Eslinger v. State

1929 OK CR 33, 273 P. 1024, 41 Okla. Crim. 426, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 174
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 26, 1929
DocketNo. A-7196.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1929 OK CR 33 (Eslinger 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
Eslinger v. State, 1929 OK CR 33, 273 P. 1024, 41 Okla. Crim. 426, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 174 (Okla. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called the defendant, wrs convicted in the district court of Cimarron county upon an information charging that the defendant did then and there unlawfully, fraudulently, and feloniously by fraud, .take, steal, and carry away one certain Whippet four-icylinder coach automobile, the property of Lester Burrow, and of the value of $775, with the fraudulent, unlawful, and felonious intent to deprive the owner thereof and to convert the same to his own use, and was sentenced to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for five years. Motion for new trial was filed, considered, and overruled, and exceptions duly saved, and the defendant has appealed to this court.

The testimony on behalf of the state, in substance, is as follows: Lester Burrow testified that he knew the defendant during the year 1927; that he was the owner of a Whippet coach; that on November 12, 1927, he en *428 tered into a contract with the defendant whereby the defendant was to deliver to him a Whippet coach automobile, on or before January 1, 1928; that witness turned over to the defendant a secondhand Whippet coach as a part payment for the new car, and was to pay $65 in money in addition to the secondhand car turned over to defendant, and was to have the option of 90 days' after the car was delivered to him to pay the $65. Witness stated that just before the first of the year he went over to defendant’s place and wanted him to go to Guymon that day to see Mr. Payne, manager of the Panhandle Automobile Company, whose headquarters were in Guymon; that he could not get the defendant to go with him, and about the first of the year he started over to see the defendant and learned that defendant had left his residence driving the secondhand Whippet car that witness had turned over to him; that, when the trade was made, defendant talked something about going into the garage business, and that the contract he made with witness had to be satisfactory to Mr. Payne.

Testimony further discloses that defendant was apprehended near Neosho, Mo., and there gave the officers information as to the disposition he had made of the car he received from Burrow. The record discloses that defendant had been making sales of cars for Mr. Payne, of the Panhandle Motor Company, which Mr. Payne represented and getting commissions upon cars he found buyers for. Witness testified' defendant was not an agent for the company, but where he brought a buyer to them and a sale was made the defendant was paid a commission. Mr. Payne stated defendant had found several buyers for the company.

The prosecuting witness stated that defendant did not state at the time he delivered the car to him that he was agent for Bob Payne, but did tell him he would get a new car through Bob Payne; that the car would *429 be delivered about the first of the year, if not before. The prosecuting witness further stated that he turned the car over to Mr. Eslinger pursuant to the terms of the contract entered into between him and the defendant on November 12, 1927, and that he had no further claim on the car he turned over to Mr. Eslinger and did not consider it was his car any longer; that when he turned it over he parted with the title as well as the possession of the car. He did not know of the defendant finding buyers for any other cars after he and defendant entered into the contract for the new car which he was to receive for his old car and the $65. Witness further stated he called on Mr. Payne and was advised that he had nothing to do with the contract and after that he made several trips to see the defendant and never could find him at home.

Witness on redirect examination stated when he parted with the possession of the car he did not know he was parting with his title to the defendant, but he parted with it on the credit of the Panhandle Motor Company, of which Mr. Payne was manager. The defendant stated to the witness that he would deliver the written contract he had entered into to Mr. Payne the next day.

This is, in substance, the testimony offered by the state. At the close of the state’s testimony, defendant made the following request: “Comes now the defendant and requests the court to direct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty for the reason that the evidence is insufficient to establish the guilt of the defendant of the crime charged or of any other public offense and for the further reason that there is a fatal variance between the information and the evidence in that the evidence shows if any crime was committed it was the crime of obtaining property under false pretense and not the crime of larceny.”

The request of the defendant to direct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty was overruled, and defendant duly excepted. The question to be determined is, the suffi *430 ciency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. There is no conflict in the testimony. The defendant offered no proof as to the transactions between the prosecuting witness Lester Burrow- and himself. The defendant was charged and convicted of stealing the automobile of the prosecuting witness. It is urged by the defendant that the fact that the prosecutor entered into a written contract to sell a secondhand car for a new car and to pay $65 additional for the new car, which was to be delivered the 1st of January, 1928, and the money to be paid at that time or to be paid within 90 days, and the prosecuting witness delivered his car to the defendant under his contract, is not sufficient to sustain a conviction of larceny.

Section 2101, C. O. S. 1921, in defining larceny, reads: “Larceny is the taking of personal property accomplished by fraud or stealth, and with intent to deprive another thereof.”

Section 2103, C. O. S. 1921, defines the degrees of larceny: “Larceny is divided into two degrees; the first of which is termed grand larceny, the second petit larceny.”

Section 2104, C. O. S. 1921, reads as follows: “Grand larceny is larceny committed in either of the following cases: First. When the property taken is of value exceeding twenty dollars. Second. When such property, although not of value exceeding twenty dollars in value, is taken from the person of another. Larceny in other cases Is petit larceny.”

Section 2120, C. O. S. 1921, reads as follows: “Stealing Automobile. Any person in this state who shall steal an automobile or other automotive driven vehicle shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction shall be punished by confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of not less than five (,5) years, nor more than twenty (20) years.”

In Newcomb v. State, 23 Okla. Cr. 172, on page 184, 213 P. 900, 905, this court said: “In this connection it is *431 contended that the information charged both grand larceny under sections 2101 and 2104, Compiled Statutes 1921, and larceny of an automobile under section 2120, Id. The latter statute is equivalent in its terms to section 2116, Compiled Statutes 1921, relative to the larceny of live stock.”

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Related

Hobson v. State
1954 OK CR 149 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1954)
Riley v. State
1938 OK CR 39 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK CR 33, 273 P. 1024, 41 Okla. Crim. 426, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eslinger-v-state-oklacrimapp-1929.