Justus v. State

1975 OK CR 172, 542 P.2d 598, 1975 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 434
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 17, 1975
DocketF-74-713
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1975 OK CR 172 (Justus 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
Justus v. State, 1975 OK CR 172, 542 P.2d 598, 1975 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 434 (Okla. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinions

BUSSEY, Judge:

Appellant, Allen Clayburn Justus, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court, Oklahoma County, Case No. CRF-73-3180, for the offense of Murder in the First Degree, in violation of 21 O.S.Supp. 1974, § 701.1, ¶ 2. In accordance with the provisions of 21 O.S.Supp. 1974, § 701.3, the defendant was thereafter sentenced to suffer death, and from said judgment and sentence a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

At the trial, Phillip Eugene Keen, M.D., a medical examiner for the State, testified that he examined the body of Robert Holmes on October 9, 1973, and determined the cause of death to have been a gunshot wound to the head which entered the right temple, transacted the brain stem, and exited behind the left ear. He further expressed the opinion that death had likely occurred at least five hours prior to his examination at 1:40 p. m.

Ted Yokum, a night dispatcher for the Yellow Cab Company, next testified that Robert Holmes was a driver for that company on October 9, 1973, and that the witness last had contact with him at about 3:00 o’clock that morning when he first dispatched him to a grocery store at 16th and Drexel and then to the South Point Apartments in the 900 block of S.W. 60th.

Carol Lavon Edwards then testified that at about 3:00 a. m. on October 9, 1973, she telephoned for a Yellow Cab to take her from a grocery store at 16th and Drexel to S.W. 47th and Pennsylvania. While en route in cab no. 50, she overheard the dispatcher direct the driver to the South Point Apartments.

Officer Marvin Doherty, assigned to the crime lab division of the Oklahoma City Police Department, next testified that at about 11:00 a. m. on October 9, 1973, he was dispatched to the South Point Apartments where he processed a Yellow Cab no. 50 for latent fingerprints and photographed the scene. Although numerous latent fingerprints were found both inside and outside the cab, none could be identified as those of the defendant. He identified State’s Exhibits Nos. 3 through 6 as photographs of that scene and all but Exhibit No. 4 were then admitted into evidence. State’s Exhibit No. 2 was identified as a projectile found in the right-rear floorboard of the cab, and he observed that the windshield appeared to have been cracked, but not penetrated, by a sharp object near the left side.

Phyllis Hemphill, manager of the South Point Apartments, then testified that at about 7:00 a. m. on October 9, 1973, she noticed a Yellow Cab no. 50 parked in the apartment parking lot. At about 10:30 a. m., she approached the cab to place a note on the windshield because the vehicle was occupying two spaces, but noticing blood running from the door, she telephoned the police.

Ray Lambert, firearms examiner for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, next testified that he had examined State’s Exhibit No. 2, and determined it to have been a .38 caliber bullet. That exhibit was then admitted into evidence.

[601]*601Detective Jerry Guinn, assigned to the homicide and robbery division of the Oklahoma City Police Department, then testified that he participated in the arrest of the defendant on November 2, 1973, and identified State’s Exhibit No. 7, as a Waiver of Rights form, executed by the defendant shortly before he agreed to give a video-tape statement regarding the alleged offense the following night. That exhibit was then admitted into evidence. This witness also testified that the location described by the defendant in his videotape statement, as the place of the homicide, was within Oklahoma County, Oklahoma.

Officer Bob J. Coffia, assigned to the special services division of the Oklahoma City Police Department, next testified that he was trained in the use of video-tape equipment and that he recorded the videotape statement of the defendant, State Exhibit No. 8, in the police station at about 9:00 p. m. on November 3, 1973.

This video-tape was then exhibited visually and audibly to the jury, after which the State rested its case in chief. Following an evidentiary hearing, outside the presence of the jury, the court previously had ordered the deletion of certain incompetent matter from this video-tape, but had overruled a Motion to Suppress wherein the defendant asserted that he had not knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently made the same with the benefit of his Miranda rights.

In this video-tape statement, the defendant first acknowledged that he had read and understood his rights, and with reference to the subject offense was then interviewed in part, as follows:

“OFFICER GUINN: Would you tell me in your own words the knowledge that you have pertaining to this homicide?
“MR. JUSTUS: I will. I am not sure of the date. But, this certain night, I called up the Yellow Cab Company.
I requested a cab to come to the South Point Apartments.
I then ran down to the South Point Apartments and waited at Apartment 3, downstairs.
Uh, the cab pulled up. I got in the car. We left and I directed him to 74th Street. That is an apartment complex out there.
Traffic was too busy so I couldn’t do what I wanted to do at that time, so I directed him over to Western. I am not sure of the street, but right off Western.
I had him stop. When he stopped, I cocked my pistol and shot him.
Then I moved him over and drove to the South Point Apartments, took his money, wiped the car down and walked home.” [Tr. 279 & 280]

Elsewhere in this statement, the defendant disclosed that the money taken amounted to approximately $30.00 plus some change, and that he perpetrated the crime alone. He also related that he had worn gloves, and that the gun used was a .38 caliber chrome-plated Colt Revolver which he later had Bobby Williams throw in the trash. He immediately burned the victim’s wallet and personal papers at home in the presence of his wife, and washed the blood from his clothes in cold water. He did, however, notice from the personal papers that the name of the victim was Ralph or Robert Holmes.

Bobby Joe Williams testified as the first defense witness that he was a friend of the defendant and they were both arrested together on November 2nd, and that the defendant’s wife was also arrested the same night. The following day he gave a statement to the police implicating the defendant because he was told that he would be released if he would do so. However, he further testified that the defendant had never admitted to him any involvement in the death of the victim, and that he had never seen the defendant with a gun, nor thrown one away for the defendant. [602]*602Shortly following their arrest, he testified that he overheard Detective Knight say that he would like to see the defendant get his head blown off and that he would not mind doing so, and the following day he heard that officer tell the defendant that if he did not make a statement to clear up this murder case he would never get out of jail. During cross-examination the witness admitted a conviction for Murder before the same court one month earlier, which was on appeal. Although he would not acknowledge the statement, he was also impeached with his previous unsworn statement wherein the defendant purportedly admitted the crime to the witness.

Jimmy L.

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Related

White v. State
1983 OK CR 165 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1983)
Washington v. State
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1977 OK CR 56 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)
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1976 OK CR 326 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Sanders v. State
1976 OK CR 271 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Andrews v. State
1976 OK CR 258 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Justus v. State
1976 OK CR 209 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Wishon v. State
1976 OK CR 115 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Hovila v. State
532 S.W.2d 293 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1976)
Jones v. State
1975 OK CR 222 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)
Williams v. State
1975 OK CR 171 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1975 OK CR 172, 542 P.2d 598, 1975 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/justus-v-state-oklacrimapp-1975.