Court Opinion

ID: 9733801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:17:38.529433+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:44.118905
License: Public Domain

ROTH, P. J. — I dissent.
On the evening of November 8, 1962, eight items of men’s clothing, valued in excess of $200, were taken from Hin*517shaw’s Department Store in Arcadia. The same evening, appellant Eugene Green and an accomplice, Wesley Green (who does not appeal), were arrested in Sears by security guards who observed them stealing items of merchandise, including a transistor radio, a pair of pliers, two electric sanders and several ties. At the time of the arrest, none of the officers involved herein knew anything about the theft from Hinshaw’s nor had any such theft been reported.
Robert Skutley, the Sears security officer, testified that subsequent to the arrest of appellant and Wesley Green, he asked appellant if he had driven to Sears in an automobile. Appellant replied that he had arrived in a white, 1956 Lincoln which was parked in the front parking lot. “I asked him if he had any objections if we looked through the ear. He said he did not.” Skutley said that when at approximately 8:20 p.m. he arrested appellant and took him to the east parking lot to find the Lincoln pointed out by appellant, it proved upon examination, that appellant had deliberately pointed out a ear which did not belong to him. Appellant was then turned over to the Pasadena police and was lodged in the Pasadena police station at approximately 9 p.m. The search for appellant’s car was then continued without appellant and without a search warrant. The Lincoln on the Sears lot to which Skutley was originally misdirected was gone. A white Lincoln was found by Skutley and two Pasadena police officers in an A & P market parking lot, separated by a driveway from the Sears north parking lot, at approximately “. . . Oh, 9 :40, 9 :30, right around there.” Some merchandise was observable through the car window. Skutley and the two police officers opened and searched the ear and found several items of men’s clothing taken from Hinshaw’s and several items taken from Sears.
The only evidence disclosed by the record as to the visibility of any price tags on merchandise is that of Skutley who testified in respect of the mixer set “It did have one of our price tickets on it . . .” Whether Skutley or anyone else saw this price ticket before the doors of the ear were opened and the search began, or afterward, does not appear. Of the three men who made the search, Skutley is the only one who testified. Neither of the two Pasadena officers who assisted in the search gave any evidence on the subject thereof. Reduced to narrative form, Skutley’s testimony was substantially as follows: I saw the garments and the papers in the glove *518compartment the first time I saw the automobile. The papers consisted of a time payment plan book for Eugene Green and there was also a letter addressed to Wesley Green. The Lincoln automobile was found in the A & P parking lot. I was actually engaged in searching the inside of the car, that is, we were standing outside the car and we were moving the things to the side to see what there was to see. All the merchandise was found in the back seat. The ear was not locked. I did not search for any registration on the car. I saw a time payment book. I’m not sure on what institution. I think it was the Bank of America. The book was made out to Eugene Green and I found it in the glove compartment. As I remember, there was a letter in there addressed to Wesley Green. I think Wesley’s name was on the envelope. The car was impounded intact. It was towed to the police lockup behind the police department. In the rear seat of this second Lincoln there were two sanders and the mixer set and other merchandise. There were ties, I don’t know how many. There was a Kenmore mixer set. No wrapping on it. It did have one of our price tickets on it, though. A complete set of mixer stand and bowls. It will be noted that the only price ticket referred to was one on the Kenmore mixer.
The majority assume that appellant and his accomplice were part of a gang and assert that it was the duty of the police to locate and search appellant’s automobile before the other members of the gang were alerted to make away with it. Nothing in the record supports that assumption.
The majority appear to take judicial notice of the fact that a 1956 white Lincoln is a relatively uncommon variety of automobile in spite of the fact that the “. . . vehicle of a stranger . ...” to which appellant originally but deceitfully directed Skutley, was a 1956 white Lincoln in the Sears parking lot and in spite of the fact that there is no evidence to indicate that there were 10 or 100 cars on the Sears and A & P parking lots. However, irrespective of the assumption, the record does not disclose that any of the three men embarked upon the search, observed through the windows seven pairs of trousers lying on the back seat with “raw cuffs” or observed through the window price tags of Hinshaw’s Department Store making it “. . . obvious . . . they had not been purchased . . . .” Nothing in the record suggests that before opening the Lincoln, any of the three men observed on the back seat or anywhere else “. . . 7 shirts *519with similar identifying tags ...” or two “disc sanders ... in their Sears, Roebuck cartons. ... an electric mixer set complete with bowls and stand.” Specifically, in respect of the papers found in the glove compartment, Skutley testified “. . . but before [the ear was] . . . impounded . . . he had seen various papers ... in the glove compartment with the names Eugene and Wesley Green.”
The search was made at night and the record is completely barren of any evidence whether the car searched was under a light, near a light, or whether the three men searching the car, used flashlights to look into the car before they opened it.
Assuming arguendo that the officers look through the windows of the car before opening it, these observations according to the testimony in the record, revealed nothing but items of general merchandise. Appellant had already misdirected the police to one ear. At the time they decided to search the white 1956 Lincoln, they did not know it was appellant’s car. After the car was searched, it was identified as appellant’s car. The items on the back seat were subsequently identified as those taken from Sears and Hinshaw’s Department Store.
