State v. Dunbar

356 So. 2d 956
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 6, 1978
Docket60634
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 356 So. 2d 956 (State v. Dunbar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dunbar, 356 So. 2d 956 (La. 1978).

Opinion

356 So.2d 956 (1978)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
John DUNBAR and Jason Gordon.

No. 60634.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

March 6, 1978.
Rehearing Denied April 6, 1978.

*958 Bruce S. Kingsdorf, New Orleans, for Jason Gordon.

Roy A. Raspanti, Chalmette, for John Dunbar.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Brian Meissner, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

CALOGERO, Justice.

Defendants John Dunbar and Jason Gordon were charged by bill of information with the armed robbery of one Willie Brown (count one) and of one Eldridge Sheppard (count two), both in violation of R.S. 14:64. They pled not guilty and, after trial, the jury returned verdicts of guilty as charged as to both counts for both defendants. Thereafter, both defendants were determined to be multiple offenders; Dunbar was sentenced to forty nine and one-half years at hard labor with credit for time served; defendant Gordon was sentenced to *959 thirty-three years at hard labor with credit for time served. On appeal, defendants rely upon four assignments of error for reversal of their convictions and sentences.

FACTS

On April 28, 1976 between 2:30 and 3:00 p. m., high school students Willie Brown and Eldridge Sheppard were approached by two men around the 3000 block of Thalia Street in New Orleans, approximately two blocks from their school. One of the two men pulled out a gun which was partially wrapped in a purple bandana, took the boys' hats and watches, and demanded their money. The other man exposed a gun in his waistband, also wrapped in a bandana, but never pulled it out. Brown gave them 40 cents in pocket change. As the men commanded, the students began to run in the direction of Claiborne Avenue, while the armed men ran in the opposite direction.

Brown and Sheppard immediately proceeded to the Sixth District Police Station and reported the incident to Officers Leufray and Wilson. They provided the following description of the two men: two black men, aged 20-22 years; one man with a darker complexion, heavier than the other, with plaited hair in rubber hands, wearing green short pants and a green striped shirt; the other with a lighter complexion, a slim build, wearing a bandana around his head. Sheppard stated that he had recognized the slimmer man.

The officers left in their patrol car taking the boys with them, drove first to the location of the incident, and then in the direction the men had run. Upon arrival at the 3300 block of Thalia Street in the Calliope Housing Project (about three blocks from where the robbery had occurred), Officer Wilson saw a man wearing green short pants and a green tank top, who had been sitting on an apartment porch, quickly jump up and run into the building at 3316 Thalia Street, apparently having seen the police car. Brown then identified a hat which was on the porch steps as that taken from him in the robbery. Officer Wilson radioed for back-up units and entered the building from the back. He announced his purpose in investigating an armed robbery to a woman (who was later determined to be defendant Dunbar's mother) at Apartment D and, according to Officer Wilson's testimony at trial, was allowed to enter. The two defendants were found sitting in the living room, one wearing green short pants and a green shirt. As Officer Wilson opened the front door of the apartment to admit another officer, he discovered a loaded revolver outside the apartment door in the hallway of the building. The defendants were advised they were under suspicion for armed robbery, handcuffed, escorted downstairs and identified as the perpetrators of the robbery by the victims, Brown and Sheppard. The defendants were placed under arrest. Following the arrest, the officers seized a purple handkerchief from defendant Dunbar and a second handkerchief from defendant Gordon.[1]

After removing the defendants from the apartment, Officer Wilson returned to Apartment D with two other officers and, according to Wilson, obtained consent to search the apartment. Wilson found a chrome watch wedged in the cushion of a chair where one of the men had been sitting, and another officer located a green striped shirt in the bathroom of the apartment.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NO. 1

Defendants contend, on various grounds, that the trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to a warrantless arrest and warrantless search.

Defendants first contend that the police officers' entry into Apartment D of 3316 Thalia Street was unlawful and, therefore, all the evidence seized as a result of that *960 illegality (a green and white striped shirt, a purple handkerchief, a pistol, the chrome watch, and identifications by the victim) must be suppressed.

Article 213(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure authorizes a warrantless arrest whenever an officer has reasonable cause to believe the person to be arrested has committed an offense. In the instant case, Officer Wilson observed a man fitting a description given by the victims of the robbery spring to his feet from a porch where he had been sitting and race into a four-plex at 3316 Thalia. This occurred within one-half to three-quarters of an hour following the robbery and within three blocks of where the offense was committed. In addition, lying on the steps of the porch where the man had just been sitting was a cap which was positively identified at that time by one of the victims as that taken from him during the robbery.

A warrantless arrest can only be made if it is based on probable cause which exists when facts and circumstances within the arresting officer's knowledge and of which he has reasonable and trustworthy information are sufficient to justify a man of average caution in the belief that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing an offense. See State v. Herbert, 351 So.2d 434 (La.1977) and citations therein. Probable cause to arrest the man existed from the time the officer saw him running. The man's apparent flight from apprehension does not in and of itself indicate guilt, see State v. Herbert, supra; however, combined with the description of the robber, his close proximity to the scene of the offense both in time and location, and the presence of property taken in the robbery, the flight would indicate to a reasonable man that the fleeing man had some involvement with the crime. The policeman's pursuit of defendant into the dwelling was made with probable cause and in "hot pursuit" so that entry into the apartment building without a warrant did not violate state or federal constitutional guarantees. Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967); State v. Franklin, 353 So.2d 1315 (La.1978).

Defendants concede that the existence of probable cause and exigent circumstances warranted the officers' entry into the apartment building; they argue, however, that there was no such probable cause for entry specifically into Apartment D where defendants were found. In support of this argument they cite a federal appellate court case, United States v. Scott, 520 F.2d 697 (9th Cir. 1975). In Scott, police officers pursued four black male armed robbers to an apartment building containing approximately twenty units. On the basis of certain information the officers were able to narrow their search to seven suspected apartments and eventually found the defendants in the last-searched apartment.

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

Related

State v. Fairman
173 So. 3d 1278 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Bradstreet
170 So. 3d 306 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)
State v. Briley
151 So. 3d 633 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2014)
State v. Norah
131 So. 3d 172 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
State ex rel. J.H.
83 So. 3d 1100 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)
State v. Vargas
66 So. 3d 29 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2011)
State v. Brown
36 So. 3d 974 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
State v. Stovall
977 So. 2d 1074 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2008)
State v. Smith
960 So. 2d 369 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2007)
State v. Harold
861 So. 2d 262 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
State v. Vicks
798 So. 2d 308 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2001)
State v. Bostic
637 So. 2d 591 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1994)
State v. Van Buren
615 So. 2d 455 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1993)
State v. Shrader
593 So. 2d 457 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1992)
State v. Dickerson
579 So. 2d 472 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1991)
State v. Conway
556 So. 2d 1323 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1990)
State v. Holmes
516 So. 2d 184 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State v. Green
505 So. 2d 265 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
State v. Bueno
499 So. 2d 362 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1986)
State v. Cathey
493 So. 2d 842 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
356 So. 2d 956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dunbar-la-1978.