Van Zandt v. State

402 S.W.2d 130, 218 Tenn. 187, 22 McCanless 187, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 637
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 2, 1966
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 402 S.W.2d 130 (Van Zandt v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Zandt v. State, 402 S.W.2d 130, 218 Tenn. 187, 22 McCanless 187, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 637 (Tenn. 1966).

Opinions

MR. Justice White

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Upon presentation of the assignments of error and argument in support thereof at the bar of the Court, counsel for Van Zandt stated that these two cases could be disposed of in one opinion, which we now proceed to do.

[190]*190In each, case the plaintiff in error was indicted on January 22, 1965, in a three-connt indictment, charging burglary, larceny, and receiving and concealing a coin telephone. In Case No. 55, the coin telephone was allegedly tafeen from the Manor Apartments, located at 107 Evergreen Lane, Knoxville, Tennessee, and in Case No. 58, the telephone was allegedly taken from 224 State Street, Knoxville, Tennessee. In Case No. 55 the plaintiff in error was convicted of petit larceny and sentenced to serve six months in the Knox County Workhouse. In Case No. 58, he was convicted of petit larceny and sentenced to serve eleven months and twenty-nine days in the Knox County Workhouse.

In each case the motion for a new trial was overruled and an appeal has been perfected to this Court, in which the assignments of error are exactly the same, towit:

The Court erred in permitting the introduction into evidence of the written statement of confession or admission against interest taken by the witness, C. W. Swift, on or about October 15,1964, because said statement was taken in violation of the defendant’s rights under the United States Constitution, including but not limited to the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and taken also in violation of his rights under the Constitution of the State of Tennessee.
There is no proof of the corpus delicti.
There was no material evidence introduced upon the trial of the cause to support the verdict of the jury.
The evidence preponderates against the verdict and in favor of the innocence of the defendant, Davis Yan Zandt.
[191]*191The Court erred in admitting into evidence a pay telephone, said telephone not having been properly identified as having anything whatsoever to do with the case on trial.

The State, in its brief, has correctly summarized the assignments of error in the following language: (1) the evidence preponderates against the verdict and in favor of the innocence of the defendant, in that there is no competent evidence in the record to show that the defendant committed the crime of petit larceny; (2) the court erred in permitting the State to introduce into evidence a written confession of the defendant because said confession was taken in violation of the defendant’s constitutional right in that he was not afforded counsel prior to the soliciting of his confession; (3) there is no proof of corpus delicti; (4) the court erred in admitting into evidence a coin telephone on the ground that the telephone was not properly identified as the one which was allegedly stolen from the Southern Bell Telephone Company.

In Case No. 55 the State contends that the defendant, along with some others, ripped a telephone from the wall of an apartment house known as the Manor Apartments in Knoxville, took the money out of it, and threw it into a lake.

C. "W. Swift, Security Supervisor of the Eastern Division of Southern Bell Telephone Company, testified that pursuant to his investigation of the theft of a company telephone located in the Manor Apartments, he, along with an associate, went to the Anderson County Jail, on October 15,1964, where the defendant was being held by the Sheriff and talked with him. The defendant gave bim a statement and upon the introduction of such [192]*192statement being offered into evidence, tbe trial judge very properly excused tbe jury and heard tbe testimony to-determine its admissibility.

In the absence of tbe jury, Swift testified that prior to asking tbe defendant any questions, be told him that be did not have to talk to him; that be could remain silent; and that any statement that be made could be used as evidence against him in a court of law. He said the defendant never requested permission to see an attorney and that tbe defendant freely and voluntarily gave him a statement.

Yan Zandt testified, in tbe absence of tbe jury, that be was arrested in Anderson County, on October 12, 1964, and that on tbe following morning be was interrogated by tbe Sheriff for two or three hours; that during this interrogation be told tbe Sheriff that be would like to have a lawyer; and that tbe Sheriff replied: “If I knew one I could call. ” Yan Zandt also testified that the Sheriff gave him permission to call bis people when it appeared that be did not know any lawyer.

Yan Zandt said further that be bad never been threatened by anybody prior to giving tbe statement to Mr. Swift. He said, however, that tbe Sheriff told him when be was trying to get him to confess that if be would cooperate tbe Sheriff would do all that be could to help him. Tbe defendant also testified that on several days following bis arrest be was questioned by law officers from four different counties.

Tbe trial court, after bearing this evidence and examining tbe written statement given to Swift, held that it was voluntarily given and that tbe defendant bad not been denied right to counsel. He, therefore, permitted the [193]*193introduction of the written confession but in so doing excluded certain parts of the confession which dealt only with the indictment in Case No. 58.

In the confession Van Zandt said that about three or four weeks prior to his arrest, he and some others whom he would not identify ripped coin telephones from five apartment houses in Knoxville. He said that the coin telephones were taken during the early morning hours between 1:00 A.M. and 5:00 A.M., and he admitted that he ripped a coin telephone from the wall at the Manor Apartments in the Fountain City area of Knox County.

Swift said that the defendant told him that after the telephone had been opened and the coins removed therefrom, he had thrown the telephone into a lake off North Shore Drive in Knoxville. Swift checked the lake but was unable to find the telephone. He later found it in possession of the Sheriff of Knox County, where he examined it.

Swift testified that the particular coin telephone taken from Manor Apartments had a serial and lock number and that the company had a record of each of these numbers.

He said that the company possessed a separate key which would open each coin telephone and that there was no master key to the cash compartment. He said that the telephone which was missing from the Manor Apartments had a key number E-60841, and that he had a key whose serial number matched the E-60841. Upon being shown a coin telephone the same was identified by Mr. Swift by its serial number as the one missing from the Manor Apartments. He inserted the key into the coin telephone which came from the company and it opened the cash compartment readily. He also called attention to the fact [194]*194that the number on the key was the same number as that on the telephone. He placed a value of $17.00 on the coin telephone taken from the Manor Apartments.

On cross-examination, Mr. Swift admitted that he had never been in the Manor Apartments and had never examined the wall where the coin telephone had allegedly been located.

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Bluebook (online)
402 S.W.2d 130, 218 Tenn. 187, 22 McCanless 187, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 637, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-zandt-v-state-tenn-1966.