Court Opinion

ID: 9730191
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:04:47.589385+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:04.747753
License: Public Domain

Sybert, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion.
I believe that when the police officer arrested the appellant he had probable cause to believe that either a felony or a misdemeanor was being committed in his presence, namely, the larceny of goods of a value either above or below $100.00, and that the appellant was a participant in the crime. It is elementary, of course, that the officer could arrest for a crime, regardless of its grade, if committed in his presence.
The accumulated factors present prior to the actual arrest supplied the probable cause, in my opinion. The police officer —within minutes of the fact — received reliable information that two colored men were in the parking lot “checking a number of cars [and] trying the door handles.” Such activity, with respect to one automobile, would mean little or nothing — the men might be in lawful possession of that car; but, directed at several vehicles, such activity could only induce a reasonably cautious person to believe that the tamperers intended to steal either an automobile or such valuables as they might find in one.
When the police officer and the security officer emerged from the store they saw two colored men (who later proved to be the appellant and his co-defendant, Anderson) on the parking lot, about 75 feet from the building. Anderson had “both arms loaded with all sorts of articles, packages, clothing.” There were so many articles, the police officer testified, that Anderson could *132not possibly have loaded himself. He appeared to be following the appellant, who was walking thirty to fifty feet ahead. The men were threading their way across the rows of parked cars, not down an aisle between the rows. The aisles led away from the store, and the police officer testified, without objection, that if Anderson “had been in the store buying articles he would have been walking away from the store,” instead of parallel to it, as he was. This fact would support a reasonable inference that the articles had been obtained from one of the cars parked on the lot.
It might be argued that up to this point the officers only had reason for suspicion that a crime was being committed in their presence. But what happened next, added to the facts already recited, afforded reasonable ground, in my estimation, for their belief that they were witnessing the asportation of goods that had just been stolen with the complicity of the appellant. The latter (who was carrying nothing whatsoever), followed by the burdened Anderson, walked up to his own car and opened the trunk. Then, looking up, he saw the officers, slammed the trunk closed, and walked off rapidly, literally leaving Anderson “holding the bag.” Thus, the appellant tagged himself as an accomplice. The arrest followed.
I think that the grounds for making the arrest were at least as reasonable as were the grounds for the arrest in the case of Price v. State, 227 Md. 28, 175 A. 2d 11 (1961), which case is sought to be distinguished in the majority opinion herein. In that case police officers, responding to a call about a prowler on a bitterly cold night, found the defendant in the vestibule of an apartment residence, with marks which were said to look like pry marks on the inner door, although no implement was observed or found on the defendant or in the vestibule. Pointing up the weight that may be attributed to flight, Chief Judge Brune’s opinion for the Court said (at p. 33 of 227 Md.) :
“When the police officers found the appellant in the vestibule, they were there in response to a call about a prowler * * *, they were aware of the very early hour of the morning, the marks on the door looking like pry marks were visible and they found the appel*133lant at and more or less, facing the inner door. These facts plainly gave the officers good cause to question the appellant as to why he was there and what he was doing. Instead of explaining, he muttered something and bolted immediately. Flight, though not conclusive, is usually evidence of guilt. * * * With flight added to the other facts already apparent to the officers, even if not before (and as to the prior situation we express no opinion), the officers, we think, had probable cause to believe that the appellant had just been engaged, in their presence, in committing or attempting to commit burglary.”
Judge Brune also observed (at pp. 33-34 of 227 Md.) that Brinegar v. United States, 338 U. S. 160, shows that probable cause “means a reasonable ground for a belief of guilt, which is less than evidence which would justify condemnation or conviction, but must be more than mere suspicion. ‘Probable cause exists where “the facts and circumstances within their [the officers’] knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that” an offense has been or is being committed.’ (338 U. S. 175-176).”
In the case before us, I think the facts existing at the time of the arrest mounted up to more than a mere suspicion of guilt on the part of the appellant, and were sufficient to justify a reasonably cautious person in believing that an offense, participated in by the appellant, was being committed. I don’t think the speed of the appellant’s flight is significant — -he tried to get away.
Asportation is a necessary and integral part of larceny. Putinski v. State, 223 Md. 1, 3, 161 A. 2d 117 (1960); Hochheimer’s, Criminal Law (1911), sec. 68; 2 Bishop, Criminal Law, (9th Ed.) sec. 794.1. In fact, prosecution for larceny may be had in any jurisdiction in which the asportation occurs. Worthington v. State, 58 Md. 403 (1882); Hochheimer, supra, sec. 113. Asportation of goods just stolen is what happened in the presence of the officers in the instant case. I think that the arrest of the appellant was lawful, that the articles *134taken from the automobile were properly admitted in evidence, and that all the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction of the appellant. I would affirm.