State v. Gates

630 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 10196
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 19, 1994
Docket24995-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 630 So. 2d 1345 (State v. Gates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gates, 630 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 10196 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

630 So.2d 1345 (1994)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Gloria Jean GATES, Appellant.

No. 24995-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

January 19, 1994.
Rehearing Denied February 17, 1994.

*1347 Gloria Jean Gates, in pro. per.

*1348 Richard Ieyoub, Atty. Gen., James M. Bullers, Dist. Atty., Bobby L. Stromile, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.

Before SEXTON, NORRIS and STEWART, JJ.

SEXTON, Judge.

Appellant, Gloria Gates, was convicted of the second degree murder of her estranged husband, Larry Gates. She was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. This court granted appellant's out-of-time appeal. In her appeal, Gates raised 356 assignments of error, only eight of which were briefed and thus are before this court for review. U.R.C.A. 2-12.4. We affirm appellant's conviction.

On November 9, 1979, appellant shot her estranged husband at her apartment in Shreveport. She and two male friends put the victim in the trunk of his car and drove to Bossier City. Upon arrival at the Bossier City Landfill, appellant opened the trunk, shot the victim three more times, and abandoned the vehicle at the landfill.

Shortly thereafter, Officer Ron Botica of the Bossier City Police Department was performing a routine patrol of the area near the Texas Street bridge. At around 5:35 a.m., Officer Botica noticed three people, appellant and her two male companions, walking toward the Texas Street bridge. As Officer Botica approached the trio, he noticed appellant's badly torn blouse. Due to the early morning hour and appellant's torn blouse, Officer Botica decided to conduct an inquiry.

At his request, appellant and one of the males stopped. However, the other male, Gerald Haley, continued walking and appeared to be stuffing something in his pants. When Haley finally turned around and stopped, Officer Botica noticed a bulge in Haley's pants. Officer Botica performed a pat-down search and recovered a .38 caliber pistol. Officer Botica also noticed what appeared to be a significant amount of damp blood on Haley's pants. When asked what he was doing with the pistol, Haley would not say anything, nor would appellant or Milton Dias, the other male with them.

Officer Botica proceeded to arrest Haley for carrying a concealed weapon and called for backup at the scene. The trio still refused to give any information or explanation for the blouse, blood, pistol, or their reason for being out on the streets at that early hour. After backup arrived, the officers also decided to take appellant and the third person, a Mr. Dias, to the station for questioning. Officer Dale Soileau, the officer who handcuffed appellant before placing her in the patrol car, later found five spent .38 casings on the grill of the patrol car very near where appellant was standing before she was handcuffed.

As the officers were placing the trio in the cars, Fred Morgan, a local construction worker, came upon the scene and informed Officer Botica that he recently heard three gunshots fired. Morgan said the shots came from the city dump area and that five minutes after he heard the shots, he saw appellant and these two males walking down the levee from the direction of the city dump.

Appellant was then taken to the station. About a half hour later, an officer called in with information that a body had been located in the trunk of an abandoned car at the city dump. Thereafter, at 12:55 p.m., appellant confessed to having shot the victim both in her apartment in Shreveport, and then again at the dump in Bossier.

PROBABLE CAUSE

We initially address appellant's threshold complaint presented by her Assignment of Error No. 5. This assignment contends that she was arrested without probable cause. Specifically, appellant argues that the police did not have probable cause to make an investigatory stop and then to arrest her. Appellant also claims she was never advised of her Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, and for this reason, any confessions and statements should also have been suppressed.

The right of law enforcement officers to temporarily detain and interrogate persons reasonably suspected of criminal activity is well established. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); *1349 State v. Fauria, 393 So.2d 688 (La.1981); State v. Taylor, 363 So.2d 699 (La.1978); LSA-C.Cr.P. art. 215.1. The right to make an investigatory stop must be based on reasonable cause to believe that the suspect has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity. State v. Washington, 621 So.2d 114 (La.App. 2d Cir.1993); State v. Patterson, 588 So.2d 392 (La.App. 4th Cir.1991); State v. Thibodeaux, 531 So.2d 284 (La.App. 3d Cir.1987). Reasonable cause for an investigatory stop is something less than probable cause, but the officer must have "articulable knowledge" of particular facts which, in conjunction with reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, provide reasonable grounds to suspect the detainee of criminal activity. State v. Flowers, 441 So.2d 707 (La.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 945, 104 S.Ct. 1931, 80 L.Ed.2d 476 (1984); State v. Washington, supra; State v. Thibodeaux, supra; State v. Rodriguez, 396 So.2d 1312 (La.1981).

Probable cause for an arrest exists when facts and circumstances known to the officer and of which he has reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient to justify a man of ordinary caution in the belief that the person to be arrested has committed a crime. State v. Wilson, 467 So.2d 503 (La.1985); State v. White, 543 So.2d 124 (La.App. 2d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 911, 106 S.Ct. 281, 88 L.Ed.2d 246 (1985).

It is not a prerequisite for the existence of probable cause that the police know at the time of the arrest that a particular crime has definitely been committed. While knowledge of the commission of a particular crime is frequently an important factor in the determination of probable cause, probable cause may exist when the commission of a crime has not been definitely established. It is sufficient that it be reasonably probable that a crime has been committed under the totality of the known circumstances. State v. Simms, 571 So.2d 145 (La.1990). While it takes more and better evidence to provide probable cause when the police do not know a crime has been committed, probable cause is to be judged by the probabilities and practical considerations of everyday life on which average men, particularly average police officers, can be expected to act. State v. Drott, 412 So.2d 984 (La.1982). Of course, the setting or location is an important consideration.

With respect to her asserted improper detention and arrest, appellant complains specifically that a confession she rendered at the station and the five spent shells, or hulls, are the fruits of a poisoned arrest.

Officer Botica, who made the initial stop, clearly had reasonable grounds to make that stop. He had seen appellant and two males walking toward the Texas Street bridge along the levee at 5:35 in the morning. Appellant's blouse was badly torn. After he approached the three, he found that one of the two males accompanying appellant had a concealed weapon on his person and that there was a large amount of what appeared to be damp blood on his pants.

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Bluebook (online)
630 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 10196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gates-lactapp-1994.