Howard v. State

1939 OK CR 128, 94 P.2d 947, 67 Okla. Crim. 445, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 155
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 12, 1939
DocketNo. A-9539.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1939 OK CR 128 (Howard 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
Howard v. State, 1939 OK CR 128, 94 P.2d 947, 67 Okla. Crim. 445, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 155 (Okla. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

DOYLE, P. J.

This appeal is from a judgment of conviction rendered in the district court of Atoka county, in pursuance to the verdict of a jury finding W. H. Howard guilty as charged in the information and assessing his punishment at two years’ imprisonment in the state penitentiary. Appellant, W. H. Howard, was charged jointly with H. H. Howard of the crime of larceny of live stock. December 6, 1937, the case came on for trial and the defendants presented to the court their motion for continuance, which was overruled. Thereupon the *447 defendants asked for a severance, which was granted, and the state elected to try defendant, W. H. Howard, first.

The information charges that in Atoka county, on or about the 6th day of July, 1937, “the defendants did in said county and state, at the date above named, willfully, unlawfully, wrongfully, knowingly, stealthily, fraudulently and feloniously take, steal and carry away from the possession of one J. W. Gibbons, one black sow, with one eye out, marked crop in right ear and crop and steeple fork in the left ear; and one white sow, marked crop and small underhack in the right ear and crop and steeple fork in left ear; and one red barrow hog, marked crop and underhack in the right ear and crop and steeple fork in the left ear, and bob tailed, the personal property of the said J. W. Gibbons, without the knowledge or consent and against the will of him, the said J. W. Gibbons, the true owner thereof.”

The evidence shows that on the date alleged, J. W. Gibbons lived on a farm in Atoka county, near the southeast corner of said county, and was the owner of several hogs; that on the evening of Tuesday, July 6, 1937, he missed the three hogs described in the information. He testified that on Friday he found where hogs had been loaded on a wagon; about a half or three quarters northeast of his home; that Saturday morning he went to the sheriff’s office in Atoka and reported the theft of his hogs. Marion Son, deputy sheriff, then went with him to the place where the hogs had been loaded, and they trailed a wagon something like a mile and a half through the woods to the highway. Sunday morning they talked with appellant. He said that on Tuesday he went in the Flower’s field and got some hogs. Marion Son asked him what he did with the hogs, and appellant said he sold the two sows and the bar to a fellow named Wilson, up at Oklahoma City, and cashed the check at Antlers; that he called Mr. Wilson at Oklahoma *448 City and he came down there, and with Mr. Son went with him to see appellant; Mr. Wilson said to appellant: “I understand you say I bought some hogs from you.” Appellant said: T did sell you some.” Mr. Wilson said: “When did you sell them to me?” Appellant said, “About a week or ten days ago.” That on July 19th, Marion Son came to his place and said he had found my hogs at Antlers, and they went to Antlers and found the hogs in Bob Hill and Roy Akard’s lot, he identified them as his property and took them and now has them. That whoever took the hogs took them without his knowledge or consent.

Roy Akard testified that he lived at Antlers, engaged in the business of trading; that with Bob Hill they both looked at W. H. Howard’s hogs and Bob Hill decided he would buy them; that it was a little after sun up when they bought the hogs; that W. H. Howard lives a little south of Farris and it is 16 miles from Antlers to Farris.

R. W. Hill testified that he bought three hogs of appellant; Roy Akard went in on half of them; that he paid W. H. Howard $40 for the hogs; that three or four days later Marion Son came there with Mr. Gibbons; that Bill Barrow, deputy sheriff from this county, was with them, and Mr. Gibbons identified the hogs as being his property and they gave the hogs to him.

Marion Son, deputy sheriff, testified that he went with J. W. Gibbons to investigate the loss of his hogs, and went to see how far we could trail the wagon from where the hogs were loaded, and trailed the wide tire wagon tracks to the road, that he had information that the Howard boys had been down in the bottom on Tuesday, and the following Sunday he talked with appellant.

He further testified:

“I first went over to where he was and left Mr. Gibbons in the car and told him we were looking for some hogs that Mr. Gibbons lost, and told him what mark they had, and I just made the statement to him, The other day when you *449 boys were in the bottom gathering these hogs, how many hogs did you get/ he looked at me a little while and said, ‘We got three’, and I said, ‘What did you do with the hogs/ and he said, ‘Well I sold the two piggy sows to a fellow named Wilson, out of Oklahoma City’; I asked him how he paid him, and he said he gave him a cheek for $14. I asked him if he didn’t remember the man’s name on the check, and he said he just remembered that it was Wilson. I asked him where he cashed the check; he said he cashed it at Antlers, and they charged him a dime for cashing the check, and I asked what kind of truck he was driving, and he said it was a blue International Pick-up. I asked him when he sold him those hogs, and he said, ‘Wednesday, before this Sunday/ ”

That he found that there was a hog buyer by the name of Wilson that lived down by Farris and talked to him, and found out that he had a brother by the name of Wilson that lived near Oklahoma City. That he had Mr. Wilson to come down there, and they went to appellant’s place, and appellant admitted that the Wilson at Oklahoma City had not bought any hogs, but that Bill Wilson, that lived near Farris, had bought some hogs from him and gave a check for $14, and that was a month before, and appellant said that was the last hogs that he had sold; that several days later he went to Antlers and located hogs that tallied with the description that Mr. Gibbons had given him, went to the sheriff’s office and got Bill Gardner to go with him, one of the hogs was in the sale lot and two were in the possession of Mr. Hill, that he told Mr. Hill that he was sure that those were the hogs that he had been looking for, then went straight out and came back with Mr. Gibbons, who identified the hogs as his, and told Mr. Hill the marks on the hogs before he looked at them, then they went back and looked at them and they agreed to turn the hogs to him, Mr. Hill mentioned about making an affidavit and Mr. Gibbons told him he was willing to do that any time he wanted him to.

Bill Wilson testified that he lives 12 miles east of Atoka; that in June he bought two hogs, sandy bars, from appellant and gave him a check for $14.

*450 The defendant called eight witnesses, George Hamlett, Jewell Hamlett, Forney Burchfield, Calvin Standridge, Sam Wood, W. V. Esque, Elisha Parrish and Dave Howe. Their testimony was to the effect that the defendant’s hog mark was and had been for years, a crop to the right ear, crop and steeple fork to the left ear. Several qualified as character witnesses, and testified that W. H. Howard’s reputation in the community where he resided as to being an honest, law-abiding citizen was good.

The joint application of the defendants for a continuance was read to the jury as the deposition of the absent witness, in part as follows:

“That said witness, J. W.

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Related

Kennedy v. State
1968 OK CR 100 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1968)
Hammons v. State
1953 OK CR 27 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Parker v. State
1953 OK CR 24 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Martin v. State
1951 OK CR 122 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1951)
Brown v. State
1950 OK CR 145 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Coslow v. State
1947 OK CR 17 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Little v. State
1945 OK CR 1 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Scott v. State
1941 OK CR 103 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1941)
Abby v. State
114 P.2d 499 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1939 OK CR 128, 94 P.2d 947, 67 Okla. Crim. 445, 1939 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-state-oklacrimapp-1939.