Thomas v. State

645 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 668704
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1994
Docket91-KA-0289
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 645 So. 2d 1345 (Thomas v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. State, 645 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 668704 (Mich. 1994).

Opinion

645 So.2d 1345 (1994)

Charles E. THOMAS
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 91-KA-0289.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 1, 1994.

*1346 William M. Frisbie, Kiln, for appellant.

Michael C. Moore, Atty. Gen., John R. Henry, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Before HAWKINS, C.J., and McRAE and JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr., JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

This appeal arises from the March 2, 1991, judgment of the Sunflower County Circuit Court, wherein Charles E. Thomas was convicted of one count of burglary and two counts of rape. Thomas was sentenced as a habitual offender to fifteen (15) years on the burglary count and twenty (20) years on each count of rape, in custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with all sentences to run concurrently, with no possibility of parole. On appeal, Thomas raises the following:

I. The trial court erred when it overruled Thomas' pretrial suppression motion.
II. Thomas was denied due process of the law as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Mississippi by a one day delay in bringing him before a magistrate for his initial appearance.
III. The trial court erred in refusing a jury instruction dealing with the identification of Thomas.

Finding no error in the trial below, we affirm the judgment of the lower court.

FACTS

On the night of June 12, 1990, sixty-six-year-old Mary Pearson awoke from sleep to find a naked man on top of her. He proceeded to rape her. No lights were on in her room, and, as a result, she was not able to identify her assailant. She did, however, testify that he was a young, well-built black man with short, curly hair. Pearson testified that after the young man raped her, he went into her bathroom and brought her a wet cloth to wash herself. He then raped her again. Pearson's assailant left the premises after threatening to kill her if she told anyone he had been there. Once he left, she ran to her next door neighbor's house and called the police.

City of Drew Police Chief Burner Smith was at home on the early morning of June 13, 1990, when he overheard the radio dispatcher send a patrolman to the scene of a rape. Since Chief Smith lived only a few blocks away from Charles Thomas, a suspect in several prior prowler calls and an earlier attempted rape, he drove toward Thomas' house and saw Thomas standing on a street corner near his house. As he drove slowly past Thomas' house, he saw distinctive footprints in the yard, similar to prints found at the scene of the aforementioned attempted rape, which had occurred two weeks previously. Chief Smith testified that, after the attempted rape, Thomas was identified by an individual as the person fleeing the attempted rape scene with police officers in pursuit.

On the night in question, after seeing Thomas on the street corner, Chief Smith drove to the police station, took a deputy *1347 sheriff with him and returned to Thomas' house. Chief Smith asked Thomas to accompany him to the police station, and Thomas voluntarily went. At the station, Thomas would not answer any questions or make any statements. After placing Thomas in detention, Chief Smith took Thomas' shoes to the crime scene. He interviewed Ms. Pearson and obtained a description of her assailant. Ms. Pearson was taken to the hospital where tests were administered. Samples received from these tests were sent to the Mississippi Crime Lab and the sperm taken from the victim's vagina was sent to the FBI Laboratory for DNA testing.

In the meantime, footprints like those left at the scene of the earlier attempted rape and at the scenes of several prowler complaints had been found in oil spots in the victim's carport by Officer Albert Robinson. Other footprints, left by the same type of shoe, were found in loose dirt near Ms. Pearson's house. Officer Robinson called for the canine unit from Parchman to assist. One of the bloodhounds tracked the scent from the footprints found at the crime scene to the defendant's house. In addition, the footprints matched the tread of the shoe worn by the defendant.

Thomas was taken to the hospital where blood and hair samples were taken. These samples were tested in the Mississippi Crime Lab and were sent to the FBI laboratory for DNA testing. At trial, an FBI special agent testified that the DNA test results showed Thomas to be the person whose sperm was found in the victim's vagina, and that the chance the sample was from another person was only one in two million.

Thomas was arrested without a warrant in the early morning of June 13, 1990, and his initial appearance was held in Justice Court in Sunflower County, Mississippi, the next day, June 14, 1990. On November 20, 1990, an indictment was returned charging Thomas with two counts of rape and one count of burglary of an occupied dwelling. A motion to suppress was filed on February 18, 1991, requesting the exclusion of a DNA analysis and any evidence regarding Thomas' shoe prints allegedly found at the scene of the crime. The said motion was heard and overruled by the circuit court on February 19, 1991. At trial, Thomas was convicted on all three counts, and because Thomas had previously been convicted of two separate felonies arising from unrelated incidents, the trial court sentenced him as an habitual offender.

LAW

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT OVERRULED THOMAS' PRETRIAL SUPPRESSION MOTION?

Thomas was functionally arrested when Chief Smith escorted him to the police station and later placed him in a detention cell. "A person is under arrest when by means of physical force or a show of authority his or her freedom of movement is effectively restricted. A person is under arrest when he is in custody and not free to leave." Nicholson v. State, 523 So.2d 68 (Miss. 1988) (Robertson, J. concurring). See Floyd v. State, 500 So.2d 989, 992 (Miss. 1986), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 816, 108 S.Ct. 68, 98 L.Ed.2d 32 (1987); Swainer v. State, 473 So.2d 180, 186 (Miss. 1985). Thomas argues that his motion to suppress should have been granted, since the evidence was illegally obtained due to the fact that there existed no probable cause for his warrantless arrest. Accordingly, we must entertain the question of whether there was probable cause to arrest Thomas without a warrant.

In Shell v. State, 554 So.2d 887 (Miss. 1989), rev'd on other grounds, 595 So.2d 1323 (1992), we upheld the admission of certain evidence and enunciated:

This Court has summed up the requirements for probable cause which would support a warrantless arrest in the following manner:
[A] police officer must have (1) reasonable cause to believe a felony has been committed; and (2) reasonable cause to believe that the person proposed to be arrested is the one who committed it.
Floyd v. State, 500 So.2d 989, 991 (Miss. 1986). See also, Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1327 (Miss. 1987); Rule 1.02(3), Miss. Unif.Crim.R.Cir.Ct.Prac.
*1348 Along these lines, the Court has also held that:
The existence of `probable cause' or `reasonable grounds' justifying an arrest without a warrant is determined by factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. The determination depends upon the particular evidence and circumstances of the individual case.
Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1327 (Miss.

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Bluebook (online)
645 So. 2d 1345, 1994 WL 668704, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-state-miss-1994.