Curtis v. State

1974 OK CR 24, 518 P.2d 1288
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 6, 1974
DocketF-73-343
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1974 OK CR 24 (Curtis 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
Curtis v. State, 1974 OK CR 24, 518 P.2d 1288 (Okla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION AND DECISION

BRETT, Judge:

Appellant, Roy Curtis, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was convicted by a jury in the Okmulgee County District Court, Case No. CRF-72-30, for the offense of Obtaining Money by False Pretenses, and was sentenced to serve five (S) years imprisonment. Judgment and sentence was imposed on June 11, 1973, after defendant’s motion for new trial was denied. Defendant was unable to post bail pending appeal, and is presently incarcerated in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Defendant was represented by court appointed counsel, Mr. Duane A. Woodliff of Henryetta, Oklahoma.

The facts briefly stated reveal that in July and August of 1972, two men representing themselves to be employees of the Triple A Exterminators in Henryetta, one of whom was the defendant, were paid the sum of Two Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($2,400.00) on one occasion, and later an additional sum of Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00), for work on the complaining witness’ home. The complaining witness was Mr. Victor M. Baird, a man 63 years of age. Soon thereafter, on December 15, 1972, two other men approached Mr. Baird at his home and informed him that they were officers of the law; and that they were attempting to locate the men who had earlier performed the exterminating services on his home. They informed Mr. Baird that he would be contacted by one of the men who had swindled him; and in order to apprehend the two men, Mr. Baird should cooperate with them and give them the sum of Five Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($5,200.00), to be used by them to catch the embezzlers. The two men insisted that the money should be in cash. However, due to circumstances which arose, and upon the advice of the bank personnel, Mr. Baird obtained a cashier’s check made payable to his brother, Glenn Baird; but when the check was typed the name was misspelled as “Glen Baird.” Mr. Baird delivered the cashier’s check to the two men and at their request he endorsed the check “Glen Baird.” Thereafter, defendant did not see the men again. Several days later the complaining witness consulted the local police concerning what had happened to him, and the police proceeded to conduct their investigation.

Defendant was apprehended in Waco, Texas, where he worked for Mr. S. E. Chastain doing extermination work; he also worked as a salesman for Chastain Salvage Company. When he was arrested at the Texas National Bank in Waco, Texas, he was cashing a check at the drive-in window. While defendant was in the Waco, Texas jail, Mr. Fred Lee, Special Agent of the FBI, took the defendant’s signed statement wherein defendant said that he deposited a check to the account of “Glen Baird,” in the amount of Five Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($5,200.00) in the Texas National Bank on December 20, 1972, at the request of Mr. Chastain, and that he had cashed other checks on that account for Mr. Chastain; defendant stated he did not open the Glen Baird account, nor did he sign the checks, although he did endorse checks which were made out and given to him by Mr. Chastain. In the statement defendant asserted that he was only an errand boy for Chastain, and that all of the money obtained from the checks was turned over to Mr. Chastain.

Soon after defendant was taken to the jail in Henryetta, Oklahoma, the local police and Mr. B. G. Jones, an agent for the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation, took six (6) photographs of different individuals to the home of the complaining witness *1290 for him to view. Even though hesitatingly, the complaining witness picked out defendant’s photograph as one of the two men who came to his home and posed as law enforcement officers, and to whom he delivered the cashier’s check. The complaining witness also made an in-court identification of defendant as one of the two men to whom he gave the cashier’s check, and testified that defendant did most of the talking for the two men who posed as law enforcement officers.

The defense offered at this trial was that of alibi, in which defendant asserted and attempted to prove to the jury’s satisfaction that on December 15, 1972, he was in Waco, Texas; and that this was a matter of mistaken identification. In his defense he offered the testimony of his wife, Ruth Curtis, who testified she saw defendant every day during the month of December, 1972, becoming formally engaged to him on December 13. She testified further that defendant never left Waco, Texas during the month of December, and that on December 15, the day the crime occurred, she and defendant were at her girl friend’s house where defendant bought some Stanley Product’s perfume. Mr. Richard Hutton, a legal intern, testified that he interviewed defendant in the Henryetta Jail and while going through defendant’s personal effects, found a sales receipt for two bottles of cologne from Stanley Products, dated December 15, 1972. This receipt was introduced as defendant’s Exhibit 4.

Defendant’s sister, Meryl Casper, testified that she lives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and that defendant telephoned her on the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 11th of December, 1972, and that she called him on the 7th and 13th. She related that the telephone calls were made to her collect and her telephone bill was introduced into evidence to verify these calls.

Defendant testified in his own behalf and related that he works for S. E. Chas-tain doing extermination work, and as a salesman in the Chastain Salvage Company. He related that his duties include depositing and cashing checks for Mr. Chas-tain; that he moved from Oklahoma to Waco in September, 1972, and has been there ever since. He testified that he was not in Oklahoma on December 15; that he did not talk to Mr. Baird, the complaining witness; nor did he impersonate an officer in Henryetta on December 15, 1972. He denied knowing that the Five Thousand Two Hundred Dollar ($5,200.00) cashier’s check which he deposited in the Texas National Bank for Mr. Chastain came from the complaining witness. He asserted further that the check was deposited at Chas-tain’s direction and that the Glen Baird account was already opened by someone else when he deposited the cashier’s check in that account. He related that he cashed several other checks on that account at Chastain’s direction, but that all the checks were drawn and signed before defendant ever saw them. Defendant further testified that he learned of the connection between the cashier’s check and Mr. Victor Baird after he was arrested. He related, however, that after he saw Mr. Baird he realized that it was his home under which he worked as an exterminator in August of 1972, before he moved to Waco, Texas.

Other witnesses who testified related that the complaining witness withdrew from his savings account in the American Exchange Bank in Henryetta the required sum of money used to purchase the cashier’s check. Mr. Sam Johnson, a Deputy Sheriff for McClendon County, Waco, Texas, who also served as security guard for the Texas National Bank, testified that he arrested defendant when defendant was attempting to cash a check made payable to cash with the signature of “Glen Baird,” but that this was not the cashier’s check from the American Exchange Bank in Henryetta.

Defendant’s first proposition asserts: “The trial court erred in overruling defendant’s request for a copy of the defendant’s statement which had been reduced to writing by an Oklahoma Crime Bureau Agent.” This complaint relates to the in *1291 terrogation by Mr. B. G.

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Related

Allen v. District Court of Washington County
803 P.2d 1164 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1991)
Perez v. State
614 P.2d 1112 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1980)
Baker v. State
1978 OK CR 124 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
Bias v. State
1977 OK CR 56 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1974 OK CR 24, 518 P.2d 1288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curtis-v-state-oklacrimapp-1974.