Watts v. State

435 So. 2d 129, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2952
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedMarch 2, 1982
Docket6 Div. 635
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 435 So. 2d 129 (Watts v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watts v. State, 435 So. 2d 129, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2952 (Ala. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

DeCARLO, Judge.

Receiving stolen property in the first degree; five years.

On January 3,1981 it was discovered that the Blue Bell manufacturing company in Hanceville in Cullman County had been burglarized. The plant had closed on December 19, 1980 for the Christmas holidays and was not scheduled to resume production until January 5, 1981. It was ascertained that approximately 150 dozen Wrangler and Rustler denim blue jeans and 46 dozen corduroy blue jeans, which were produced at the Hanceville plant, were missing.

The Hanceville plant did not distribute the jeans it manufactured directly to customers. Instead, all the jeans it manufactured were tied together with cord into bundles of twelve pairs to a bundle and shipped to Blue Bell’s distributing plant in Oneonta. From the Oneonta distributing plant the jeans were shipped to customers packed loosely in cartons. The jeans were never shipped from Oneonta to customers packaged as they were received from Hanceville in the string-tied bundles.

There had been no other burglaries or thefts from either the Hanceville or Oneon-ta Blue Bell plants for at least two years. The Rustler style jeans which were shipped from Oneonta to a customer was January 15, 1981. Both customers to whom the Rustler jeans were shipped were from out of State.

On February 3,1981, one month after the Hanceville burglary and theft were discovered, Agent Johnny Nesmith and Captain Davis of the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Cullman County Investigator Ed Lee, Chief Longshore of Etowah County, two FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel went to Martin’s Menswear in Rainbow City in Etowah County looking for stolen Lee and Wrangler jeans. Elton Pierce and Joe Elekes, employees of Blue Bell, accompanied the officers to Martin’s Menswear. Appellant arrived at Martin’s Menswear approximately one hour after the law enforcement officers and was questioned by Captain Davis. Appellant told Captain Davis that he had a “few pair” of Lee jeans at his Jeans Plus store in Centre in Cherokee County. Captain Davis then asked appellant if the officers could go to Centre and look at his store. Appellant told the officers that he had one stop to make before going back to his store, but that he would meet them there in approximately an hour. After this conversation Chief Longshore called Cherokee County and requested that appellant’s Jeans Plus store be kept under surveillance. The sheriff of Cherokee County then instructed Cherokee County Deputy Sheriff Billy Ray to go out to the Jeans Plus store.

Around 2:00 P.M., Deputy Ray saw appellant’s son, Kenneth Watts, pull his red pickup truck from the side of the Jeans Plus store to the front of the building to a door which opened into a storage room. The pick-up truck was owned by Kenneth [131]*131Watts. Appellant had no interest in the vehicle. Deputy Ray next observed Kenneth Watts loading arm loads of string-tied bundles of Wrangler blue jeans onto his truck for approximately twenty to twenty-five minutes. After Kenneth Watts finished loading the bundles of blue jeans onto his truck, he attempted to drive off. Deputy Ray stopped him and told Watts he would have to “back the truck up.” Kenneth Watts got out of the truck and went back inside the Jeans Plus store.

Law enforcement officers who had been at Martin’s Menswear earlier, and Elton Pierce of Blue Bell arrived at appellant’s Jeans Plus store within fifteen to thirty minutes after Kenneth Watts had attempted to drive off with the Wrangler jeans. Appellant arrived a short time later. Appellant was read his Miranda rights and, after making a voluntary and intelligent waiver, made a voluntary statement.

Appellant stated that he had purchased the same Wrangler jeans his son had loaded onto the truck from George Hubbert in Payette for $5.25 per pair on January 9, 1981. Appellant stated that he paid Hub-bert cash for the jeans and did not get a receipt from him. Hubbert denied that he had sold the stolen jeans to appellant. Appellant further stated that he received the jeans from Hubbert in Guin in Marion County. Appellant testified that when he received the jeans in Guin, Hubbert and Max Maddox loaded them into his (appellant’s) van at the back of Maddox’s. Town and County Clothing store.

Appellant admitted that he had called his son and told him to “clean up the store” after he had talked with Officers Davis and Nesmith at Martin’s Menswear in Rainbow City. Appellant told his son to move the jeans from the Jeans Plus store and take them to appellant’s home to make room for “remodeling.”

After appellant’s statement was taken the officers and Mr. Pierce went back outside and began examining the blue jeans which Kenneth Watts had loaded on his truck. Nearly all of the jeans were tied in bundles with the factory machine tie used at Hanceville. Mr. Pierce picked up each bundle and looked at the “joker ticket” on the top and bottom pair of jeans in each bundle to make sure they had been manufactured in Hanceville. Mr. Pierce testified that the jeans had not been shipped by Blue Bell to a customer. Investigator Lee counted fifty-six dozen and five pairs of jeans as they were taken off Kenneth Watts’ pickup truck and loaded into other vehicles. The jeans were then transported to the investigation room at the Cullman County Sheriff’s Department from appellant’s Jeans Plus store. The jeans were later placed in a vault at the Cullman County Courthouse.

It was further ascertained from Mr. Pierce that thirty-five pairs of the jeans found at appellant's store were marked “unwashed.” It was explained that when jeans are shipped from the Hanceville plant to the Oneonta plant with the “unwashed” label on them, the jeans are then washed and relabeled “pre-washed” before the Oneonta plant ships them to customers. Jeans marked “un-washed” are never sold to customers before being prewashed and re-labeled.

I

Appellant argues that his receiving stolen property conviction should be reversed because the State failed to prove proper venue in Cullman County. Appellant maintains that at most the State proved that he paid for the jeans in Fayette County, received them in Marion County and was in possession of them in Cherokee County. Appellant denies that the State failed to link him with any unlawful acts in Cullman County, where he was indicted and convicted. We disagree with appellant’s arguments.

It is true that generally under Alabama Code § 15-2-2 (1975), the venue of all public offenses is in the county in which the offense was committed, unless otherwise provided by law. However, Alabama Code § 15-2-9 (1975) a special venue statute dealing with stolen property, which is applicable in this case, provides as follows:

[132]*132“When property is stolen in one county and carried into another, venue is in either county.”

The evidence shows conclusively that the property in question had been stolen in Cullman County and, further, that appellant was possessed of the stolen property. The plain wording of § 15-2-9 demonstrates, therefore, that venue for prosecutions involving that stolen property properly existed in Cullman County. Harper v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 395 So.2d 150 (1981).

II

Appellant alleges that the seizure of the stolen jeans from Kenneth Watts’ pickup truck was in violation of the Fourth Amendment because Deputy Ray did not have probable cause to believe the jeans were stolen at the time he made the seizure.

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Related

Ashurst v. State
462 So. 2d 999 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1984)
Ex Parte Watts
435 So. 2d 135 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
435 So. 2d 129, 1982 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watts-v-state-alacrimapp-1982.