Fay v. State

1937 OK CR 143, 71 P.2d 768, 62 Okla. Crim. 350, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 135
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 10, 1937
DocketNo. A-9257.
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 1937 OK CR 143 (Fay 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
Fay v. State, 1937 OK CR 143, 71 P.2d 768, 62 Okla. Crim. 350, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 135 (Okla. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, P. J.

The plaintiff in error, for convenience referred to as the defendant, was convicted of assault with intent to kill, and was sentenced to serve a term of six months in the state penitentiary. Motion for a new trial was filed, considered, and overruled. The defendant saved the record and has appealed to this court.

*352 The defendant was by information charged with an assault upon Genella Brewer, a school girl, by striking her with his car. J. P. Fisher, testifying for the state, stated:

“I was driving1 an oil truck in the same direction the defendant was driving; I estimated the defendant was driving at a speed of 75 or 80: miles an hour; just about a block and a half north of where he struck Genella Brewer he passed me; the defendant drove so fast I looked at my speedometer and saw I was driving 47 or 48 miles an hour; I had only time to look up when the defendant struck Genella Brewer.”

Roy Snelson, testifying for the state, stated in substance that defendant’s car stopped approximately 108 feet from where the defendant struck the child. The witness further stated one of the tires left a mark on the pavement estimated at 120 feet — by another witness at 75 steps. The witness Snelson stated that by the zigzagging of the defendant’s car he was having trouble in getting his car under control.

The defendant in his testimony claims before he got into the school zone he was driving about 35 or 40 miles an hour, and that on coming into the school zone he slowed down to about 35 miles an hour. The defendant' stated he did not see the child when he got into the school zone.

There is no dispute in the testimony that the defendant was driving at an unusual rate of speed in the school zone when he struck Genella Brewer, nor is there any dispute that the child was bruised and injured. Unless there is some error prejudicial to' the rights of the defendant and such an error as would warrant this court in reversing the case, the evidence is sufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment.

*353 The defendant in his petition in error has assigned eleven errors alleged to have been committed by the trial court which he insists is sufficient to warrant this court in reversing his case. The only assignment of error we deem necessary to consider is assignment No. 10, which is:

“That the verdict of the jury sustained the defendant’s plea of former jeopardy and should have been sustained by a verdict of not guilty.”

Section 21, art. 2, of the Constitution of Oklahoma, is as follows:

“No person shall be compelled to give evidence which will tend to incriminate him, except as in this 'Constitution specifically provided; nor shall any person, after having been once acquitted by a jury, be again put in jeopardy of life or liberty for that of which he has been acquitted. Nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense.”

Section 2678, O. S. 1931 (22 Okla. St. Ann. § 522), is as follows:

“When the defendant shall have been convicted or acquitted upon an indictment or information, the conviction or acquittal is a bar to another indictment or information for the offense charged in the former, or for an attempt to commit the same, or for an offense necessarily included! therein, of which he might have been convicted under that indictment or information.”

The information charged that on the 26th day of September, 1935, the said defendant did unlawfully, willfully, feloniously, wrongfully, and intentionally make an assault upon the person and body of the said Genella Brewer, with an automobile which he, the said John Fay, was then and! there driving upon the public highway, and with such force as was likely to> produce death, cut, strike, and! wound her, the said Genella Brewer, with the unlawful *354 and felonious intent of him, the said John Fay, her, the said Geneila Brewer, to kill and murder.

The record discloses that before the trial began the defendant filed a plea of former jeopardy, and insists that this was the same offense as the one upon which he was formerly tried and convicted in No. 3749, in the district court of Okmulgee county, and which case is mentioned in the verdict of the jury as numbered and set forth above. The defendant in his brief refers to1 the case No. 3749, and leaves the impression that the trial of No. 3749 was for an assault upon Geneila Brewer. The record does not bear him out in this statement, for the reason that the record shows he was tried and convicted in No. 3749 of an assault upon Betty Joe Brewer and not Gen-ella Brewer.

The record further shows that the defendant was tried, convicted, and sentenced at the January, 1936, term of the district court of Okmulgee county, for the crime committed by him on Betty Joe Brewer. That he was tried and convicted at the July, 1936, term of the district court of Okmulgee county, for the crime committed on Geneila Brewer, the July term being a separate term of court from the January term. The defendant insists that his plea of former jeopardy should be sustained for the reason that the injury to Geneila Brewer occurred at the same time that Betty Joe Brewer was injured' by the defendant’s car, and the defendant further contends that the injury to Betty Joe Brewer and the injury to Geneila Brewer occurring practically at the same time and the same place were not separate crimes, but one act, and that his plea of former jeopardy should have been sustained.

*355 The defendant in, hig brief admits that his conviction of injuring Betty Joe Brewer at the time of writing his brief was pending in the Criminal Court of Appeals. In view of the fact that the defendant’s conviction of injury to Betty Joe Brewer was pending in the Criminal Court of Appeals at the time he filed his plea of former jeopardy, the trial court properly overruled the same. While this court has never passed upon the question involved in this case, yet the State of Texas has had the direct question before it, and in the case of Sackhiem v. State, 92 Tex. Cr. R. 437, 244 S. W. 377, 24 A. L. R. 1072, in the first paragraph of the syllabus the court states the rule as follows:

“A conviction appealed from and appeal pending at the time of a subsequent prosecution and trial will not support a plea of former conviction.”

In the body of the opinion the court states:

“When the instant case was called for trial, appellant presented a plea of former conviction based on the facts we have above stated, and alleging that he had already been convicted for the same transaction and offense for which he was now being prosecuted. We do not consider or discuss the various bills of exception and the objections raised to the different phases of this question, as presented in the record before us, for the reason that a conviction appealed from and the appeal pending at the time of a subsequent prosecution and trial will not support a plea of former conviction, however just and pertinent the plea otherwise. Dupree v. State, 56 Tex. Cr. R. 562, 120 S. W. 871, 23 L. R. A. (N. S.) 596, 133 Am. St. Rep. 998; Harvey v.

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Bluebook (online)
1937 OK CR 143, 71 P.2d 768, 62 Okla. Crim. 350, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fay-v-state-oklacrimapp-1937.