State v. Simpson

1950 OK CR 80, 219 P.2d 639, 91 Okla. Crim. 418, 1950 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 230
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 14, 1950
DocketA-11179
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1950 OK CR 80 (State v. Simpson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Simpson, 1950 OK CR 80, 219 P.2d 639, 91 Okla. Crim. 418, 1950 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 230 (Okla. Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

JONES, P. J.

Bill Simpson and R. E. Tillery were charged by an information filed in the county court of Pottawatomie county with the offense of illegal transportation of intoxicating liquor. The defendants filed a motion to suppress the evidence, in which it was alleged that the search and seizure of the intoxicating liquor, which formed the basis for the prosecution, was in violation of the constitutional rights of the defendants. Evidence was taken at the hearing on the motion to suppress the evidence and at the conclusion of the hearing the trial court sustained the motion. Thereupon upon further motion of the defendants to dismiss the prosecution the court entered an order dismissing the case against the defendants and discharging their bond.

*421 This appeal was taken by the state from the action of the court, and the reserved question of law presented by the appeal is that the trial court allegedly erred in sustaining the motion to suppress evidence.

At the hearing on the motion to suppress evidence, it was disclosed that Delbert Motley and Herbert Stroud, two deputy sheriffs of Pottawatomie county, had information that the defendant Tillery was engaged in the illegal sale of whisky. On September 7, 1948, Motley placed a telephone call to phone No. 393 in the city of Shawnee, which was the telephone number of Tillery. When the person answered the call Motley asked if it was Ray and the answer was “yes”. Motley then said, “I am Ed Edwards and I operate Ed’s Paint and Body Shop on East Highland Street”. Motley further said, “I would like to have some whisky for a party”, and the person answered, “I will try to see you”. The call was placed by Motley at 3:30 p. m. and Motley directed the person to deliver the whisky at Ed’s Paint and Body Shop at 4:30 p. m. At 4:10 p. m. the defendant Bill Simpson drove an automobile up in front of Ed’s Paint and Body Shop. Ed Edwards, the owner of the place, asked him if he had anything to drink and when Simpson saw the officers answered, “not right now”. Motley testified that he and Stroud walked out to the car which Simpson was driving and Simpson threw his leg over a package on the seat, and that he heard some bottles rattle; that Officer Stroud inquired, “What do you have in that sack?” and Simpson said, “sandwiches”; that Stroud asked to look in the sack and Simpson objected and said, “You have no authority to do that”, but that Stroud went ahead over the protest of Simpson, seized the sack, examined it, and found three pints of Seagram whisky in it. They then arrested the defend *422 ant, took him to jail, and upon returning to the car and searching it, found additional whisky concealed in the automobile. Motley was asked the specific question as to whether either he or Stroud knew that there was whisky in the car, to which he answered, “We knew that this car had been delivering whisky, but at that time we did not know whether there was whisky in the car or not”. The officers had no warrant for the arrest of either Simpson or Tillery and had no search warrant for the automobile.

The search of the automobile is attempted to be justified on the theory that a misdemeanor had been committed in the presence of the officers, which justified the arrest of the accused and the search of his automobile. However, the principal contention of the state is that the officers acted upon' a belief reasonably arising out of the circumstances known to the searching officers, that the automobile contained contraband whisky, and that a search without a warrant upon such reasonable belief • was valid. This is the probable cause rule followed in many decisions of the Federal Courts: Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S. Ct. 280, 69 L. Ed. 543, 39 A.L.R. 790; Husty v. United States, 282 U.S. 694, 51 S. Ct. 240, 75 L. Ed. 629, 74 A.L.R. 1407; Scher v. United States, 305 U.S. 251, 59 S. Ct. 174, 83 L. Ed. 151.

Oklahoma does not follow the federal rule in this regard. The .Constitution and statutes of Oklahoma as interpreted by the decisions of this court for more than 40 years is that where the offense is not a felony an officer cannot arrest without a warrant, unless the offense was committed or attempted in his presence, and, where the officer does not know of the act constituting the offense, it is not committed in his presence. Bowdry *423 v. State, 64 Okla. Cr. 86, 77 P. 2d 753; Tucker v. State, 62 Okla. Cr. 406, 71 P. 2d 1092; Taylor et al. v. State, 36 Okla. Cr. 431, 255 P. 157; Jones v. State, 82 Okla. Cr. 91, 166 P. 2d 443; Bowen v. State, 50 Okla. Cr. 36, 295 P. 623; Lamb v. State, 59 Okla. Cr. 360, 60 P. 2d 219.

The facts in the instant case are similar to those in Jones v. State, supra. There, two officers saw a known bootlegger parked about % of a mile off the highway. They turned off the highway to investigate, but before they reached the parked car the defendant bootlegger started it and commenced driving it toward the officers’ car. The officers turned on their red warning light and stopped. When the defendant reached the officers’ car he attempted to drive around it but one of the officers jumped on the fender of defendant’s automobile and jerked the ignition key out of the switch, forcing the defendant to stop. On the floor behind the seat was a one gallon jug of whisky. This court reversed the conviction on the ground that the search and seizure was not reasonable and not as an incident of a lawful arrest. The following syllabi of that case shows the rules of law which are folloAved. by this court in passing upon questions of a similar nature:

“An officer without a Avarrant cannot arrest for an offense which was not a felony, unless offense was committed or attempted in his presence.
“A peace officer may arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor only where the misdemeanor is committed or attempted in his 'presence,’ and if the officer is unaware of the act constituting the misdemeanor, it is not committed in his 'presence.’
“Whether a search of or seizure from an automobile without a. warrant is unreasonable, Avithin the meaning of the constitutional provision forbidding unreasonable *424 searches and seizures, is a judicial question to be determined in each case, viewing all facts and circumstances under which the search or seizure was made.
“A search of an automobile without a search warrant and not as an incident of a lawful arrest, and not on any probable cause of the commission of a felony, but on mere suspicion, violates the constitutional provision forbidding unreasonable searches or seizures, and evidence obtained by such a search is inadmissible.”

In this case the officers had strong suspicion that the defendant Simpson was transporting whisky in response to the telephone call which they had placed, but they did not see any whisky until after the search and seizure of the defendant Simpson’s car was made over his protest. The action of the officers was unlawful and the court properly excluded the evidence thus obtained insofar as the defendant Simpson was concerned.

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Related

Hughes v. State
1976 OK CR 164 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Embree v. State
1971 OK CR 298 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1971)
Bagwell v. State
327 P.2d 479 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1958)
Brinegar v. State
1953 OK CR 135 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Reece v. State
1953 OK CR 98 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Trent v. State
1952 OK CR 33 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1952)
Leach v. State
1951 OK CR 123 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1951)
Humphries v. State
1951 OK CR 120 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1951)

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Bluebook (online)
1950 OK CR 80, 219 P.2d 639, 91 Okla. Crim. 418, 1950 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-simpson-oklacrimapp-1950.