Armour v. State

1941 OK CR 60, 112 P.2d 1116, 72 Okla. Crim. 44, 1941 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 61
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 23, 1941
DocketNo. A-9773.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1941 OK CR 60 (Armour 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
Armour v. State, 1941 OK CR 60, 112 P.2d 1116, 72 Okla. Crim. 44, 1941 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 61 (Okla. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

JONES, J.

The defendant, Martin Armour, was charged jointly with Raymond Pilgrim and Edgar Armour by indictment on April 17, 1939, in Tulsa county, with the crime of robbery in the second degree. Defendant was) granted a severance, was tried in the district court of Tulsa county, convicted, and sentenced to serve a term of two years in the State Reformatory at Granite, from which judgment and sentence he appeals to this court.

The defendant contends that:

(1) The trial court erred in overruling, his demurrer to the indictment.

(2) The trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury to acquit the defendant.

(3) The verdict and judgment are contrary to the evidence and the law.

Section 1931, O. S. 1931, 21 Okla. St. Ann. § 1435, states:

“Every person who breaks and enters in the day time or in the night time, either:
“1. Any building within the curtilage of a dwelling house, but not forming a part thereof; or,
“2. Any building or any part of any building * * * in which any property is kept, with intent to steal therein or to commit any felony, is guilty of burglary in the second degree.”

*46 The indictment is as follows:

“* * * j;n gaid Tnlsa County, and State of Oklahoma, on the 22nd day of March, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-Nine, and prior to the finding of this indictment, Raymond Pilgrim, Edgar Armour and Martin Armour and each of them, did then and there unlawfully, willfully, burglariously and feloni-ously, in the nighttime, break and enter into a certain building located at 801 East 1st Place, in the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and being then and there occupied by and in the possession of Nichols Wire Sheet and Hardware Company, a corporation, by breaking open the outer doors and windows of said building, with the felonious and bur-glarious intent then and there upon the part of said defendants and each of them, to steal therein, by then and there taking, stealing and carting away, without the consent of the owner thereof, certain personal property of value in said building kept and contained, the property of the said Nichols Wire Sheet and Hardware Company, a corporation, with the unlawful and felonious intent then and there upon the part of said defendants, and each of them, to deprive the owner thereof permanently and to convert the same to their own use and benefit. * * *”

As to the defendant’s contention that this indictment is subject to demurrer, he cites the case of Simpson v. State, 5 Okla. Cr. 57,113 P. 549, in which it is stated:

“(a) An indictment for burglary, whether at common law or under statute, must allege every fact and circumstance necessary to constitute the offense, including time, place, ownership, and description of the premises.”

An examination of the indictment reveals that it sets out the breaking and entering of a specified building. It charges an intent to steal personal property of value, deprive the owner thereof, and to convert said property to the use of defendants. It states the time of the offense as March 22, 1939, in the nighttime; the place as Tulsa, Oklahoma ; the ownership of the building, as occupied by *47 and in the possession of said hardware company (Simpson v. State, supra); and describes the premises as a building at 801 East 1st Place in which personal property belonging to said hardware company was kept and contained.

In Jackson v. State, 31 Okla. Cr. 30, 237 P. 129, 130, a case of burglary in the second degree, this court held:

“An information which, construed under the ordinary rules of construction, states all the essential elements of the crime charged sufficiently to enable a person of common understanding to know what is meant, and with sufficient particularity to enable a defendant to prepare for his trial, and to píead the judgment in bar, if again informed against for the same offense, is sufficient.”

In his brief, defendant cites at length passages from Corpus Juris and Corpus Juris Secundum relating to buildings “not adjoining to- or occupied with a dwelling-house” and “other buildings.” Our statute (sec. 1931, supra) states positively “any building within the curtilage of a dwelling house, but not forming a part thereof; or” “any building,” etc.

This court has never held that it was necessary under section 1931, supra, to aver that the building was not adjoined to a dwelling house, but in charging an offense under either of sections 1927, O. S. 1931, 21 Okla. St. Ann. 1431, or 1928, O. S. 1931, 21 Okla. St. Ann. 1432, the statutes dealing with burglary of the dwelling, it is necessary to allege that the building is a dAvelling house. And 'quoting from 12 C. J. S., Burglary, § 35 (d), page 695:

“Where the burglary statute punishes the crime irrespective of the location of the building, it is not necessary to allege that it- Avas one not adjoining to, or occupied as, a dwelling house.”

In 9 C. J., Burglary § 71 (6), page 1040, it is stated:

“Under a statute punishing the breaking and entering of any ‘building’ or any ‘house,’ it has generally been held *48 that the indictment, if it describes the premise» by a term which does not necessarily imply a building or a house, must go- further and allege that they were a building or.a house. But this is not necessary where the term used necessarily implies that the premises were a building or a house.”

We are of the opinion that defendant’s demurrer to the sufficiency of the information was properly overruled, since this information contains all of the essential allegations necessary to constitute the crime of second-degree burglary to make it good upon its face, sufficiently informs the defendant of the charge upon which he would have to defend, and bars any future action for the same offense. See Dean v. State, 48 Okla. Cr. 117, 289 P. 793; Wiles v. State, 52 Okla. Cr. 162, 3 P. 2d 245; Hames v. State, 54 Okla. Cr. 341, 20 P. 2d 915.

The undisputed evidence is that Edgar Armour, brother and codefendant of Martin Armour, the defendant in this case, worked as a truck driver for the Nichols Wire Sheet & Hardware Company, and that the two brothers were, staying in the same room.

The evidence offered by the state was to the effect that on March 22, 1939, Lester Little, who had charge of the company’s money, hid $86 for safekeeping in a pile of composition roofing in the building. A marked $2 bill, which had been in the company’s possession for a period of time, made up a part of the $86. The building was locked on the inside. On the morning of the 23d, when Carl Poss, the manager, came to work, he found that the lock on the front door, which could not be locked from the outside without a key, was unfastened. The money was missing.

Sometime in the early morning of March 24th, the defendant was arrested by the city police for drunkenness. *49 Officers searched his room and found, hidden in a flower ■pot, two $5 bills and the marked $2 bill.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1941 OK CR 60, 112 P.2d 1116, 72 Okla. Crim. 44, 1941 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armour-v-state-oklacrimapp-1941.