State v. Ellsworth

908 S.W.2d 375, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1818, 1995 WL 637261
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 31, 1995
DocketNo. 66268
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 908 S.W.2d 375 (State v. Ellsworth) 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. Ellsworth, 908 S.W.2d 375, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1818, 1995 WL 637261 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

SIMON, Judge.

Aldric Ellsworth, appellant, appeals his conviction and sentence based upon a finding of guilty by a jury of first-degree robbery, § 569.020 R.S.Mo.1992 (All further statutory references shall be to R.S.Mo.1992 unless otherwise noted).

On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in: (1) denying his motion to suppress identification; (2) allowing the prosecutor during closing argument to tell the jury that appellant had terrorized the community, in that said statement was not supported by the evidence; and (3) sentencing appellant as a prior and persistent offender pursuant to § 558.019. We affirm as modified.

We review the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. State v. Shurn, 866 S.W.2d 447, 455 (Mo. banc 1993). The record shows that on November 17,1992, at approximately 2:55 a.m., Detective Albrecht (Al-brecht) of the Staunton Illinois. Police Department stopped a blue Ford Maverick driven by Vincent Sanders (Sanders). Appellant was a passenger. Albrecht stopped the car because it had an inoperable registration plate light and the license plates were registered to an Oldsmobile, both violations of Illinois’ law. When Albrecht asked Sanders for identification, Sanders could not provide a driver’s license, and instead, only gave Al-brecht a name. Likewise, appellant could [377]*377not produce a driver’s license and he told Albrecht his name was “Charles Byron Sherwood Ellsworth” and that he did in fact have a driver’s license. Albrecht ran appellant’s name through the computer and could not make a positive identification.

Subsequently, Albrecht arrested Sanders for driving with a suspended license and appellant was arrested for failure to wear a seat belt. Albrecht stated that it was his usual policy to arrest drivers after he had written them a citation. Furthermore, if he had a problem identifying a driver and passenger, it was his policy to place them under arrest and take them back to the police station in order to make a positive identification and write a citation.

After taking appellant and Sanders to the Staunton Police Department, Albrecht telephoned officers from the Granite City Police Department in an attempt to identify them. Officers at the Granite City Police Department informed Albrecht that appellant would have a tattoo on his right shoulder and left breast. Albrecht identified appellant from the tattoos and held him for the Granite City Police Department because appellant was wanted for failure to return from furlough.

Detective Michael Miller (Miller), of the St. Charles County Police Department was assigned to investigate a robbery of a Schnucks grocery store which occurred on November 11,1992 in St. Charles County. Sanders was a suspect in the robbery because he had placed his name on a video card application form during the robbery. Witnesses from the Schnucks’ robbery indicated that two men were involved in the robbery.

On November 16, Miller received a phone call from Jennifer Wallace (Wallace) informing him that there had been two individuals at a party bragging about committing a copy cat .robbery of a Schnucks store in St. Charles. Wallace informed Miller that appellant was one of the men bragging about the robbery and that the two men were planning to commit a robbery in Granite City, Illinois. Miller notified the Granite City Police Department, informed them of the information that he had received from Wallace, and told them that based on this information, he felt he had probable cause to arrest appellant for the Schnucks’ robbery.

On November 17, Miller received information from the Granite City Police Department that they had appellant under arrest. Miller then interviewed appellant after advising him of his Miranda rights. Appellant indicated that he was willing to waive his rights and talk to Miller. Appellant informed Miller that he and Sanders had driven to St. Charles in a stolen car in an attempt to shoplift items from Schnucks. They then decided to steal some video movies from the video department. As they attempted to do so, they were informed that they would need a video card to rent the videos from Schnucks. Sanders then filled out the video card application, picked several videos, and took them to the counter as if he was going to check them out. After they approached the counter, appellant told the cashier it was a stick-up and he wanted her to give him all of her money, and not to give him any dummy bills. He further indicated not to make him show her his gun. The cashier handed appellant the money and he walked off.

On November 18, appellant was put in a line-up which was viewed by Patricia O’Keefe (O’Keefe), assistant video manager, Kathie Lowe (Lowe), a cashier, and Bill Hussey (Hussey), a manager, witnesses of the Schnucks robbery. Appellant and Sanders were not put in the same line-up. O’Keefe was able to identify appellant and Sanders from the line-ups as the men who committed the robbery. Miller was present during the line-up identifications.

Appellant moved pre-trial and during trial to suppress identification seeking to prevent anyone from testifying regarding his identification by O’Keefe during the November 18 line-ups. The motions were denied.

In his first point on appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress identification when it admitted: (a) the testimony of O’Keefe’s lineup identification of appellant as one of the men who robbed Schnucks; and (b) Miller’s testimony confirming O’Keefe’s identification, because they were the direct product of an illegal arrest and intervening circumstances [378]*378had neither attenuated nor alleviated the “taint”.

Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances known to the arresting officer are sufficient to warrant a prudent person in believing that the suspect has committed an offense. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964). The law in the state where an accused is arrested is to be applied in determining whether an arrest is legal or illegal. State v. Dulany, 781 S.W.2d 52, 57[7, 8] (Mo. banc 1989). In Illinois, one may be arrested for failure to wear a seat belt. See Illinois Supreme Court Rule 526(c)(8); see also 625 ILCS 5/12-603.1(b)(9), (e).

Here, the testimony showed Albrecht observed appellant was not wearing his seat belt. This would lead a prudent person to believe appellant had committed a seat belt violation. See Beck, supra. Furthermore, Albrecht’s uncontroverted testimony showed that a seat belt violation is an arrestable offense in Illinois. As a result, Albrecht had probable cause to arrest appellant and O’Keefe’s and Miller’s out-of-court identification of appellant was the product of a legal arrest. Point denied.

In his second point on appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutor during closing argument to tell the jury appellant terrorized the entire community, in that such a characterization was unsupported by the evidence. However, at trial and in his motion for a new trial, appellant objected to the prosecutor’s statements on the grounds of “vilhnization,” improper reference to uncharged misconduct, and inflaming the passions of the jury.

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Related

State v. Brooks
158 S.W.3d 841 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2005)
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967 S.W.2d 127 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1998)
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955 S.W.2d 216 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
908 S.W.2d 375, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1818, 1995 WL 637261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ellsworth-moctapp-1995.