Guthrey v. State

1962 OK CR 106, 374 P.2d 925, 1962 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 270
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 12, 1962
DocketA-13119
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1962 OK CR 106 (Guthrey 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
Guthrey v. State, 1962 OK CR 106, 374 P.2d 925, 1962 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 270 (Okla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

BRETT, Judge.

This is an appeal by Vernon R. Guthrey, plaintiff in error, defendant below, from a conviction for grand larceny. He was charged by information in the district court of Garvin County, Oklahoma with the larceny of a doctor’s medicine bag from one Dr. Ryan’s parked automobile, the bag and contents being of the aggregate value of $185. The bag contained, among other things, blood pressure-taking instruments, a stethoscope, and drugs, such as demarol, morphine tablets, a vial of laxative, codeine tablets, hypodermic needles and syringes. The crime was allegedly committed on January 5, 1961 in Lindsay, Oklahoma, in the aforesaid county. Defendant was tried by a jury, convicted and his punishment fixed at one year in the penitentiary. Judgment and sentence was entered accordingly, from which this appeal has been perfected.

It appears that the factual situation from which this prosecution arises is, briefly as follows: Dr. Ryan, a practicing physician of Lindsay, Oklahoma, parked his automobile on January 5, 1961 back of his clinic, leaving in the unlocked automobile his doctor’s bag and its contents as hereinbefore substantially enumerated.

Another automobile, a Corvair, with the front end buckled, and occupied by four boys, as seen by four eyewitnesses, hurriedly entered the parking area, pulling up along side of the doctor’s car. From the Corvair one of the boys jumped out, opened the doctor’s car door and removed the doctor’s bag, taking it with him into the back seat of the Corvair, which then hurriedly sped away.

The Corvair, with the battered front end and four boys as its occupants, was seen by a local police officer at a stop light as it was leaving town. The officer said he noticed two things — that the front end was bent up, and that it was a strange car. Shortly after he met the car he got general information on his radio about the theft, and he went to Dr. Ryan’s office, got the details concerning same and picked up Buck Bell, another policeman, and they took out after the car on the highway. Thirty minutes later they spotted the boys and after a chase, getting their car up to about 80 miles an hour, and about three miles east of Alex, Oklahoma, they overtook the boys. It was the same car the officer met leaving town with four boys its occupants. During the chase, the arm of one of the boys was seen throwing something out of the car. When the boys were overtaken they were arrested and searched. No contraband was found on them. Their automobile was returned to Lindsay, and a vial that had contained narcotics was discovered by Dr. Ryan under the back seat of the Corvair, and the doctor identified the vial as one that came from his medical bag. A syringe *927 and needles and three vials of narcotics were found along the highway where it was observed one of the occupants of the Corvair threw something out of the right-hand side of the car. Dr. Ryan’s medical bag was found on the highway between Bradley and Alex, and was identified by him.

These were the circumstances upon which the state relied for conviction. The defendant offered no evidence in his defense. The facts as hereinbefore related stand uncontradicted.

The defendant raises but one proposition set forth in his motion for new trial. The other propositions raised were not presented in said motion, and are, therefore, not before us for consideration. “Only * * * questions which were raised in the trial court and an adverse ruling thereon, exceptions taken, and then incorporated in a motion for new trial, and assigned as error in the petition in error, will be considered on appeal, except that jurisdictional questions may be raised at any step of the case.” Staley v. State, 97 Okl.Cr. 114, 259 P.2d 545.

The remaining proposition properly preserved and raised herein is that the evidence was insufficient to establish defendant’s connection with or his guilt as a participant in the crime. He cites in support of this contention Carrico v. State, 16 Okl.Cr. 118, 180 P. 870. The evidence in that case amply supports Carrico’s contention. His testimony was a clear denial of any other than mere acquiescence after he knew Moore, the other defendant, was handling whiskey. He was not in on the deal from its inception. Moreover, the testimony of Moore, the law violator, was that Carrico was not implicated in the transaction. The evidence was clearly against the conviction therein.

In Smith v. State, 66 Okl.Cr. 408, 92 P.2d 582 the evidence offered by the co-defendant Bernice Mosier was that she knew nothing about the intention of her associate to rob Blackstone, the victim, and further it was her sworn testimony that if the victim was robbed, the crime was committed by someone other than Smith. This court therein said that Mrs. Mosier was no more than a suspect to the crime. The same is true of Anderson v. State, 66 Okl.Cr. 291, 91 P.2d 794 cited in Smith et al. v. State, supra.

In the case at bar there is not a scintilla of evidence to support the defendant’s theory of non-participation. In fact, there was no evidence at all by the defendant Guthrey. Under this record, the defendant and the other three boys started out together in concert and were in concert at the time of the larceny, and were in concert an hour later when they were apprehended. When it was apparent they were about to be overhauled they ran their automobile, in an attempt to escape, at or near 80 miles an hour, and threw the fruits of the larceny out of the car window, on the right-hand side of the road. All these circumstances standing uncontradicted are evidence of a joint operation. This proof, if believed by the jury, was sufficient, as was said in Weatherman v. State, 56 Okl.Cr. 191, 36 P.2d 306:

“Certainly it is essential that the larceny by accused must be proven, but it is not essential that this proof be by testimony of an eyewitness to the taking, for, if such were the law, generally it would be impossible for the state to supply any such proof. As a usual thing, larceny is committed at a time when the thief believes no one is watching; if he believed he were being observed, certainly he would not commit the larceny. The state, perforce, must rely on circumstantial evidence. The most common circumstance and the most convincing is to find one in the possession of recently stolen property. Such possession creates an inference of fact which, with other incriminating circumstances, is sufficient to sustain a conviction. Luther Worley v. State, 31 Okl.Cr. 253, 238 P. 225.”

In the body of the opinion in the Worley case, cited above, it was said:

“There are other circumstances which bear out the theory of the state. *928 The evidence of the state, if believed, and the inferences logically to be drawn from it, amply prove the guilt of the defendant. The weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses is a matter within the province of the jury.”

In Rush v. State, 22 Okl.Cr. 126, 210 P. 316, it was said:

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Bluebook (online)
1962 OK CR 106, 374 P.2d 925, 1962 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guthrey-v-state-oklacrimapp-1962.