Court Opinion

ID: 9646946
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:17:50.99889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:44.149207
License: Public Domain

W. C. DAVIS, Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the result reached in Judge Douglas’ majority opinion. However, I would add that the authority to arrest in this situation could be derived from Art. 14.03 or Art. 18.16, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.
The point at which the majority and dissent take separate roads is in the determination of the existence of probable cause to arrest, following an investigatory stop. Everyone agrees that the detention to investigate a possible theft was justified.
The dissent argues that the investigation by the officers did not result in additional information which would permit an arrest under Art. 14.03. On this point, the dissent argues that the only supportive evidence found during the investigation was the presence of several unbagged items with the store’s price tag still affixed. “It is common knowledge,” states the dissent, “that many people, for a variety of reasons, decline to have their goods bagged after purchasing them legitimately.”
The dissent overlooks one other supportive fact which is also common knowledge. This fact, when considered with the total circumstances, provides probable cause to arrest under either Article 14.03 or Article 18.16, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.
During the course of their investigation, the officers observed several unbagged items with the price tags still affixed. Two of these items, a bottle of cologne and writing tablets, were observed in the floorboard of the vehicle, a Ford Mustang. Surely, it is equally a matter of common knowledge *429that persons who have legitimately purchased new writing tablets do not place them uncovered in the floorboard of a Ford Mustang occupied by four people where they are assured of becoming soiled. The reasonable inference from such activity is an attempt to conceal, and thus is supportive of probable cause. Brown v. State, 481 S.W.2d 106 at 110 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).
Can it be doubted on the facts in this record that appellant and his companions could have been required to return to the store for further inquiry. Such a detention could only be characterized as an arrest. Instead, the officers chose to take appellant before a magistrate and, whether knowingly or not, complied with the procedures of Art. 18.16, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.
Having concluded that appellant’s arrest was valid under either Art. 14.03 or Art. 18.16, I agree with the majority upholding the consent search which produced the heroin.