Conkright v. State

1922 OK CR 54, 204 P. 1113, 21 Okla. Crim. 74, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 211
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 18, 1922
DocketNo. A-3565.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1922 OK CR 54 (Conkright 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
Conkright v. State, 1922 OK CR 54, 204 P. 1113, 21 Okla. Crim. 74, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 211 (Okla. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

MATSON, J.

On tbe 8tb day of March, 1919, plaintiff in error, E. E. Conkright, hereafter referred to as defendant, was convicted in tbe district court of Nowata county of tbe crime of grand larceny and sentenced to serve a term of five years’ imprisonment in tbe state penitentiary. Defendant was. charged with hairing stolen a Ford automobile from S. A. Taylor in the city of Nowata on tbe night of November 27 or tbe morning of November 28, 1918-

Three able and exhaustive briefs have been filed in this court in tbe behalf of tbe defendant, each urging that tbe evi- *75 deuce is insufficient to sustain the conviction. The evidence against the defendant is wholly circumstantial, and it is contended in each of the briefs that as a matter of law the evidence is not sufficient to exclude every reasonable hypothesis but that of the guilt of the defendant.

It will be necessary in giving due consideration to this contention to unfold and discuss at considerable length the various circumstances as disclosed by the transcript of the evidence establishing the guilt of this defendant.

About 5 or 6 o’clock in the afternoon of November 27, 1918, S. A. Taylor, who resides on North Elm street in the city of Nowata, Okla., and who was the owner-of a Ford touring car with wheels painted white and with a partition under the rear seat thereof made by a two by four and a two by six pieces of wood, drove the said car into the garage out on the back part of the lot at his residence.

Between 6 and 7 o’clock on the morning of November 28, 1918, the said Taylor went to his garage to get his car and found the garage door open and the car gone. He immediately notified the sheriff of Nowata county, and together with the sheriff the car was tracked for several miles north of Nowata in the direction of Coffeyville, Kan. This was on the 28th day of November, 1918 (Thanksgiving Day). There had been a rain during the night, and owing to the peculiar tread on the tires of the car the same- was easily tracked. Because of a break-down' in the automobile which the parties were using to track the stolen car, the parties were compelled to and did return to the city of Nowata by street car and abandoned the search for the stolen car in the afternoon of November 28, 1918.

On the Saturday immediately following, S. A. Taylor was called to the town of Oswego, Kan., to look at a Ford car which *76 bad been captured by the sheriff of Labatte county, Kan., and there identified the car so seized as his own. He took the car into his possession and returned with it to Nowata, Okla.

The following facts are admitted as true: (1) That S. A. Taylor was the owner of the car. (2) That said car was stolen from his garage in the city of Nowata, Nowata county, on the night of November 27 or early morning of the 28, 1918. (3) That said car was recovered by him from the sheriff of Labatte county, Kan., at the town of Oswego, Kan., on Saturday November 30, 1918. (4) That said ear was taken without the knowledge and consent of the said S. A. Taylor and without his connivance. (5) That said ear exceeded in value the sum of $20.

Succinctly stated, it is admitted that all the elements necessary to sustain larceny were present in the taking of this automobile from Taylor. The only contention urged is that the evidence is insufficient to connect the said defendant with such felonious taking.

While the jury is the exclusive judge of the weight of the evidence and of the credibility of the witnesses, and where there is credible evidence in the record which, if believed, is sufficient to authorize the jury to conclude that the defendant is guilty of .the offense charged this court will not. disturb the judgment, still, it is the duty of this court to set aside a judgment of conviction if as a matter of law the evidence is wholly insufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment.

The system of trial by jury is the greatest method ever devised or conceived by the mind of man for the discovery of the truth on controverted issues of fact and for safe-guarding the rights of parties litigant. The unanimous verdict of twelve peers of. the defendant who saw the witnesses face to face, observed their demeanor upon the witness stand, had full op *77 portunity to investigate tbeir credit, concurred in by the judgment of the trial judge, must of necessity carry great weight with this court in giving consideration to questions of fact.

In this court the presumption does not obtain that the appellant is innocent of the crime. On the contrary, the presumption is that he is guilty where a conviction has resulted in the trial court. The presumption also is that such a conviction is based upon competent, sufficient, and credible evidence, and the burden rests upon the defendant in the appellate court to establish the contrary. . With these observations, let us revert again to the evidence, directing our attention to the defendant’s connection with the alleged crime.

Defendant admits that he was in the city of Nowata on the 27th of November, 1918, but he says that he left there on a street car which left Nowata at 8 o’clock on that afternoon, and went to the town of Coffeyville, Kan., and there stayed until 8 or 9 o’clock on the morning of the 28th of November, 1918, when he and two other parties left Coffeyville, Kan., and went several miles east of that city'on a hunting expedition.

Defendant is first connected with the stolen automobile on the 28th of November, 1918,, at! about noon. At that time the automobile was in a public highway headed north near the home of Bill Morris, a friend of the defendant, who lived some three or four miles east from the town of Edna, Kan. Defendant was seen and recognized by some persons who were hunting in that neighborhood that day. The road was extremely muddy, and no vehicle had passed along it since the day before. No other car was seen in thaf vicinity at that time except this stolen car. Besides the defendant, a young man, Glen Roy, was in the car. The defendant was not seen in the car, but when first seen was walking along the public highway from the direction where the car stood towards the *78 'bouse of Bill Morris. He was seen to walk up to the bouse of Bill Morris and knock on the door and shortly after return along the public highway toward where the automobile was .■standing. One of the persons who was- out hunting spoke to the defendant, and defendant told him that he had brought a bunch of fellows out from Coffeyville hunting and had gone to Bill Morris’ to get some gasoline for his car. The stolen -ear was the only car in sight at that time and was the only car ’that had come along that public highway that day. The parties to whom the defendant was then talking had heard the car .as it labored along the muddy road for an hour or more before they saw the defendant. That this was the stolen car is not •disputed, but it is contended that such facts do not show that -the defendant was in possession of said car for the reason that -no witness saw him in the actual physical possession of the car.

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Related

Chrisman v. State
1922 OK CR 149 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1922 OK CR 54, 204 P. 1113, 21 Okla. Crim. 74, 1922 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conkright-v-state-oklacrimapp-1922.