Knight v. State

1973 OK CR 73, 506 P.2d 927, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 415
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 14, 1973
DocketA-16809
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1973 OK CR 73 (Knight 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
Knight v. State, 1973 OK CR 73, 506 P.2d 927, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 415 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Presiding Judge:

In the District Court of Oklahoma County, Case No. 27451, the appellant, Garnie Eugene Knight, hereinafter referred to as defendant, on February 9, 1962, entered a plea of Guilty and received a ten (10) year suspended sentence for the offense of Attempted Armed Robbery. On May 26, 1969, an Application to Revoke was filed and on the 24th of July, 1969, the trial court entered an Order revoking the suspension. In an Order dated February 2, 1971, post-conviction relief was denied by the trial court followed by this Court’s Order of February 8, 1971, directing the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the defendant’s application for post-conviction relief. Shortly following the filing of a Writ of Habeas Corpus in this Court, the trial court conducted an evidentiary hear^ ing in compliance with this Court’s Order of February 8. At the conclusion of that hearing, the trial court again denied post-conviction relief. From that Order of denial, the defendant has perfected a timely appeal to this Court.

*929 At the hearing on the revocation application, Jim Blasdel, manager of the Crown Motel, Norman, Oklahoma, testified on the Sth of May, 1969, he admitted the defendant and a companion to room number nine of the motel. Later that evening, he received a call from the motel office informing him a silent alarm attached to the color television set in the defendant’s room indicated the set was being disturbed. Upon arrival at the motel, he stopped, on the premises, an automobile driven by Donald Beene. The defendant was in the vehicle and noticeably under the influence of intoxicants. Blasdel proceeded to room number nine and found the television set removed. He returned to the car, at his request the trunk to the vehicle was opened, and the television set from room number nine was exposed. Immediately thereafter, Beene fled from Blasdel and the defendant “fell in a mud puddle and just stayed there.” (Tr. 13-A)

Officer Don Acock of the Oklahoma City Police Department testified that he was dispatched to the above mentioned motel to handle a burglary in progress. He testified that when he arrived the defendant was “on the south side of the court yard, at the Crown Motel on the north side of the vehicle on the ground, lying face down.” (Tr. 15) In the trunk of the vehicle, parked approximately six feet from where the defendant was lying, was an RCA color television. Further, he testified he arrested the defendant’s companion, Beene, in the garage of room number nine of this motel.

The defendant testified that he attended school up to the ninth grade. Because of his educational deficiency, his wife, prior to their 1966 divorce, filled out and sent in all reports. Following his divorce, he stated his sister prepared these reports for him. Further, he stated he was with Beene because he was his cousin. He admitted being intoxicated on this evening but denied having any involvement in the larceny of the television set.

In the defendant’s first and only proposition he assigns as error the court’s denial of post-conviction relief requesting a vacation of the Order revoking the defendant’s suspended sentence. Through argument and authority, counsel’s assignments of error generally fall into three categories. The first assignment generally asserts the application for revocation to be uncertain, not providing sufficient notice of the basis for the revocation. Second, the defense contends that the evidence received at the revocation hearing was not legally sufficient to base the revocation of a suspended sentence. Third, that adequate notice of the terms of suspension is not provided in the judgment and sentence.

Counsel submits the case of In re Collyar, Okl.Cr., 476 P.2d 354 (1970), suggesting by its language that the application for revocation in the instant case, only stating as a grounds for revoking the suspended sentence, that “the defendant has violated the terms of his suspended sentence,” was not definite language providing proper notice to the defendant of the grounds for revocation of suspension. (Or. 7) At page 357 of Collyar, supra, our construction of the language is that the application for a suspended sentence must allege facts which are ground for a revocation of the defendant’s suspended sentence and these facts must be stated with such clarity that the defense is able to determine what reason is being submitted as ground for this revocation, enabling preparation of a defense to the allegation.

In a study of Collyar, supra, we note that at no point in the decision was there a comment upon the sufficiency of the application for revocation in the determination of the issues in that case. Collyar had two questions before it; had the defendant been adequately advised of his conditions of suspension by the court, and had the de *930 fendant, in fact, violated the conditions of suspension. Brooks v. State, Okl.Cr., 484 P.2d 1333 (1971). Therefore, that portion reciting standards regarding the sufficiency of the application in Collyar is dicta. It was not applied to the issues in Collyar and for that reason is in the form of judicial legislation and only a prospective declaration of this Court’s policy in regard to the sufficiency of the application for revocation in subsequent revocation proceedings. We find that Collyar is prospective and not retroactive. Therefore, the application for revocation and hearing upon that application, dated July 24, 1969, occurred prior to the Collyar decision, April 1, 1970, and Collyar is not to be applied in the resolution of this issue to the instant case.

In the case Wrone v. Page, Okl.Cr., 481 P.2d 479 (1971) this Court held that the statute in effect at the time a suspended sentence is revoked will be applied when a revocation is attacked. Title 22 O.S.1961, § 991b was enacted by the 32nd Legislature. This Act, proscribing formalities for suspended sentence revocations did not include an emergency clause. The 32nd Legislature adjourned April 29, 1969. Therefore, this procedural statute was not in effect as law at the time of the revocation hearing, July 24, 1969, as this Act did not gain effect until ninety (90) days following adjournment. Therefore, at the time of the hearing on the petitioner’s revocation, the applicable law of this state" was set forth in Ex part Swain, 88 Okl.Cr. 235, 202 P.2d 223 (1949), which held the revocation of a suspended sentence is a matter addressed to the discretion of the trial judge, and any hearing connected therewith would be of a summary informal character.

Noting the defendant at this revocation hearing was represented by counsel and that counsel did not demur to the application as being indefinite nor did he move for the application to be made more definite and certain, we find, under the standards applicable to this case, the defense waived his objection to the indefinite character if the application and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in revoking the suspension upon the application before it as few specific guidelines on such hearings were in effect at the time this hearing was conducted.

Counsel further argues, in substance, that the judgment and sentence in the case at bar did not provide sufficient notice to sustain ground for revocation of this sentence. In support of his argument, he submits Madden v.

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Related

Lennox v. State
1984 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1984)
Poindexter v. State
1978 OK CR 106 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
In re T. L. W.
1978 OK CR 41 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
Sage v. State
546 P.2d 1332 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Betcher v. State
1975 OK CR 208 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)
Phipps v. State
1974 OK CR 219 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Woods v. State
1974 OK CR 162 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Giboney v. Johnson
1974 OK CR 119 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)
Virgin v. State
1973 OK CR 335 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1973 OK CR 73, 506 P.2d 927, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knight-v-state-oklacrimapp-1973.