Opinion ID: 1658953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: failure to suppress the confession

Text: Moore's first assignment of error is that his statement made to Sheriff Warren is inadmissible as involuntary, and the product of an illegal arrest. This Court has held, as recently as Henry v. State, 486 So.2d 1209 (Miss. 1986), that an arrest is valid, with or without a warrant, where the arresting officer has: (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. Id. at 1212. In determining whether probable cause existed in this case, we should keep in mind this language from Strode v. State, 231 So.2d 779 (Miss. 1970): Probable cause is a practical, non-technical concept, based upon the conventional considerations of every day life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. It arises when the facts and circumstances within an officer's knowledge, or of which he has reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient to justify a man of average caution in the belief that a crime has been committed and that a particular individual committed it. (Emphasis Added) Id. at 782. The evidence under consideration is the testimony of Sheriff Warren regarding the information he received from Larry Carbins. Warren stated at trial that he relied entirely upon Carbin's identification of Moore as the assailant, along with Carbin's brother. Thus, the primary indicia of reliability in this case is the fact that Carbins implicated his brother. In Kelly v. State, 493 So.2d 356 (Miss. 1986), we held that probable cause to arrest [the defendant] was obtained by the oral statements given by his brother and brother-in-law, which placed him at the scene of the crime. Slip opinion, page 3. Given the fact that the information from Carbins implicated both Moore and Carbin's brother, there was probable cause for Moore's arrest. We hold, therefore, that the confession obtained by Sheriff Warren was admissible, and that there is no merit to this assignment of error.