Acuff v. State

1955 OK CR 62, 283 P.2d 856, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 212
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 11, 1955
DocketA-12089
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1955 OK CR 62 (Acuff v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Acuff v. State, 1955 OK CR 62, 283 P.2d 856, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 212 (Okla. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

' POWELL, Judge.

Ralph Gilbert Acuff, alias Lloyd N. Gur-kin, plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged in the district court of Oklahoma County with the crime of forgery in the second degree. Defendant refused the aid of counsel, and acted as his own attorney in the trial of the case. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and assessed the punishment to be a term of two years in the State Penitentiary. The penalty might, have been seven years. Tit. 21 O.S.1951 § 1621, subd. 2.

Defendant has acted as his own counsel on appeal, and orally argued his case before this court. Ordinarily the accused does not appear before this court. The record was *860 prepared at the expense of Oklahoma County, and was filed in this court without cost deposit. By- reason of defendant not being a lawyer, the trial court was most liberal with defendant in the matter of precedure, and this court has likewise overlooked the violation of court rules and has decided to notice issues raised on appeal by the defendant when technically, as will appear, some of the propositions are not entitled to treatment.

The pertinent portion of the information charges that:

“ * * * on the ISth day of April, A. D. 1953, in Oklahoma County, State of Oklahoma, Ralph Gilbert Acuff, alias Lloyd N. Gurkin, whose more full- and correct name is to your informant unknown, then and there being-, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously commit the crime of Forgery in the Second Degree in the manner and form as follows, to-wit:
“That is to say, the said defendant, in the county and state aforesaid, and on the day and year aforesaid, then and there being, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and felon-iously and with the intent to cheat and defraud, sell, utter, exchange and deliver to Local Federal Savings and Loan Association, a corporation, authorized and licensed to do business in the State of Oklahoma, for the consideration of a check drawn on Local Federal Savings and Loan Association of the value of $3,500.00 in good and lawful money of the United States of America, a forged and counterfeited check of the tenor, purport and effect following:
" ‘Texarkana, Arkansas, April 11, 1953
“ ‘The State National Bank oí Texarkana
" ‘Pay To Lloyd N. Gurkin Or Bearer $4,250.00 Pour Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty and no/100 Dollars.
“‘/s/ J. O. Kelly’
"/s/ on back: ‘Lloyd N. Gurkin.’
with the felonious intent to have the same uttered and passed as true and genuine, and the said defendant knew that said check was forged and counterfeited, the name of J. O. Kelly being in truth and in fact a forgery, and not the true signature of J. O. Kelly, said signature being that of a fictitious person, with intent to cheat and defraud said Local Federal Savings and Loan Association out of said money as aforesaid; contrary to the form of the statutes * * * ” etc.

For reversal defendant in petition in error and brief sets out seven propositions of error, as follows:

“No. One: The trial Jury was unconstitutional.
“No. Two: The Court was without jurisdiction.
“No. Three: The defendant in error failed to produce a corpus delicti.
“No. Four: The court denied the plaintiff in error the Constitutional right to present evidence to support his Defense in Theory.
“No. Five: The Court refused to order witnesses for the plaintiff in error to obey summons.
“No. Six: The Court erred in refusing to grant the plaintiff in error’s motion for a new trial.
“No. Seven: The Court erred in refusing to permit the plaintiff in error to raise the question of sanity and moral responsibility.”

We shall summarize sufficient of the evidence to aid in understanding the amazing issues presented.

Harold Flooper testified that he was a special agent for a group of banks and stores in Oklahoma City, handling check cases for them; that on April 15, 1953 he and Jack Ragland, detective in the Oklahoma City Police Department, assigned to forgery detail, were investigating a savings account that had been opened by Lloyd N. Gurkin at the Citizens State Bank on Twenty-third and Dewey. The account 'had been opened by mail with $10, later a $1 deposit was made, then a deposit of $3,750 by check on a Texarkana, Arkansas bank had been made and drawn on an apparently fictitious person with no account in such bank. The officers were on the way to the Citizens State Bank when *861 they received an urgent call to hurry there without delay. When the officers arrived at the Bank they learned that the defendant had been in and had presented a check for $4,250, requesting that he be given credit for $750 on his savings account, and that he be given the balance, $3,500, in cash. When this was refused the defendant left the Bank hurriedly. One of the Bank employees followed him and the officers eventually overtook defendant at Twenty-third and Walker, Oklahoma City, and took him into custody.

Defendant did not object to the statements of the officers, and in fact when he later testified, admitted that the evidence of the State’s witnesses in practically all details was true, except that he denied any intent to in the end defraud anyone by reason of his admitted check manipulations.

After defendant was arrested he informed the officers that he had a car parked nearby and that he had a brief case in the car. He gave them the keys to his car. The brief case was removed and taken along with defendant to police headquarters. An examination of the brief case disclosed a check payable to Lloyd N. Gurkin from the Local Federal Savings and Loan Association for $3,500, and one to him from the Mutual Savings and Loan Association for $3,500, various pass books including one from each of the two savings and loan associations, the Citizens State Bank, the Stockyards Bank and Oklahoma National Bank.

Witness Hooper testified that defendant readily admitted that he had obtained the checks from the Local Federal Savings and Loan, and from the Mutual Savings and Loan, and that he had deposited five checks, each for $3,750 in these five institutions, and had five checks for $4,250 which he was in the process of depositing in them. He ad- ' mitted that he wrote all the checks in their entirety; that there was no such person as J. O. Kelly in so far as he knew, and that he signed the name to the checks and that he endorsed each and every one of them in the name of Lloyd N. Gurkiii.

Witness said that defendant further told them that he had never lived at the address 1122 Northwest Fourteenth Street, Oklahoma, that he simply used such address in opening up the accounts in the five banks and savings and loan associations; that he went to the post office immediately after giving such address and signed a card changing his address to general delivery in Oklahoma City.' He then picked up the five pass books when they were received at general delivery, and mailed in deposits of $1 each.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Regional Transportation District v. Outdoor Systems, Inc.
34 P.3d 408 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2001)
Williams v. City of Tulsa
1987 OK CR 150 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1987)
Wadkins v. State
1977 OK CR 339 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)
Russell v. State
1974 OK CR 194 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Anderson v. State
1973 OK CR 298 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)
Stidham v. State
1973 OK CR 143 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)
Walls v. State
1971 OK CR 212 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1971)
Smith v. State
1971 OK CR 135 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1971)
Porter v. District Court of Oklahoma County
1969 OK CR 270 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1969)
Wolfchief v. State
1969 OK CR 264 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1969)
Moore v. State
1969 OK CR 257 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1969)
Johnson v. State
1968 OK CR 178 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1968)
Hinex v. State
1966 OK CR 109 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1966)
In Re the Habeas Corpus of Severns
1958 OK CR 90 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1958)
Magenton v. State
81 N.W.2d 894 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1957)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1955 OK CR 62, 283 P.2d 856, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/acuff-v-state-oklacrimapp-1955.