Coppage v. State

1937 OK CR 137, 71 P.2d 509, 62 Okla. Crim. 325, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 130
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 2, 1937
DocketNo. A-9203.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1937 OK CR 137 (Coppage 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
Coppage v. State, 1937 OK CR 137, 71 P.2d 509, 62 Okla. Crim. 325, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 130 (Okla. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, P. J.

The plaintiff in error, John Ooppedge, informed against as John Coppage, hereinafter *327 for convenience referred to as the defendant, by information was charged in the district court of Garfield county with the crime of the larceny of an automobile; was tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve a term of five years in the state penitentiary. The record was properly saved, and the defendant, by case-made with petition in error attached, appeals.

The testimony in this case in substance is:

Lula Austin stated:

“I live at 606 West 8th street, in the city of Enid. On the 12th day of December, 1931, I was the owner of a Master Chevrolet Six coupe automobile; I bought this car on the 30th day of October, 1931; it was an all black coupe, had dual horns and a radio; I had owned it forty-two days; I took a trip in the car and in loading it dropped a box on the turtleback and dented it; on the 12th day of December, 1931, the car was taken from in front of my house; the next time I saw the car was on March 8th, 1935, at Carnegie, Oklahoma, in the possession of Mr. Caruth, an officer.
“I advised the officers the motor number, the color of the car, the radio and the dual horns; I had left some black coat hangers in the car, and on one occasion I had! hauled some fertilizer in the car and had spilled some of it out in the car. When I went to Carnegie I identified the mark on the turtleback of the car; there was one coat hanger like the ones I used and left in the car; I also found a trace of the fertilizer in the back of the car.
“The radio had been removed from the car. You could see it was equipped for a radm; the dual horns were gone. I have no doubt about the car being mine.
“The car was turned over to me and I turned it in to the insurance company and they paid me the insurance. Mr. Cansler and Mr. Caruth were present in the garage when I examined the car and identified it. I have *328 no interest in the case except to give the true state of facts to the court.”
On cross-examination witness stated the numbers had been mutilated, wheels had been changed; “It had black Avheels AAdien I lost it and they Avere straw colored wire wheels when I found it; the radio was off, and the dual horns gone and a heater in place of the radio; I have not seen the defendant or talked with- him about the car.”

Watt Caruth in substance stated:

“I am city marshal of Carnegie, and was in February and March, of 1935;: I saw the defendant in Carnegie, he came to- work for the Highway Department, fixing to build a bridge; I know the defendant as he used to live on a farm close by, and I saw this defendant in 1934. I took down the license number and sent to the Highway Department; one of the members of the Highway Department called me by phone and instructed ’me to take possession of the car, that it was a stolen car; I took the car from John Coppedge, this defendant, on or about the 20th day of February, 1935; the defendant stated he had bought the car from a second-hand dealer in El Reno, and told me the name but I do not remember it; I put the car in the Ford Garage, at Carnegie, and Mrs. Austin and an insurance man came down; Mr. ¡Scruggs from the High-Avay Department was also there.
“The defendant stayed around for three weeks after AA'e took possession of the -car before he was arrested; when I took possession of the car the defendant gave me the keys to the car. The defendant told me he was a poker player. The defendant was around Carnegie in this car for about a week before I picked it up; I suspected it was a stolen car but I wanted to wait until I heard from the Highway Department.”

On cross-examination witness stated the defendant told him he purchased the car from a man named G. L. *329 Gross, in El Beno; Gross got the title to the car and brought it to him.

J. H. Scruggs, testifying for the state, stated “From the description of the car given by Lula Austin, the owner of the car, I identified the car; it had a dent in the turtle-back and bits of fertilizer in the back of the car.” Scruggs’ testimony is in substance the same as the other officers who made an inspection of the car.

The defendant, testifying in his own behalf, stated he bought the car from a used-car lot in El Beno>, from a man named G. L. Gross, for $500; the defendant stated! a woman and a second cousin of his were with him at the time; after he looked the car over, which was setting at the curb in front of the used car lot, “My cousin, the woman and I went with the salesman to the notary public who drew the transfer of title.” Defendant stated he could not produce the notary for the reason that he had died in the meantime.

The defendant also stated Gracie Arganbright had moved to Kansas City, Mo., and he could not have her present. His cousin’s testimony, taken at a former trial, was read to the jury, as he was absent. The testimony of the cousin showed that while the defendant and Gross went to the notary public to have the title prepared, he and the Arganbright woman remained in the car.

On cross-examination defendant was asked by the county attorney question after question attempting to connect the defendant with the larceny of another car, but the statements disclosed that if he had been connected with the car he had not been prosecuted.

The testimony on behalf of the state shows that each of the witnesses who spoke to the defendant about the *330 car was told he bought the car in El Reno, from Gross, and that he had paid $500 for it. It is further shown by the state’s testimony that the defendant appeared in Carnegie with the car and was there for some time before the car was identified as being a stolen car, and that he drove it publicly upon the streets of Carnegie where any one might see it. The defendant denied he had anything to do with the stealing of the car, or that he had been in Enid at the time the car was stolen; that he did not know the car was stolen when he bought it from the man in El Reno. He further testified that when the charge was brought against him he tried to locate the man, G. L. Gross, from whom he bought the car, and that he made trips to different places trying to locate him and failed to do so. The state did not contradict this statement of the defendant, only contradicting it to the extent of saying there was no man in the city of El Reno by the name of G. L. Gross that could be located by the state authorities.

The foregoing is the substance of the testimony both on behalf of the state and the defendant.

The defendant in his petition in error alleges five errors committed by the trial court:

“1. That the court erred in refusing a hearing on and in overruling the plaintiff in error’s plea of former acquittal on said charge.
“2. That the court erred in admitting incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial testimony over the objection of the plaintiff in error.
“3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK CR 137, 71 P.2d 509, 62 Okla. Crim. 325, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coppage-v-state-oklacrimapp-1937.