Brockman v. State

1936 OK CR 114, 61 P.2d 273, 60 Okla. Crim. 75, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 85
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 28, 1936
DocketNo. A-9078.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 1936 OK CR 114 (Brockman 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
Brockman v. State, 1936 OK CR 114, 61 P.2d 273, 60 Okla. Crim. 75, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 85 (Okla. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

DOYLE, J.

This appeal is prosecuted from a judgment of conviction pronounced and entered on the 30th day of September, 1935, in pursuance of the verdict of *77 the jury finding the défendant guilty of the crime of attempt to commit, rape and assessing his punishment at confinement in the state penitentiary for a period of 15 years.

The charging part of the information is as follows:

“That Ernest Brockman, on the 15th day of November, 1934, A. 13., in Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, did unlawfully, wil-fully and feloniously, attempt to have sexual intercourse and carnally know one Lena Gibson, a female person, and against the will of her, the said Lena Gibson, committed in way and manner as follows, that is to say by then and there taking hold of the said Lena Gibson, and then and there choking her and threatening to do her great bodily harm, and then and there struggling' and contending with her, the said Lena Gibson, with the unlawful and felonious intent then and there upon the part of said defendant to rape, ravish and carnally know and have sexual intercourse with her, the said Lena Gibson, and she, the said Lena Gibson not then and there the wife of him, the said Ernest Brockman, but then and there failed and was prevented and intercepted in the perpetration thereof, contrary to,” etc.

An examination of the record leads to the conclusion that the judgment of conviction should be reversed, and this without regard to the merits of the question of guilt or innocence of the defendant. To affirm the judgment would do violence to well settled and recognized rules of evidence and of practice in criminal prosecutions, and would be in violation of our conception of the rights of every individual charged with crime.

From the testimony it appears that at the time of the alleged commission of the crime the prosecutrix, a white woman and a widow, was living in Tulsa, on East Easton street, with her uncle, aunt, and cousin; that she *78 was sleeping on a divan in the living room of her uncle’s borne and her uncle was sleeping in the next room. There was an open archway between. On the day alleged, between 5 and 6 o’clock in the morning, a colored man appeared in her room and assaulted her.

The prosecutrix testified that she was awakened by the lighting of a match and saw a man standing in the archway holding a lighted match in his hand. That she thought it was her cousin and said, “Walter, is that you?” The match went out, the man struck another one, and ■said, “You be still,” then walked over to the divan where she was, leaned down over her, put his hand on her forehead and said, “You be quiet, do you hear me,” and she said, “I will be quiet”; then he asked her “to give him a piece of pussy.” That she was scared and pushed him away and said, “You get out of here.” He put his hands on her throat and started choking her and she called her uncle three times before he answered. The defendant then turned her loose and ran out the door. That when he came to the bed she saw he was a colored man. She positively identified the defendant as the man who assaulted her.

Over, the objections of counsel for the defendant, the court permitted the second witness called by the state, Mrs. J. W. Krempush, to testify that the defendant entered her home on or about November 18th, between the hours of 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning, snapped the light out, put one hand on her mouth and one hand on her throat and told her to be quiet; about that time her baby started crying and he just turned loose and ran from the room. That several days afterwards she saw the defendant at the police station and identified him as the man that was in her room that morning.

*79 Mrs. Charles F. Sewell, the next witness called, was over the defendant’s objection permitted to testify that on the morning of November 18, 1834', between 3 and 3:30 o’clock, a man appeared at the side of her bed, where her 20 year old daughter was sleeping beside her, with a knife in his hand. That he put the knife at her throat and said, “I want a piece of pussy.” About that time her daughter awakened and said, “What is it, mother?” Then he said, “You had better tell her to keep quiet or I will kill you both,” and she called her husband. When her husband answered, the man turned and ran out the door. That a few days after this occurrence the officers brought the defendant to her house and she immediately recognized his voice. That the defendant was the man that assaulted her in her room that morning.

F. M. Clore testified that he was Lena Cibson’s uncle by marriage. That on the date alleged she was staying at his place and was sleeping on the divan in the living room. That he heard some one scream two or three times before he was fully awake and he said, “What is going-on there?” Then somebody ran out the front door. That he asked her what was the matter and she said there was a man in the room. That it was then 5:15 in the morning.

At the close of the state’s evidence in chief a motion was made by the defendant for a directed verdict on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to warrant a conviction, which motion was overruled.

As a witness in his own behalf, the defendant, Brock-man, testified in part as follows: That he was born in South Carolina, 27 years old, married, and the father of two children; came to Spiro, Okla. in 1917, and moved to Tulsa in 1921; had been working for the Mayo Hotel *80 since it opened until November 20, 1934. That he usually-left home around 5:30 in the morning to go to> the hotel and have everything ready to open up the coffee shop at 6 o’clock. That he was never in Mrs. Gibson’s room and never assaulted or attempted to rape her. That the morning of November 21st, on his way to the country club, he passed a car parked at the side of the street with the lights out; it was dark; some person jumped out of the car and told him to stop. That he thought that they were hi-jackers and ran, and they began to shoot at him. That they overtook him at Haskell and Elgin and arrested him. Then they carried him to Mrs. Gibson’s house, and asked her “if I was the person who attempted to rape her.” She said she did not know. Then they put out the light and had him get behind the curtains across the archway there and scratch matches for her to identify him. That they would turn the electric light off and on to see if she could identify him. Mr. Glore, her uncle, was there. They took him next to Phyllis Perez’s house, at 207 East Fairview, and asked her “if I was the man that committed a burglary there.” She said she did not know. Then they carried him to Mrs. Sewell’s house and told her that they had caught the negro' that attacked her. Mrs. Sewell told them she would like to feel his hands and see whether they were soft or not, because the person who attacked her had soft hands. That she examined his hands and said they were soft like the hands of the person whn attacked her. That, after they took him to1 the police station, they brought Mrs. Sewell into the room and she examined his hands again. When she went out, this officer here, Mr. Hughes, came in and said to him, “She has signed a statement proving your identity,” and asked him if he would confess to it, and he told him no, he would not.

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

Related

Plotner v. State
1988 OK CR 139 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)
Turnbow v. State
1969 OK CR 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1969)
McMahan v. State
1960 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1960)
Roulston v. State
1957 OK CR 20 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1957)
Minnix v. Oklahoma
1955 OK CR 37 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1955)
Killough v. State
1951 OK CR 53 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1951)
Doser v. State
1949 OK CR 16 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Lowrey v. State
1948 OK CR 85 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1948)
McKenzie v. State
33 So. 2d 488 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1947)
Fields v. State
1943 OK CR 64 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1943)
Easter v. State
1942 OK CR 41 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1942)
Williams v. State
1940 OK CR 6 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1940)
Clark v. State
1939 OK CR 60 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)
Michelin v. State
1939 OK CR 56 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)
Broaddus v. State
1939 OK CR 44 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)
Cape v. State
1937 OK CR 61 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1936 OK CR 114, 61 P.2d 273, 60 Okla. Crim. 75, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brockman-v-state-oklacrimapp-1936.