Cudjo v. State

1971 OK CR 404, 489 P.2d 1101
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 13, 1971
DocketA-16752
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1971 OK CR 404 (Cudjo 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
Cudjo v. State, 1971 OK CR 404, 489 P.2d 1101 (Okla. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

BUSSEY, Presiding Judge:

Patterson Cudjo, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried, and convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, for the offense of Rape in the First Degree. His punishment was fixed at life imprisonment, and from said judgment and sentence, an Application for Post Conviction Relief has been perfected to this Court.

Briefly stated, the evidence at the trial adduced that at approximately 11:30 o’clock p. m. on June 26, 1963, Kathleen Parker was parked with her date, Keith Brewer, at approximately Twenty-Fifth and Bryant Streets in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She testified that as they were about to leave from this spot, a man, whom she later identified as the defendant, appeared at the side of the car, struck Brewer on the head with a tire tool, and pulled him out of the car and left him on the road. She attempted to run, but the defendant caught her and forced her back into his car. Defendant then held her down in the front seat of his car, and drove north on- Bryant Avenue. After driving for some few minutes, defendant stopped the car, yanked her from it, got some sort of cloth from the trunk of his car, and then proceeded with her into a field. The defendant made Miss Parker lie on the cloth, and then proceeded to have intercourse with her, in addition to forcing her to perform oral rectal sodomy. Thereafter, the defendant left, saying that he would be back. Miss Parker began running until she reached a house. The occupants of the house called the police, who arrived shortly, and took her back to where she and Brewer had parked on Bryant Avenue.

They later transported her to a location in the immediate vicinity wherein she observed an automobile which she identified as the same one in which she had been transported by the defendant prior to the alleged rape. It was later established that the police officer found a paper with the defendant’s name on it in the car. She gave a description of the assailant to the police officer.

Keith Brewer testified that he was parked with Kathleen Parker, and at about 11:30 p. m., shortly after he had started his automobile, a Negro man came up to the side of his car, pulled him from the car and struck him on the head, knocking him unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he proceeded to a nearby filling station, wherein the attendant called the police at approximately 12:00.

Officer Wilkinson testified that prior to 1:00 o’clock a. m. he was parked near Twenty-Third and Eastern Streets, facing east, and observed about a block away the silhouette of a man crossing Twenty-Third Street. He observed the defendant going over a wall or fence and cutting through back yards and houses. He stopped the defendant and asked him where he lived, wherein the defendant stated the 600 Block on Tenth Street. The police officer said, “You’re going the wrong direction ,,to get there.” He asked the defendant for identification, wherein he received a radio report, and then placed the defendant under arrest.

The State called other police officers who testified concerning physical evidence. A slip worn by Miss Parker was found in a nearby field. Soil taken from the shoes of the defendant was identified as containing the same seven inorganic elements in approximately the same proportions as a sample of soil taken near where the slip was found. Grass seeds were found on the defendant’s arm and in his socks.

A medical doctor testified that he examined the victim and observed a three-inch laceration just behind the cervix. Officer Harrison testified that he checked the defendant shortly after his arrest and observed what appeared to be blood on his shorts and private parts. It was stipulated *1103 by the parties that the blood stains found on defendant’s shorts did not compare favorably with the blood type of the victim. Defendant testified that he had worked all day on the day in question, that he spent the earlier part of the evening at the house of his girlfriend, Erma Jean Robinson. He later left and returned to his apartment, and then went to a place called the Ice Dock on Northeast Eighth Street, arriving there at approximately 10:45 o’clock p. m. He remained there until about 11:00 o'clock p. m., and when he walked out to get into his car, the car was missing. He testified that he thought one of his girlfriends’ sons might have taken the car and did not call the police. He then proceeded by foot toward Erma’s house. He stopped at a laundromat east of Twenty-Third and Eastern Streets and used a pay telephone to call Erma to see if she knew anything about the location of his car. She advised him that she had seen the car at about Twenty-Fifth and Bryant Streets, which was just a block or so from her residence. The defendant then hung up the telephone and was arrested shortly thereafter. He further testified that he always kept an extra set of car keys in the glove compartment of his car. He had the regular set in his pocket when he was arrested. He denied ever seeing the victim prior to his arrest. Other witnesses testified that the defendant was observed near the Ice Dock at approximately the same time as that testified to by the defendant.

Erma Robinson testified that she was the defendant’s girlfriend. He called her on the night in question, inquiring about his car, stating that someone had taken it at about 11:00 o’clock p. m. She told the defendant that she had seen it just down the road as she returned home. As she was talking to the defendant, a policeman came to the door, looking for a Negro man who had attacked a white girl, whose description did not match the description of the defendant. She testified that she had had sexual relations with the defendant over an extended period of time, the last being the night prior to his arrest. She described the defendant as a gentle man with her children and herself.

The first proposition asserts that the defendant was denied his right to a fair and impartial trial by reason of the State’s systematic exclusion from the jury a member of his race. This Court dealt with a similar question in Bennett v. State, Okl. Cr., 448 P.2d 253, wherein we stated:

“In this same area of his brief counsel submits to the court that he was not tried by a jury of his peers, in that no member of the Negro race served on his jury and there was only one member of the Negro race included in the panel of approximately fifty jurors from which his jury was selected. This argument must fail, the state submits, because it lacks one essential ingredient, that being proof or offer of same that a scheme of discrimination existed in Oklahoma County and in the trial court, whereby Negroes were systematically excluded from jury duty generally in the county and/or specifically from service on the jury that tried the defendant. The mere fact that no Negro served on his jury is insufficient standing alone.
“In the case of Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759, the Supreme Court of the United States had occasion to consider the allegation of a Negro, who had been convicted of rape by an all-white jury, that he was denied equal protection of the laws by discriminatory jury selection in three respects:
“(1) discrimination in the selection of venires, demonstrated by the fact that while 26 percent of the persons eligible for jury duty were Negroes, the venires contained only 10 to 15 percent Negroes;

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Related

Castleberry v. State
1974 OK CR 83 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Stidham v. State
1973 OK CR 143 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)
Norton v. State
1971 OK CR 516 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1971 OK CR 404, 489 P.2d 1101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cudjo-v-state-oklacrimapp-1971.