State v. Palmer

438 P.2d 876, 73 Wash. 2d 462, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 653
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1968
Docket39739, 39741
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 438 P.2d 876 (State v. Palmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Palmer, 438 P.2d 876, 73 Wash. 2d 462, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 653 (Wash. 1968).

Opinion

Evans, J.

The defendants, Palmer and Phillips, were separately charged by information with the crime of armed robbery. Palmer was charged with robbery while acting in concert with Floyd Ray Phillips, and Phillips was charged with robbery while acting in concert with Robert H. Palmer. The two cases were consolidated for trial, and each *464 defendant appeals from judgment and sentence based upon a verdict of the jury finding him guilty as charged.

There was ample evidence to support the verdict of guilty as to each defendant. Neither defendant challenges the sufficiency of that evidence.

Both defendants assign as error the court’s denial of their motions to suppress evidence.

January 9, 1967, at approximately 3:15 p.m., the manager of Safeway store No. 225, located in Walla Walla, Washington, was robbed of approximately $547 in United States currency. The police were immediately notified, and investigating officers arrived at the scene within a few minutes, where they interviewed the victim and other eyewitnesses. As a result of information they received at the scene, the officers relayed to other law enforcement agencies within the area the information that the automobile used in the robbery was a 1965 Ford, brown, with a dirty white top, which had clothes hanging in the back. The possible license number prefix was “A” or “R.” Two men were involved in the robbery. One of them was described as having black hair, wearing a red sweater and dark trousers, and the other was described as “being in his 20’s.”

The report of this robbery and the above description were received by Walla Walla County Deputy Sheriff James Shannon, who immediately drove to the approach to the Snake River bridge which connects Walla Walla County and Franklin County. Approximately 45 minutes after receiving the description of the suspects and car, Deputy Sheriff Shannon observed the approach of a 1965 Ford, two-door, brown, with a cream-colored top, with clothes hanging in the back. It had Arizona license plates. There were two men in the car, one, a man approximately 23 years of age, and the other, wearing a red jacket. Deputy Sheriff Shannon immediately called for assistance from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. Two Franklin County officers were in the area and came to his assistance. The 1965 Ford was stopped. The defendant Palmer, who was driving, and defendant Phillips, who was also in the front seat, were ordered from the automobile 'and searched. At *465 this time, Deputy Sheriff Shannon observed a dollar bill on the floor in the rear of the automobile in front of the back seat. A search of the automobile was begun. The hood of the car was lifted and, between the battery and the fender, a .45 caliber automatic pistol and a brown paper sack containing currency were discovered.

The motion to suppress the gun, the sack of currency, and the dollar bill is without merit. Clearly, the officers had probable cause for making the arrest. State v. Bellows, 72 Wn.2d 264, 432 P.2d 654 (1967). It is equally clear that these items were seized as an incident to that lawful arrest. State v. Green, 70 Wn.2d 955, 959, 425 P.2d 913 (1967).

Before the search of the car had been completed and because of a traffic hazard which was being created by curious motorists at the scene of the arrest, the 1965 Ford was moved to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, 2% miles from the scene of the arrest. The trip took approximately 5 minutes. At the sheriff’s office, the trunk of the automobile was immediately opened, where clothing was found which fit the description of that'worn by the robber. In the clothing was found a note, which at the trial was offered as the same note which was handed to the manager of the Safeway store by the robber.

In support of their motion to suppress the clothing and the note found in the trunk, defendants rely upon Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 11 L. Ed. 2d 777, 84 Sup. Ct. 881 (1964). However, a careful analysis of Preston, in the light of Cooper v. California, 386 U.S. 58, 17 L. Ed. 2d 730, 87 Sup. Ct. 788 (1967), clearly indicates that Preston does not apply to the present factual situation.

In Cooper v. California, supra, the court, in discussing and distinguishing the Preston case, states, at 61:

Preston was arrested for vagrancy. An arresting officer took his car to the station rather than just leaving it on the street. It was not suggested that this was done other than for Preston’s convenience or that the police had any right to impound the car and keep it from Preston or whomever he might send for it. The fact that the police had custody of Preston’s car was totally unrelated to the *466 vagrancy charge for which they arrested him. So was their subsequent search of the car.

The court then continues:

This case is neither Preston nor controlled by it. Here the officers seized petitioner’s car because they were required to do so by state law. They seized it because of the crime for which they arrested petitioner. They seized it to impound it and they had to keep it until forfeiture proceedings were concluded. Their subsequent search of the car —whether the State had “legal title” to it or not — was closely related to the reason petitioner was arrested, the reason his car had been impounded, and the reason it was being retained. The forfeiture of petitioner’s car did not take place until over four months after it was lawfully seized. It would be unreasonable to hold that the police, having to retain the car in their custody for such a length of time, had no right, even for their own protection, to search it. It is no answer to say that the police could have obtained a search warrant, for “[t]he relevant test is not whether it is reasonable to procure a search warrant, but whether the search was reasonable.” United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 66. Under the circumstances of this case, we cannot hold unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment the examination or search of a car validly held by officers for use as evidence in a forfeiture proceeding.

In Cooper, the officers were required by state law to seize the car. In the present case the officers had a right to seize the car as an incident to a lawful arrest. In Cooper, the officers were required to retain the car in their custody until forfeiture proceedings were concluded and they had a right to search it while in their custody. In the present case, the officers had a right to retain the car in their custody as evidence until the robbery proceedings were concluded. They also had a right to search it while in their custody.

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State v. Cottrell
542 P.2d 771 (Washington Supreme Court, 1975)
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520 P.2d 1404 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1974)
State v. Knapp
509 P.2d 410 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1973)
State v. Rose
498 P.2d 897 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1972)
State v. Jordan
487 P.2d 617 (Washington Supreme Court, 1971)
State v. Palmer
487 P.2d 627 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1971)
State v. Haugen
476 P.2d 132 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1970)
State v. Todd
474 P.2d 542 (Washington Supreme Court, 1970)
State v. Henneke
470 P.2d 176 (Washington Supreme Court, 1970)
State v. Gibson
459 P.2d 22 (Washington Supreme Court, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
438 P.2d 876, 73 Wash. 2d 462, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-palmer-wash-1968.