Higgins v. State

1973 OK CR 59, 506 P.2d 575, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 410
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 6, 1973
DocketA-16737
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 1973 OK CR 59 (Higgins 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
Higgins v. State, 1973 OK CR 59, 506 P.2d 575, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 410 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Presiding Judge:

Appellant Sharon L. Higgins, was charged, tried by a jury and convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, in Case No. CRF-70-1086, of the offense of Obtaining Money By Means and Use of a False and Bogus Check, After Former Conviction of a Felony, and her punishment was fixed at a term of ten (10) years imprisonment, from which judgment and sentence, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

On the trial, Joyce High, a co-defendant on the instant charge, testified that she had previously entered a plea of guilty and was returned from the state penitentiary in McAlester where she is serving a six-year term, to testify. She identified the appellant, Sharon Higgins, and stated that on the 9th day of April 1970 she and the appellant traveled together from Wichita, Kansas to Tulsa. She stated that before leaving Tulsa she and the appellant went to the home of one Linda Barnett, appellant’s step-sister, where she removed .a driver’s license and medical identification card from the Linda Barnett’s purse. She testified they then traveled to Tulsa in Appellant’s automobile and while there, they used the identification to open a bank account in a Tulsa bank. The witness stated the identification was in the appellant’s possession at this time “because it was planned and she had used it in Tulsa.” (Tr. 16)

Appellant and the witness returned to Wichita and on the following day, the 10th of April, the Witness High testified she went to appellant’s house and picked her up, leaving Wichita in the afternoon and arriving in Oklahoma City at approximately 3:00 p.m. She testified they proceeded to the Liberty National Bank in Oklahoma City where the Witness High opened a bank account in the name of Mrs. Sandra Parkins. She used an address and telephone number which the appellant obtained from an Oklahoma City telephone directory. She stated she obtained 20 blank checks at the bank and she and the appellant then proceeded to an Oklahoma City motel where appellant checked them in under the name of .Janice Summers. Once in the room, she testified that they together made out the checks and used a check protector to place the amounts on the checks. The Witness High then identified a series of checks which contained both her handwriting and that of the appellant, including State’s Exhibit No. 4 which was the check in question in the instant case written to an Oklahoma City Safeway store in the amount of One Hundred and Forty-six Dollars ($146.00) endorsed in the name Linda Barnett by, according to the Witness High, the appellant. She identified some eight checks that she and the appellant had made out in cash in the course of the day, that being the 10th of April.

The Witness High testified they spent the night at the motel and on the following day, the 11th, they checked out of the motel and passed some more checks. The witness stated approximately IS checks were cashed and the other five were destroyed. She stated she and the appellant returned to Wichita later on the 11th and that between the two of them, the check cashing operation had netted approximately Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1600.00).

On cross-examination, the Witness High admitted she did not personally see the appellant cash the Safeway check but that the appellant told her she had cashed that check. She testified further that she had four prior bogus check convictions plus an additional six-year concurrent term on a check cashing charge growing out of the same set of circumstances.

*577 Linda Barnett, of Tulsa, testified she had known the appellant for approximately three or four years and that the appellant was her stepfather’s daughter. She stated the appellant and another girl arrived at her home on the 9th day of April in the early afternoon and that they remained for approximately one hour. She testified further that her driver’s license and medical identification disappeared from her billfold at about that time. She stated she had seen her driver’s license earlier in the day and that as a result of having received a telephone call around 4:00 in the afternoon she had an occasion to go look for it, but was unable to find it. She stated no one else other than her stepfather had been in her home during that period of time and stated that the signature, Linda Barnett, appearing on the State’s exhibit was not her signature and that she gave no one permission to sign her name to any checks. She testified further that the telephone call she received was in connection with the opening of a new checking account at Southeast State Bank in Tulsa.

Harold Spratt testified that on the date in question he was assistant manager of the Safeway store located at 1509 Britton Road in Oklahoma City. He identified the appellant as the individual who had cashed State’s exhibit 4 on either April 10 and 11. He stated he initialed his approval on the check and that it was returned five or six days later stamped “Insufficient Funds.” He testified further that an Oklahoma Driver’s License was offered as identification for the cashing of this check. He stated further that he had had some conversation with the appellant with regard to the cashing of the check inasmuch as it was marked “Nursing care, private duty” and stated that the appellant said to him, “I really earned my money this week after lifting the gal around all week.” (Tr. 75) He testified further that approximately one week after the check was passed, he was able to pick appellant’s photograph out of a group of four.

At that point, the defense stipulated that if a witness for the Liberty National Bank were called they would identify Joyce High as the person who opened the bank account at the Liberty National Bank in the name of Sandra Parkins in the amount of Fifty Dollars ($50.00) on April 9, and further that on that same day the co-defendant, Joyce High, filled out an application to the 2135 Club using the name of Sandra Parkins and giving the address of 1715 Park Place.

Detective Sergeant Thomas A. Davis of the Wichita, Kansas Police Department identified State’s Exhibit 11 as a handwriting sample taken from the appellant in June of 1966.

Earnest Smith, after first being qualified as a questioned document examiner for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, testified that he compared the handwriting samples from Wichita, Kansas with the endorsements on the State’s exhibits and stated that based upon his expertise in his opinion the person who wrote the two-page handwriting exemplar was the person who endorsed the name of Linda Barnett on the back of the checks in question.

The State next called Leslie A. Wright who testified that he was an Oklahoma County Sheriff’s clerk and he identified State’s Exhibit 13 as a fingerprint card and fingerprints he had taken from the appellant.

Carl Cloud, after being qualified as a fingerprint technician for the State Bureau of Investigation, testified that he compared State’s Exhibit 4, the Safeway check, and State’s Exhibit 13, the appellant’s fingerprint card, and testified that in his opinion the fingerprints were made by the same individual.

Finally, it was stipulated that if Harvey Dowdy, cashier at Liberty National Bank, were called, he would testify that the bank account in the name of Sandra Parkins, Account No. 340-6474, was opened in the amount of Fifty Dollars ($50.00).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1973 OK CR 59, 506 P.2d 575, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/higgins-v-state-oklacrimapp-1973.