Kennedy v. State

1974 OK CR 195, 528 P.2d 317, 1974 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 455
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 7, 1974
DocketF-74-185
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1974 OK CR 195 (Kennedy 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
Kennedy v. State, 1974 OK CR 195, 528 P.2d 317, 1974 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 455 (Okla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge:

Appellants, Olen Kennedy and Lloyd Kennedy, hereinafter referred to as defendants, were charged, tried and convicted in the District Court, Sequoyah County, Case No. CRF-72-187 for the offense of Murder in violation of 21 O.S.1971, § 701; their punishment was set at life imprisonment and from said judgments and sentences a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

At the trial, following the opening testimony of Ted Stites, the Court Clerk of Se-quoyah County, stating that State’s Exhibits 1-18 had been in his possession since the preliminary hearing, Dr. W. M. Wilson, Sequoyah County Medical Examiner, was qualified as an expert witness.

Dr. Wilson testified that he received a call at approximately 8:00 p. m. on December 4, 1972, to go to a scene 12 and ½ miles north of Sallisaw. Upon arriving at the scene where several law enforcement officers had already gathered, Dr. Wilson said he observed a blood-spattered area along the county road bearing fresh blood, skin tissue and skull fragments. The doctor said he gathered a portion of the fragments and tissue, placed it in a plastic bag and took it to the office of Dr. A. S. Koenig, a Ft. Smith, Arkansas forensic pathologist, who confirmed his finding that the matter was human brain tissue. In the course of the examination several pieces of lead were discovered in the matter and were introduced to the court in State’s Ex-- *319 hibit #11. Dr. Wilson further testified that on December 5th he was called to an area approximately two miles from the original scene where police officials had discovered a body in an abandoned water well. The medical examiner then identified State’s Exhibit # 1 as a photograph of the body found in the well of the deceased, Ted Haggard.

Earl Gene Walkup testified that on December 4th he stopped at the deceased’s service station between the hours of 6:00 and 6:30 p. m. and that a person he did not recognize came out of the station and told him that they were closing. He said that at that time he observed the deceased and another man inside the business and that a white-over-green pickup, which he identified as resembling the one pictured in State’s Exhibit # 2, was parked outside. Mr. Walkup said he drove away from the station, but in a few minutes came back by; his suspicion aroused by the fact that the station usually did not close until 8:00 p. m.; and further aroused by the fact that the lights inside the station were out, while the outside lights were on, this being exactly opposite from the deceased’s usual pattern of closing. The witness proceeded to his own place of business where he placed a call to the sheriff’s office telling them of his suspicions. He further testified that later in the evening he observed a pickup truck that looked like the one he had seen at the service station, parked at Olen Kennedy’s home. On cross-examination, the witness failed to identify the defendants and testified that he did not know the make of the pickup truck.

Albert Hammett, a Sequoyah County Deputy Sheriff, said he received a call at approximately 6:15 p. m. on December 4, 1972, and proceeded to Haggard’s Service Station where he was joined by Deputy Leo Matlock. Deputy Matlock testified that he arrived at the station at 7:00 p. m. and upon gaining entry noticed that the cash register had been knocked askew and that there was blood on the counter and on some oil boxes nearby. He then checked a fake-front counter where the deceased usually kept his money and found it empty.

Next to testify was Ernest William Kellog who stated that he and his wife, their two year old child and a friend, had left their home in Vian at approximately 6:00 p. m. on December 4th, to take the friend, Dawson Coulston, to his home. While driving on a county backroad northwest of Sallisaw, at 6:30 or 6:45 p. m., he testified that as his pickup came across a hill he saw a Chevrolet pickup truck with its lights on, parked ahead in the roadway. He saw some men scuffling, and then noticing that one of the men was holding a shotgun, which he identified as State’s Exhibit # 8, he tried to turn around in the roadway. Unable to accomplish this, he testified that he drove forward, noticing a wine bottle, which he identified as State’s Exhibit # 18, laying beside the open right-door of the stopped pickup. Just as he drew almost even with the stopped vehicle, an old man, whom he identified as the deceased, ran in front of his truck, causing him to stop. He testified that the man then ran to the driver’s side of his vehicle, opened the door and grabbed the steering wheel begging for help, saying, “They are going to kill me, please help.” Kellog said his pickup was rolling a little and as the bloody old man held on to him, the defendants ran up and while a man he identified as Olen Kennedy held a shotgun, the man he identified as Lloyd Kennedy, repeatedly struck the deceased, finally breaking his thumb to remove his hand from the steering wheel in order to pry him from the vehicle. The witness said that as soon as the defendants jerked the deceased from the pickup, he sped away leaving them in the road.

Witness Kellog said that he went immediately to the community of Dwight Mission where he called the sheriff and told him what he had just seen. After that, he returned with the law officers and saw the blood and skull fragments in a ditch at the scene, along with items he identified at trial which were found within a few feet *320 of the death scene. These items included a pocket knife, introduced as State’s Exhibit # 3, a tire gauge (Exhibit # 4), some Ford keys (Exhibit # 5) and a brown cap (Exhibit # 13).

Witness Shirley Deen Kellog testified to substantially the same facts as did her husband, and identified Exhibit # 1, a photograph of the deceased, as the man who had come to their pickup for help; Exhibit # 2 as resembling the pickup at the scene; and Exhibit # 18 as the wine bottle which was laying in the road close to the pickup. In addition, she stated that as they left the scene she looked back through the rear window of their truck and saw the old man being pushed toward a ditch beside the road. She stated that this was the same ditch where the blood was discovered when they returned. On cross-examination, Mrs. Kellog admitted that she was presently charged with two felonies in Sequoyah County that had not yet come to trial.

In relation to the State’s Exhibit # 2, Ronald Welsandt, a news photographer for the Sequoyah County Times, testified that he took the photograph in the exhibit on December 7, 1972, at 1:00 p. m.

James B. Hisley, a trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, testified that he was working with Trooper Keith Buchanan on the night of December 4th when they met Ernest Kellog at approximately 7:15 p. m. and went with him to the scene of the alleged crime. On the west side of the road they found a leather cap, and looking on the other side of the road they found what appeared to be blood and skull fragments. Within a few feet of the blood, he testified that they saw the pocket knife, tire gauge, car keys and wine bottle, all of which he marked at the scene, showing the identification marks to the court. Officer Hisley further testified that at approximately 8:00 p. m. he stopped the defendants, whom he identified at trial, as they drove near the scene of the crime.

Deputy Sheriff Ben Callahan testified that he met the Highway Patrol troopers at the scene of the incident at 7:30 p. m.

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Related

Olen Kennedy v. Steve Hargett, Warden
989 F.2d 507 (Tenth Circuit, 1993)
Hill v. State
1987 OK CR 230 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1987)
Pannell v. State
1982 OK CR 13 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1982)
Rouse v. State
1979 OK CR 31 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1979)
Marlow v. City of Tulsa
1977 OK CR 169 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)
Mitchell v. State
1976 OK CR 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1974 OK CR 195, 528 P.2d 317, 1974 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kennedy-v-state-oklacrimapp-1974.