Hoggatt v. State

1939 OK CR 121, 94 P.2d 264, 67 Okla. Crim. 377, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 148
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 22, 1939
DocketNo. A-9303.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1939 OK CR 121 (Hoggatt 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
Hoggatt v. State, 1939 OK CR 121, 94 P.2d 264, 67 Okla. Crim. 377, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 148 (Okla. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

DOYLE, P. J.

George W. Hoggatt was tried upon information filed in the district court of Rogers county October 22, 1935, charging him with the murder of one R. A. Maple, alleged to have been committed on the 14th day of September, 1935, by shooting him with a pistol.

It appears from the record that on October 20, 1936, both parties announced ready, and the defendant was placed on trial. On October 24, the jury returned a verdict finding him guilty as charged in the information and assessed his punishment at life imprisonment.

Judgment in accordance with the verdict was rendered November 13, 1936. The petition in error with case-made were filed in this court April 8, 1937, but there has been no appearance in his behalf on his appeal.

The assignments of error relate to rulings of the court on the admission and the exclusion of evidence and to instructions given by the court to the jury, and that the verdict is against the law and not supported by the evidence.

Upon arraignment the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. At the trial the defense interposed Was in *379 sanity; that the killing was excusable, because the defendant was insane at the time.

The theory of the prosecution was that the manner of this killing shows it was a willful, deliberate and premeditated murder.

The undisputed facts as established by the evidence are, that late in the evening, just after dark, on September 14, 1935, R. A. Maple was shot by the defendant, in the defendant’s home in Claremore. At the same time the defendant shot Mrs. R. A. Maple. R. A. Maple was 63 years old at the time of his death; he was the father-in-law of the defendant, Mrs. Hoggatt, wife of the defendant, being the only child of her parents.

A. L. Mosgrave testified that he received an emergency call to the home of George Hoggatt; that he answered the call and found Mr. and Mrs. Maple in the Hoggatt house lying on the floor; Mr. Maple was dead; Mrs. Maple was wounded and unconscious; they were put in ambulances and taken to the Franklin Hospital. After an examination the body of Mr. Maple was taken to the funeral home and Mrs. Maple was left in the hospital. When found Mr. Maple was lying with his feet in the house and. his head outside the screen door. Mrs. Maple lay just behind him. He found the wounds in the body ranged from the left side, one bullet entered the left arm and the left side, and there was one that entered just below and through this arm, then there was one that entered through the body and ranged up, and one bullet entered the top of the left shoulder and came out at eight inches below; there were bruises over his right eye and on his cheek, and there were two openings on his head, one right on top and one right behind it.

To the same effect was the testimony of John Mus-grove, associated with A. L., his father, in the funeral home.

*380 W. F. Hayes, M. D., testified that he was called to the Franklin Hospital about 8 o’clock that evening-, and found Mrs. Maple on the operating table. Mr. Maple was dead. Later made an examination and found that he had been shot three times, and found several wounds on his head, looked like they were made with a blunt in-. strument; that the bullet wounds were sufficient to produce death, almost instantly.

Dr. B. F. Collins, M. D., testified that he made an examination of Mr. Maple’s body at the undertaker’s with Dr. Hayes. His description of the gunshot wounds and other injuries was in substance the same as that of Dr. Hayes. He further testified that he examined Mrs. Maple, found one gunshot wound just below the lobe of the right ear, another gunshot wound went straight through the muscles of the back, found 12 wounds that in his opinion were caused by bullets, and found her forehead beaten in and both frontal lobes of the brain ruptured and discharging bits of bone, which wounds were made with some blunt instrument.

The evidence on the part of the state tends to show the following facts:

That R. A. Maple was 63 years old, at the time of his death; that he came with his father to Beaver county where the family settled on a farm and was there engaged in farming and stock raising for 50 years.

Mrs. Pearl Maple testified:

“I live in Beaver county, I have lived there 50 years, I live eight or ten miles northeast of Beaver City; my husband’s name was R. A. Maple, he was commonly known as Bob Maple; we were married in 1902, and lived on the place we homesteaded for four years before we moved to where I now live. We had two children, a boy and a girl; we lost our boy when he was three years old, my daughter’s name is ‘Nina’, I have known the defendant, George Hoggart, nine or ten years. He came to *381 our place, I believe it was in 1926, and started working there, he continued to work until sometime in 1929. My daughter Nina was about 15 or 16 years old when he started to work for us; she and the defendant were married at Liberal, Kan., at the home of Dr. Trickle. My husband and I were there. They returned to our place and my husband and I went on to Colorado. They lived in our house for about a month, then they got their furniture and fixed up their house. The defendant and his wife moved away from our ranch in 1929, and moved to Claremore. On September 14, 1935, my husband and I came to Claremore on a visit to them. We got there about 10:30 in the morning; my daughter, the defendant and their two little boys were there, we brought their little girl with us; she had been staying with us; we were there for dinner that day; after my daughter and I washed the dishes, we gave the children a bath; my husband and the defendant went to a sale; when they came back we all got in our car and came down town and looked at some goods for the little girl; then we all went out to C. C. Hoggatt’s home and stayed there about two hours; it was before sundown when we returned to Claremore. We had supper and prepared to stay all night; my husband, my daughter and her husband went up town; they were gone about three quarters of an hour; we sat down and visited a while and my husband said, T believe I will go out on the porch, it is cooler out there.’ The defendant talked a little while, then got up and said something about there being such a bunch of crooks around there, that he had to keep things locked; he went over and locked a screen, and then sat down, and we were visiting and talking about the boys’ suits; I was leaning over so I would not be between my husband and the defendant who were talking. The defendant said that Nina was going home with us. He had mentioned that before when we were going to Mr. Hoggatt’s, that she was going home to stay with us a couple of weeks, that he had a government’s job, and was going tto be gone that length of time. He said he would go and get her suitcase, and he went in the other room; when he came back, I didn’t pay much attention to him, and he came about four feet in the room and said: ‘You and Bob, you have been trying to separate us every since we have been married, and here is something that is going to stop it right now.’ I was looking right down in the barrel of a gun, *382 I started to say, 'George, you can’t do that,’ but I never said it.

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Related

George W. Hoggatt v. Ray H. Page
432 F.2d 41 (Tenth Circuit, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
1939 OK CR 121, 94 P.2d 264, 67 Okla. Crim. 377, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoggatt-v-state-oklacrimapp-1939.