowl, from which approximately $78.00 in change was -stolen. Local newspapers carried the story of the burglaries and Jorgenson, seeing the story, went to the police and reported the .foregoing facts.

Chief Malley, of the Bisbee Police Department, drove to Sierra Vista with Jor-genson and two other soldiers and talked with a Mr. Capell of the Capell Brothers Circus. Capell told Chief Malley that Cofhlin had sought employment with him, that he obtained a room in Sierra Vista, that he “had eating money on him” and that he was wearing a clean new khaki shirt and trousers with a cowboy belt. Chief Malley and a Sierra Vista police officer went to the apartment, the landlady pointed out Cofhlin’s apartment, Chief Malley went to the rear of the apartment, the officer went to the front and knocked on the door. Cbfhlin opened the door, both officers entered, searched Cofhlin finding approximately $48.00 in change, and took him to the Sierra Vista police station where he was identified by the soldiers. Cofhlin was taken to Bisbée where he was charged with commission of the six burglaries.

Appellant assigns three errors allegedly committed by the lower court.. The first assignment of error concerns an instruction regarding the definition of reasonable doubt. The court gave a standard stock instruction on reasonable doubt. We see no fundamental error in the instruction and need not review the merit of appellant’s contention, since the record discloses 'that the .instruction is appellant’s requested instruction number 11: Having requested the instruction, he cannot now be heard to object to such instruction on appeal. State v. Bird, 99 Ariz. 195, 407 P.2d 770 (1965); State v. Evans, 88 Ariz. 364, 356 P.2d 1106 (1960); State v. Serna, 69 Ariz. 181, 211 P.2d 455 (1949), cert. denied Serna v. Walters, 339 U.S. 973, 70 S.Ct. 1031, 94 L.Ed. 1380 (1950).

The next two issues raised challenge the constitutionality of the search and seizure, largely based on the contention that it preceded the appellant’s arrest. We cannot agree that such an unequivocal distinction should be made; i. e., that a search and seizure subsequent to a lawful arrest may be constitutional whereas a search and seizure made prior to a lawful arrest cannot. The distinction appears academic and hypertechnical when confronted with the ■established test of reasonableness.

In a long line of cases the United States 'Supreme Court has held that only unreasonable searches and seizures are proscribed by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Ker v. State of California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963); Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961); Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). The Mapp decision noted that the prohibitions of the Fourth Amendment are enforceable agains.t the states through the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause. Arizona has acknowledged the applicability *184 of the Mapp rule in State v. Quintana, 92 Ariz. 267, 376 P.2d 130 (1962), and recognized in accordance with Mapp that the test for lawful searches and seizures was the reasonableness of the search under the circumstances. In Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699, 705, 68 S.Ct. 1229, 1232, 92 L.Ed. 1663, 1669 (1948), the United States Supreme Court established that “[i]t is a cardinal rule that, in seizing goods and articles, law enforcement agents must secure and use search warrants wherever reasonably practicable.” (Citing cases.) However, in United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 66, 70 S.Ct. 430, 435, 94 L.Ed. 653, 660 (1950), the same court stated:

In the subsequent case of Rios v. United States, 364 U.S. 253, 261, 80 S.Ct. 1431, 1436, 4 L.Ed.2d 1688, 1693 (1960), the United States Supreme Court stated that “[t]he seizure can survive constitutional inhibition only upon a showing that the surrounding facts brought it within one of the exceptions to the rule that a search must rest upon a search warrant.” (Citing cases.) The exception urged in that case was that the seizure was incident to a lawful arrest but the court found that no probable cause existed on which to base the arrest and the conviction was reversed. However, implicit in the language of the opinion is the fact that a search and seizure incident to a lawful arrest, based upon probable cause, is at least “one of the exceptions to the rule that a search must rest upon a search warrant.”

“To the extent that Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699, 68 S.Ct. 1229, 92 L.Ed.

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412 P.2d 864, 3 Ariz. App. 182, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cofhlin-arizctapp-1966.