Epperson v. State

1965 OK CR 124, 406 P.2d 1017, 1965 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 321
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 13, 1965
DocketA-13543
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1965 OK CR 124 (Epperson 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
Epperson v. State, 1965 OK CR 124, 406 P.2d 1017, 1965 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 321 (Okla. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

BUSSEY, Presiding Judge.

John Nelson Epperson was convicted in the District Court'of Oklahoma County for the offense of taking indecent liberties with a female child under the age of fourteen years in violation of Title 21 O.S. § 1123, and from a judgment and sentence fixing his punishment at ten (10) years imprisonment at the State Penitentiary, he appeals.

On appeal he seeks reversal on two assignments of error and modification on the third. They are (1) that the evidence was wholly insufficient to support the verdict of the jury, (2) that the trial court erred in admitting proof of a crime other than that charged in the information, and (3) that the punishment imposed by the jury is excessive.

*1020 In considering the first assignment of error it will be necessary to briefly set forth the facts as adduced from the record.

The uncontroverted evidence introduced on behalf of the state established that on the morning of September 4, 1963 at approximately 9:30 o’clock, defendant, a man fifty-two (52) years of age, was observed seated on a suitcase on the southeast corner of Oklahoma Street and 13th Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was at this location that the three state witnesses testified that the defendant encountered a boy, age six (6), and his four (4) year old sister. Some conversation was held by the defendant and the two children, and the boy left the corner and later returned eating an ice cream cone. During his absence the defendant was observed playing with the young girl and placing his hands on her body and underneath her shorts.

The young boy returned and departed, and one of the witnesses telephoned the police dispatcher and reported the incident. During the telephone conversation, the defendant and the young girl were observed walking north on Oklahoma Street and they disappeared from the view of the witnesses, who after a short time found the defendant with the small child laying on the ground in a weed patch on a vacant lot in back of the business establishment of the witnesses. The girl’s shorts were pulled down past her thighs. Witnesses held the defendant at the scene until the officers arrived and placed him under arrest, and the small girl was returned to her mother.

The defendant did not testify in his own behalf and called but a single witness to establish his defense' — that he was incapable of forming the necessary intent to commit the act charged due to intoxication. The defendant’s sister testified that on the morning in question the defendant appeared at her home in a state of intoxication, and that shortly before he was arrested he left her home in a state of intoxication and drunkenness.

The state produced as a rebuttal witness an officer who testified that at the time of defendant’s arrest, defendant appeared to .have been drinking but that he was not, in the opinion of the officer, drunk. This witness described the appearance of the defendant and his manner of speech at the time of the arrest.

This charge was laid under Title 21 O.S. § 1123, the pertinent part thereof providing:

* * * or any such adult person who shall intentionally and designedly look upon, touch, maul or feel of the body of private parts of any child under the age of fourteen (14) years in any lewd or lascivious manner by any acts not amounting to the commission of any crime against public decency and morality, as may now be defined by the laws of Oklahoma; * * * shall be deemed guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof, he shall be punished by imprisonment in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for a term of not less than one (1) year nor more than twenty (20) years.”

From the evidence adduced on the trial, it is abundantly clear that the defendant committed the acts charged in the information, and the only real issue for the consideration of the jury was whether the defendant had the necessary specific intent to commit said acts or whether he was in such a state of intoxication as to be incapable of forming said intent.

In Brown v. State, Okl.Cr., 404 P.2d 78, this Court stated:

“The subjective intent with which an act is done is seldom established by direct evidence, but must of necessity be determined by all of the attending facts and circumstances surrounding such act.”

We are of the opinion and therefore hold that all of the facts and attending circumstances surrounding the offense for which the defendant stands convicted amply support the jury’s finding that the defendant possessed the necessary criminal intent.

*1021 It is next contended that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a crime other than that charged in the information. In support of this contention the defendant asserts that if the jury found and believed the testimony of the witnesses that the defendant placed his hand upon and underneath the shorts of the small girl while on the southeast comer of the intersection of Oklahoma Street and 13th Street in the manner charged in the information, said acts constituted an offense under .the provisions of Title 21 O.S. § 1123, the pertinent part thereof being:

“ * * * or any such adult person who shall intentionally and designedly look upon, touch, maul or feel of the body or private parts of any child under the age of fourteen (14) years in any lewd or lascivious manner by any acts not amounting to the commission of any crime against public decency and morality, as may now be defined by the laws of Oklahoma; ⅜ ⅝ ⅜ »

He contends that the court erred in admitting evidence tending to establish that the defendant thereafter enticed the small girl to accompany him to the vacant lot overgrown with weeds and obscured from view of bypassers. He argues that this evidence constitutes a separate and distinct offense from that charged in the information in that it also violates Title 21 O.S. § 1123 and is a separate and distinct offense under that portion which provides:

“ * * * or any such adult person who shall designedly ask, invite, entice or persuade any child under the age of fourteen (14) years to go alone with him or her, or any other persons, to any secluded, remote or secret place, with the unlawful and wilful intent and purpose, then and there, to commit any crime against public decency and morality, as may now he defined by the laws of Oklahoma, with such child or to in any manner lewdly or lasciviously look upon, touch, maul or feel the private person or the private parts of such child in any indecent manner, or in any manner relating to sex matters or sex interest, shall he deemed guilty of a felony * * * ”.

In considering this assignment of error we observe that the general rule is as stated in Roulston v. State, Okl.Cr., 307 P.2d 861, that when a defendant is put upon trial for one offense he is to be convicted, if at all, by evidence which shows that he is guilty of that offense alone and the admission of evidence of other crimes, either prior or subsequent to the offense for which he is on trial is inadmissible. To this general rule there are certain well established exceptions which are succinctly set forth in Cody v. State, Okl.Cr., 361 P.2d 307, 84 A.L.R.2d 997.

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Bluebook (online)
1965 OK CR 124, 406 P.2d 1017, 1965 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/epperson-v-state-oklacrimapp-1965.