State v. Thompson

364 P.2d 527, 58 Wash. 2d 598, 1961 Wash. LEXIS 349
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 31, 1961
Docket35390
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 364 P.2d 527 (State v. Thompson) 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. Thompson, 364 P.2d 527, 58 Wash. 2d 598, 1961 Wash. LEXIS 349 (Wash. 1961).

Opinions

Mallery, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment and sentence for the crime of murder in the second degree. The appellant is an eighteen-year-old Canadian Indian boy from Deroche, British Columbia. He has a ninth-grade education and is an enrolled member of the Sumas Lakahahmen Tribe No. 52.

On June 14, 1958, he came from his home in Canada to take part in the Stommish, a yearly Indian festival held on the Lummi Indian Reservation near Bellingham. He had been drinking beer in Canada during the morning and continued drinking after his arrival in Bellingham at about 1:00 p. m. At about 8:30 p. m., some friends tried to sober him up in their hotel room. While there, the appellant broke a window, cut himself, and got some blood on his clothing. The friends then went to a movie, but the appellant walked down the street by himself. The purpose of his walk appears in these excerpts from his confessions:

“. . . What really made this thing happen was a couple of girls that came back to my mind, that I had seen at the Stommish; that were wearing both tight jeans and blouses or sweaters. ...” (Exhibit No. 30.)

“ . . . at that time things that I needed badly had overpowered me, so I went after girl took her beside house, laid for awhile, with nothing happening carried her to back of house near the swings. Though desperate for what I needed fled from her screams. Ran a few blocks then walked, ...” (Exhibit No. 30.)

“When I saw the woman, near the house, on T St. I do not remember what I said to her. I do know that I intended to have sexual intercourse with her. I remember struggling with her and dragging her up on the lawn.

“When I grabbed the little girl, I had the urge to have sexual intercourse with her also. However I did not have sexual intercourse with the woman or the girl.” (Exhibit No. 34.)

[601]*601At about 9:00 p. m., Mrs. Tussing left her home at the corner of I and Girard streets to take her daugher to the Peterson home to baby sit. Mrs. Tussing did not return home when expected, and her husband called his daughter at the Peterson’s and was told she had left some túne ago. Shortly after 11:00 p. m., he went out the back door of his home and started to walk down the alley toward the Peter-sons. Just past the corner of his home, he found his wife lying on the ground. She was bleeding, her eyes were black and swollen shut, and she was naked from the waist down. One of her shoes was in the parking strip. He got some blankets to cover her and then went and got his daughter, who called the police.

The police received the call at 11:45 p. m. and arrived on the scene about five minutes later. Mrs. Tussing was then removed to St. Joseph’s hospital where she died a few hours later. The cause of her death was a hemorrhage of the brain caused by a fractured skull.

The following is an excerpt from the appellant’s confession:

“Three police officers just took me out to the 2300 block on I Street where I remember being on Saturday night, June 14th. They showed me a house and some blood on the sidewalk and I went with them up between the house at 2301 I St. and the next house where I remember standing over a woman who was lying on her back on the ground by the house. I walked to the back of the house I remember and then came back and took off her underpants and threw them on the ground when a noise in the house scared me so I left. I don’t know which way I went from there.” (Exhibit No. 31.)

Aaron J. Sunel testified that he had seen the appellant standing at the corner of Girard and I streets at approximately 8:50 p. m.

The appellant further confessed:

“ . . . I don’t remember anything till I found myself standing over this woman beside the house, from there I walked to the back of the house then turned around and went back to the woman, took off her underpants, I then heard a noise, like it came from the house, without waiting [602]*602to see what it was fled, after starting to run my mind just went blank till I saw this girl and took her through the hedge, to the side of the house, then we laid for awhile, with nothing happening took her into neighbors yard to where I saw some swings. Right then the girl screamed then I fled, and don’t remember which way I went from there till I reached this Service Station. I went to washroom after I came out I told the attendant to phone a cab for me so that I could go to a dance at Lummi.” (Exhibit No. 32.)

The girl referred to in the confession was eleven-year-old Sharon Sharp, who lived at 2009 I street three blocks from the Tussing home. She had been visiting a friend that evening and, shortly after 9:00 p. m., started to walk home. As she crossed the street, appellant seized her, put his hand over her mouth, took her behind a neighbor’s house, and tried to rape her. She managed to break away and started screaming. The appellant fled. She then ran home and told her mother what had happened. Her mother went across the street to a telephone and called the police. They received the call at 9:32 p. m. As she and Sharon were returning home, Sharon saw the appellant whom she identified to her mother as her molester. They had followed him a short distance down the street, when they saw the police car driven by Sergeant Bullard, who had been dispatched to the scene in response to Mrs. Sharp’s call.

Sergeant Bullard had observed appellant walking down the street and the Sharps following him. Thinking the mother and daughter might be the persons who had called the police, he stopped and waited for them to come back to the police car. When they got there, they told him what had happened and described the appellant to him. He radioed the description to the police radio operator, took the Sharps in the police car and searched the neighboring streets for the appellant, but did not find him. He then took the Sharps to the police station.

At 9:55 p. m., Sergeant Bullard’s description was relayed to all police cars over the radio. Officer Flockoi, in obedience to the police broadcast, proceeded toward the section of the city in which the Sharps lived. At 10:05 p. m., he [603]*603saw the appellant, who answered the description of the radio broadcast, standing in front of the Evergreen Service Station on the corner of Dupont and C streets, approximately twelve blocks from the Sharp home. As he stopped, he observed that the appellant had fresh blood and grass stains on his trousers and that there was a fresh scratch or cut on his face. While questioning him, Officer Flockoi detected the odor of alcohol on his breath. When asked who he was, appellant identified himself as Henry Thompson and stated that he was eighteen years old. He said that he had come to the service station to wash up and to call a cab. Officer Flockoi then called Sergeant Bullard on the radio.

When Sergeant Bullard arrived he also observed the blood and grass stains, the scratch on the face, and the odor of alcohol. Believing that he had found the molester of Sharon Sharp, the Sergeant then took appellant to the police station for further interrogation. This was shortly before Mr. Tussing had reported finding his dying wife in the alley at about 11:00 p. m.

The appellant’s counsel as their first assignment of error contend that the arrest by the police was illegal and, therefore, all evidence and exhibits obtained thereby should have been excluded.

We hold that the arrest was lawful. The rule is that an officer may arrest without a warrant if he believes and

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State v. Thompson
364 P.2d 527 (Washington Supreme Court, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
364 P.2d 527, 58 Wash. 2d 598, 1961 Wash. LEXIS 349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thompson-wash-1961.