State v. Littleton

407 So. 2d 1208
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided December 14, 1981·No. 81-K-1495·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

407 So.2d 1208 (1981)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Liza LITTLETON, Joseph Lombardo, and Edward Mullen.

No. 81-K-1495.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

December 14, 1981.

*1209 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Spencer W. Kimball, II, Louise S. Korns, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-relator.

Wayne Douglas Mancuso, Robert Fleming, Jr., of Kiefer, Glorioso & Fleming, Bernard Jack Usprich, New Orleans, for defendants-respondents.

CALOGERO, Justice.

In this matter the state attacks the ruling of the trial judge suppressing evidence which was the product of warrantless seizures. Because we find that the seizures, although warrantless, were nonetheless reasonable and fell within well established exceptions to the warrant requirement, we reverse the ruling of the trial judge.

Defendants Liza Littleton, Joseph Lombardo and Edward Mullen were charged by bills of information with two counts of receiving stolen property in violation of La.R.S. 14:69. Defendants entered pleas of not guilty to both counts and filed a motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to an allegedly unconstitutional search.[1] After a hearing on the motion, the trial judge ordered the evidence suppressed. We granted the state's application for certiorari to consider that ruling. 401 So.2d 1203 (La.1981).

Sgt. Daniel O'Neil of the New Orleans Police Department was the sole witness at the hearing on the motion to suppress and gave the following account of the events which culminated in the seizure. On February 11, 1981, two detectives from Lafourche Parish contacted the New Orleans Police and requested assistance. According to the Lafourche detectives, two businesses in that parish had been burglarized and a New Orleans woman had been in both business places prior to the burglaries.

Defendant Liza Littleton had purchased an air filter at one of the businesses and had given a New Orleans address. Shortly thereafter in the other business establishment, Littleton had asked to use the restroom. The Lafourche detectives wanted to question her regarding whether the restroom *1210 window had been open before she used the facility because they believed that the burglars had gained entrance through that window. Littleton had been driving a pick-up truck when she left the two business places in Lafourche Parish.

The Lafourche detectives went to the address given by Littleton and found that it was beside and/or to the rear of the plant premises of a Halter Marine shipyard on U.S. Highway 90 just past the intersection with Louisiana Highway 11. When the detectives arrived at the location they saw the pick-up truck which Littleton had reportedly been driving and observed exposed in the open bed of the pick-up property stolen in the burglaries.[2] This truck was parked in a hangar and the stolen property was being unloaded from the truck onto the floor of the hangar. At this point the Lafourche officers contacted the New Orleans Police. Sgt. O'Neil and another N.O.P.D. officer responded to the request for assistance. The two sets of officers met at the Halter Marine security office which is located at the entrance to the Halter Marine premises on Highway 90. After a few minutes in the security office, the police returned to their vantage point on or alongside Highway 90 to observe the activity in the hangar.

Sgt. O'Neil estimated that the observation continued 28 to 40 minutes. The officers used binoculars to aid in the observation, but Sgt. O'Neil testified that the activity and property could be seen without them.[3] The pick-up truck with the stolen property was in the hangar with the back of the truck facing the highway. There was no wall on the end of the hangar nearest the highway and the hangar opening was 30 to 40 feet wide. The police also saw a second pick-up truck parked outside the hangar.

The police had been observing the activity in the hangar for about 40 minutes when this second pick-up truck driven by defendant Lombardo left the hangar area and headed toward Highway 90. In the back of this truck the police had already observed a riding lawn mower of the type which had been reported stolen. Two of the police (one from New Orleans and one from Lafourche) stopped Lombardo as his truck departed the property and was pulling onto Highway 90, and placed him under arrest.

The two other policemen thereupon drove to the hangar and parked their car just outside the hangar and behind the pick-up truck so that it could not be moved. Sgt. O'Neil stated that the relationship between Halter Marine and Trans-Gulf Airlines, owner of the hangar was not clear, but they learned that there was a "working relationship between Trans-Gulf and Halter. Trans-Gulf operates that with a lease, something like that." Sgt. O'Neil also stated that the hangar was on Halter Marine's property. From Barbara Johnson, resident manager of Trans-Gulf Airlines, the police secured permission to enter and search the hangar.

Much of the stolen property was spread on the floor of the hangar. Some was in the back of the pick-up truck which belonged to defendant Mullen and other of it had been hidden by Mullen inside the hangar. Mullen retrieved the hidden property for the police. Ms. Johnson informed the police that Littleton was in the Trans-Gulf office located about 40 feet from the hangar.

The state concedes that there was no search warrant, but argues that the search falls within an exception to the warrant requirement. Defendant's position is that there was time for the police to have obtained a warrant and consequently their failure to do so mandates that the evidence seized without a warrant be suppressed.

It is well settled that warrantless searches and seizures are per se unreasonable *1211 unless they fall within a limited number of well delineated exceptions to the warrant requirement. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973); State v. Malone, 503 So.2d 1234 (La.1981); State v. Denton, 387 So.2d 578 (La.1980). One of these exceptions is the "automobile emergency exception" which is based upon the existence of probable cause to search the vehicle and exigent circumstances which make it impracticable to secure a warrant. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971); State v. Edsall, 385 So.2d 207 (La.1980); State v. Guzman, 362 So.2d 744 (La.1978).

In our opinion, the stop of Lombardo's truck and the seizure of the lawnmower (and a go-cart which was observed alongside it as the truck approached the police) from the bed of the truck falls within the scope of the "automobile emergency exception" to the search warrant requirement. The truck, in the bed of which was seen the stolen lawnmower and go-cart, was being driven from the hangar. Under these circumstances it was reasonable for the police to stop the truck and seize the lawnmower.

The observation of the stolen property which was located in the back of Mullen's truck and in the hangar was made from a public road—U.S. Highway 90, or the shoulder thereof. In this situation, there was technically no search, because there was no intrusion upon private property. State v. Brown, 370 So.2d 525 (La. 1979).

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State v. Littleton, 407 So. 2d 1208 (La. 1981).

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