Manifestly, when an officer has probable cause to make a search without a warrant, or legal cause to be at a location where he observes contraband, he need not blind himself to what he sees. (People v. Samuels, 229 Cal.App.2d 351, 359 [40 Cal.Rptr. 290].) The law also draws a sharp distinction between the observation of contraband material and material which is not offensive in itself but merely evidentiary. (People v. Roberts, 47 Cal.2d 374, 379 [303 P.2d 721].)
The majority assert that “. . . we are not llere confronted with . . . the right of . . . police indiscriminately to open or to conduct a true ‘search’ of the interiors of vehicles found adjacent to a store where a recent theft has been committed . . . .” This, to me is precisely the question. Whether other cars were searched before what proved to be appellant's car was found, does not appear. The record does not establish that a single pair of trousers with “raw cuffs” or that even one price tag was seen through the windows of the car. Appellant had already misdirected Skutley to one Lincoln, and there is no other evidence upon which the search for a white Lincoln could be justified. In fact, a logical conclusion could be that assuming appellant had a car — it was not a white Lincoln, 1956 or otherwise. It would be just as logical to assume that appellant’s ear was a black Cadillac.
*520Absent a search warrant, the burden was on the prosecution to prove the legality of the search. (Badillo v. Superior Court, 46 Cal.2d 269 [294 P.2d 23].) I do not believe that on the record in the case at bench that burden has been sustained.
A search without a warrant must be incident to an arrest if its legality is not to be questioned. In People v. Cruz, 61 Cal.2d 861, the court says at page 866 [40 Cal.Rptr. 841, 395 P.2d 889] : 11 [A] search is not ‘incidental to an arrest’ unless it is limited to the premises where the arrest is made; is contemporaneous therewith; has a definite object; and is reasonable in scope”. However, in People v. Burke, 61 Cal.2d 575, 579-580 [39 Cal.Rptr. 531, 394 P.2d 67], the court says: “With respect to automobiles the courts have pointed out that it is not always practicable to obtain a warrant for search of a vehicle which can quickly be moved out of the locality, and, therefore, in some instances a search without a warrant will be justified by probable cause to believe that an automobile contains articles which by law are subject to seizure.
“It must be determined in each ease whether the facts fall within any of the exceptions to the constitutional rule that a search warrant must be had before a search may be made. The right to make a contemporaneous search without a warrant upon lawful arrest extends to things under the accused’s immediate control and, to an extent depending upon the circumstances, to the place where he is arrested.” (Cf. People v. Terry, 61 Cal.2d 137, 152 [37 Cal.Rptr. 605, 390 P.2d 381].) As with the search of a home, however, the search following an arrest must not be too remote in time or place from the arrest. (Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 367 [84 S.Ct. 881,11 L.Ed.2d 777].)
The search of the car in the case at bench was not incident to appellant’s arrest. (People v. Burke, supra ; People v. Cruz, supra.) At the time appellant was arrested, he was still in Sears and at that time the officers had no knowledge of a theft at Hinshaw’s and did not know until after inquiry, whether or not appellant had arrived at the store in a car. (Cf. People v. Harris, 62 Cal.2d 681 [43 Cal.Rptr. 833, 401 P.2d 225].) Further, whether appellant arrived at Sears in a car or on foot was immaterial to the crime for which he was arrested, to wit: theft from Sears.
I agree with the majority that the officers were entitled to *521search for a vehicle if they had reasonable cause to believe that appellant used a vehicle in furtherance of the crime. However, the issue in this ease is whether the officers acted reasonably in searching the vehicle, or any intervening vehicle, upon which they ultimately focused their attention without a stronger link in the chain of probable cause than a car similar to one the diseription of which was already suspect, and the observation of general items of merchandise not shown by the record to be identifiable as possibly stolen items until after the search. I do not consider these facts within any of the exceptions to the constitutional rule that a search warrant must be had before a search may be made.
Respondent urges that the search was made with appellant’s consent. When consent is claimed by the prosecution, it has the burden of presenting facts to the court which will enable the court to determine whether consent was in fact given. (People v. Gorg, 45 Cal.2d 776, 782 [291 P.2d 469] ; Castaneda v. Superior Court, 59 Cal.2d 439, 442 [30 Cal.Rptr. 1, 380 P.2d 641].)
At the time of the giving of the alleged consent appellant was under arrest. While not conclusive, this is “A circumstance of particular significance ’ ” in determining whether appellant freely consented to the search. (Castaneda v. Superior Court, supra, 59 Cal.2d 439, 443 ; People v. Shelton, 60 Cal.2d 740, 745 [36 Cal.Rptr. 433, 388 P.2d 665].) The added fact that appellant mislead and misdirected the officers to the wrong car, in the wrong parking lot, and failed to correct the misdirection when his custody was transferred to the Pasadena police officers, is proof to the contrary. (People v. Haven, 59 Cal.2d 713, 720 [31 Cal.Rptr. 47, 381 P.2d 927] ; Castaneda v. Superior Court, supra, p. 443.)
The evidence here clearly sustains a conviction on the first count and I would affirm. It is also clear that no conviction could have been had on the second count which involved the merchandise stolen from Hinshaw’s without the introduction of evidence obtained as a result of an unlawful search. I would reverse the judgment on the second count.