State v. Moore

596 S.W.2d 841, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 277
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 25, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 596 S.W.2d 841 (State v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Moore, 596 S.W.2d 841, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 277 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

WALKER, Presiding Judge.

The appellants, Donnie Lee Moore, Frank James Weaver and Deborah Louise Sovas-tian were jointly tried and convicted in Knox County of second degree burglary of the house of Marie and Bob Jackson. In accordance with the verdict, Moore was sentenced to not less than six nor more than 15 years; Weaver to not less than six nor more than 12 years; and Sovastian to not less *843 than three nor more than three years in the penitentiary. In the bifurcated trial, evidence was then heard under counts of the indictment charging Moore and Weaver with being habitual criminals and they were both found guilty. Their punishment was enhanced to life imprisonment. All appeal to this court.

The appellants attack the sufficiency of the convicting evidence and also contend that the trial judge erred in denying a motion for judgment of acquittal because the proof failed to establish a burglary of a residence.

The state’s proof, which the jury accredited, showed that Marie Jackson, along with her mother Ethel Robinson, left her home to go out to lunch at about 11:45 a. m. on November 8, 1978. They returned to Mrs. Jackson’s home shortly after 1:00 p. m. and found a blue Ford Mustang in the driveway. Mrs. Jackson thought that the car belonged to a customer waiting for her to return since she had converted her garage into a drapery shop. However, when someone looked out the shop window, the occupants of the car appeared to be startled and .they drove away hurriedly. At trial, both Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Robinson identified appellants Weaver and Sovastian as the occupants of the blue car. Mrs. Jackson identified appellant Moore as the individual who looked out the shop window.

The locks on two rear doors, which had earlier been intact, were broken. One of the doors opened into a utility room which connected the house to the shop and the other door opened into the dining room of the house. An inspection of the interior revealed that the entire house had been ransacked. Two shotguns, a radio, and some bed linen were found in the back yard.

One of the Jackson’s neighbors, Margaret Smith, saw two individuals emerge from the Jackson home. She identified appellant Moore as one of these individuals. One carried a bag and wore gloves.

A description of the car, which bore a temporary tag instead of a license plate, and its occupants was given to the police. Less than 15 minutes later, the appellants and a juvenile companion were stopped within a quarter of a mile from the Jackson home in a blue Mustang which had a temporary license.

Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Smith were immediately taken by a police officer to the place where the appellants had been stopped. Mrs. Jackson identified the car and the appellants. Mrs. Smith identified Moore as the individual she saw leaving the house.

Appellant Sovastian testified that she and appellant Weaver went to appellant Moore’s sister’s house around 1:30 p. m. and stayed until 2:00 p. m. She further testified that they were on their way to help a friend fix his car when stopped by the police. Moore’s sister testified that the appellants did not leave her house until 2:00 p. m. Appellants Moore and Weaver did not testify.

A guilty verdict resolves all conflicts in the testimony in favor of the state and establishes the state’s theory of the case. Yearwood v. State, 2 Tenn.Cr.App. 552, 455 S.W.2d 612 (1970). Taking the strongest legitimate view of the evidence in the state’s favor, State v. Pritchett, 524 S.W.2d 470 (Tenn.1975), we are unable to say that there is insufficient evidence to justify a rational trier of fact in finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Consequently, no error was committed in denying the motion for judgment of acquittal. State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832 (Tenn.1978). This claim is without merit.

In the appellants’ next issue, they claim the trial court erred in allowing the identification testimony of Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Smith into evidence. They contend that the procedure of taking the women to the scene of the arrest was so suggestive as to violate due process of law. They do not contend that the police did anything to induce a false identification other than conducting this showup procedure. In Marsh v. State, 561 S.W.2d 767 (Tenn.Cr.App.1977), we said that: “One-to-one lineups are condemned and their use is highly *844 suspect.” However, we did recognize that imperative circumstances may justify such a procedure. We feel that on-the-scene investigatory confrontations within a reasonable time after the commission of an offense are permissible. In Bates v. United States, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 36, 38, 405 F.2d 1104, 1106 (1968), Judge Burger said:

“There is no prohibition against a viewing of a suspect alone in what is called a ‘one-man showup’ when this occurs near the time of the alleged criminal act; such a course does not tend to bring about misidentification but rather tends under some circumstances to insure accuracy. The rationale underlying this is in some respects not unlike that which the law relies on to make an exception to the hearsay rule, allowing spontaneous utterances a standing which they would not be given if uttered at a later point in time. An early identification is not error. Of course, proof of infirmities and subjective factors, such as hysteria of a witness, can be explored on cross-examination and in argument. Prudent police work would confine these on-the-spot identifications to situations in which possible doubts as to identification needed to be resolved promptly; absent such need the conventional line-up viewing is the appropriate procedure.
“. . . To the contrary, the police action in returning the suspect to the vicinity of the crime for immediate identification in circumstances such as these fosters the desirable objectives of fresh, accurate identification which in some instances may lead to the immediate release of an innocent suspect and at the same time enable the police to resume the search for the fleeing culprit while the trail is fresh.”

Likewise, in Jones v. United States, 277 A.2d 95 (D.C.App.1971), it was said:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
596 S.W.2d 841, 1980 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moore-tenncrimapp-1980.