Gentry v. State

1977 OK CR 152, 562 P.2d 1170
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 13, 1977
DocketF-76-287
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 1977 OK CR 152 (Gentry 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
Gentry v. State, 1977 OK CR 152, 562 P.2d 1170 (Okla. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION

BRETT, Judge:

Appellant, Jack Gentry, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted on three counts of Receiving Stolen Property, in violation of 21 O.S.1971, § 1713, in Case No. CRF-75-57, in the District Court, LeFlore County. The jury found the defendant guilty on all three counts, and assessed punishment at six (6) months’ confinement in the County Jail on each count, and payment of a Two Hundred Fifty ($250.00) Dollar fine on each count and Forty ($40.00) Dollars court costs. The trial court imposed the punishment as assessed by the jury, but provided that the jail sentence imposed in count three was to run concurrently with the jail sentence imposed in count two. From these judgments and sentences, this appeal has been lodged.

At trial Donnie McGuire, who testified that he previously had been convicted of burglary and grand larceny, stated that in the six or seven months he had known the •defendant prior to his arrest, he had sold the defendant approximately 100 guns, which he had stolen from houses in Cherokee County. In describing those sales prior to November 10 or 11, 1974, the witness declared that he and the defendant had been the only persons present, that he had never informed the defendant that the guns were stolen, and that the defendant had paid him in cash for the shotguns and rifles after taking possession of them. He testified that on the 10th or 11th of November, 1974, he, Mike Cox, and Terry Johnson had sold the defendant approximately ten stolen guns. When McGuire was arrested for burglary he volunteered to show the District Attorney’s Office where he had sold the stolen guns.

Rudy Briggs, an investigator in the District Attorney’s Office, testified that on November 14, 1974, he and McGuire traveled to Blank’s Barbecue, defendant’s place of business, in order to verify McGuire’s statement that defendant was in the business of buying stolen guns. At Blank’s Barbecue, McGuire informed the defendant that he and Briggs had several guns for sale. After examining the weapons the defendant paid the two men $125.00 in exchange for the guns. Briggs testified that at several times during the transaction he and McGuire told the defendant the guns had been stolen in Missouri. The guns in fact belonged to Crime Bureau Agent Jack Lay and District Attorney Investigator Robert Been. Briggs further stated that the guns which they sold to the defendant were worth approximately $600.00 to $700.00.

Briggs testified that shortly after the sale was completed several law enforcement officers served a search warrant on the defendant and searched his house trailer, confiscating 32 weapons, which included handguns, rifles and shotguns. Several television sets, tape players, sewing machines and other items were also seized. Witnesses identified the confiscated guns set out in *1173 the information as guns which had been stolen from them recently, and an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent identified the guns in question as ones which he had marked when he and other officers had confiscated them from defendant’s trailer, on November 14, 1974,

The defendant testified in his own behalf that he frequently bought watches, rings, jewelry, guns, television sets, and other personal property from people wanting to sell such property, or wanting do use such property as security for a loan. He said that he had no need for the guns, but that he had intended to display them in a rack in his place of business. The defendant further testified that he had purchased guns from McGuire previously, not knowing he was purchasing stolen property and that he had purchased four guns from McGuire and Briggs on November 14, 1974. He denied that they had told him the guns which he purchased were stolen.

In his first assignment of error, the defendant argues that his motion to suppress evidence and controvert search warrant' should have been sustained for the reason that the affidavit upon which both the search and recovery of evidence were founded was constitutionally defective. He alleges that the affidavit failed to set forth why the informant used in this case was considered reliable, citing as authority Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), wherein the United States Supreme Court enumerated the necessary elements of an affidavit for a search warrant, and Leonard v. State, Okl. Cr., 453 P.2d 257 (1969), which adopted those standards in Oklahoma.

Spinelli v. United States, supra, delineated how to apply the standards to a specific set of facts for an affidavit as established in Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), wherein the United States Supreme Court held that the affidavits must reveal underlying circumstances showing reason to believe that the informant is a credible person and underlying circumstances showing the bases of the conclusions reached by the informant.

We have examined the affidavit in question and find- that it contains information to the, effect that affiant ,had probable cause, based on a tip from an identified informant, Donnie McGuire, to believe that the defendant had committed the crime of receiving stolen property and that the stolen property could be found at defendant’s residence. McGuire had been arrested for the crime of burglary in the second degree, and the affidavit stated that on November 11, 1974, McGuire had sold ten guns to the defendant, and had advised the defendant that the guns were stolen.

The cases upon which the defendant relies involve situations in which a search warrant is sought pursuant to an undisclosed informant’s tip. However, in the instant case the affidavit specifically named the informant, Donnie McGuire, and stated his connection with the defendant. In Luker v. State, Okl.Cr., 504 P.2d 1238 (1972), this Court held that where the affidavit for search warrant is based on specified factual information given by a named and known informant, it is not necessary that the affidavit set forth details to indicate, that the informant is reliable and his information is credible.

A second factor which establishes the informant’s credibility is that he made declarations against his penal interest. The United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 29 L.Ed.2d 723 (1971), stated as follows:

“ . . . Admissions of crime, like admissions against proprietary interests, carry their own indicia of credibility— sufficient at least to support a finding of probable cause to search. . . . ” 403 U.S. at 583, 91 S.Ct. at 2082

In Pierce v. State, 491 P.2d 335 (1971), this Court adopted the Supreme Court’s reasoning-

Therefore,- it is clear, from the affidavit that the informant was reliable. Further, the affidavit revealed the underlying circumstances showing the bases of the conclusions reached :by the informant. The informant knew that the defendant had *1174 received stolen property, because he had sold stolen guns to the defendant.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Lugo-Tovar
713 F. App'x 774 (Tenth Circuit, 2017)
Surber v. Robertson
17 F. App'x 878 (Tenth Circuit, 2001)
Antrobus v. State
1995 OK CR 41 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1995)
Kinsey v. State
798 P.2d 630 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1990)
Hogan v. State
1988 OK CR 204 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)
Salyer v. State
1988 OK CR 184 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)
Hunnicutt v. State
1988 OK CR 91 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)
Brooks v. State
1986 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1986)
Corley v. State
1985 OK CR 153 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1985)
Sockey v. State
1984 OK CR 48 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1984)
Mosier v. State
1983 OK CR 149 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1983)
Billings v. State
1982 OK CR 145 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1982)
McGee v. State
1982 OK CR 68 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1982)
Lohman v. State
1980 OK CR 106 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1980)
Barber v. State
406 A.2d 668 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1979)
Carter v. State
1979 OK CR 52 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1979)
Merrick v. State
389 A.2d 328 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1977 OK CR 152, 562 P.2d 1170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gentry-v-state-oklacrimapp-1977.