Sheffield v. State

In Sheffield v. State, 647 S.W.2d 413, 414 (Tex. App.-Austin), pet. ref'd per curiam, 650 S.W.2d 813 (Tex. Crim. App. 1983) the appellant was arrested for theft and possession of marijuana. The police were alerted to the presence of a suspicious person thought to have been involved in a theft from a dormitory on the previous day. Id. at 415. Two officers saw the appellant enter a building and exit at a rapid pace with a wallet and some dollar bills in his hand. Ibid. The appellant tried to conceal the wallet from the officers and then told the officers that he had found it in the grass. Ibid. The court held that the defendant's actions prior to an investigatory stop combined with the police officers' knowledge of a recent theft in the area by a man matching defendant's description was sufficient to justify an arrest under 14.03(a)(1) - holding that the defendant's location had become a "suspicious place." Ibid.