Lary v. State

1931 OK CR 83, 296 P. 512, 50 Okla. Crim. 111, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 62
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 28, 1931
DocketNo. A-7152.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1931 OK CR 83 (Lary 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
Lary v. State, 1931 OK CR 83, 296 P. 512, 50 Okla. Crim. 111, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 62 (Okla. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

EDWARDS, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Marshall county of manslaughter in the first degree and was sentenced to serve a term of 25 years in the state penitentiary.

The record discloses that at the time charged defendant shot and killed one Frank Miller. Defendant was a police officer of several years’ experience. Miller was a *113 young man 20' years of age, who worked, at a filling station at Midway near Red River and had paid some attention to a daughter of defendant, aged about 16 years. Defendant had informed Miller he did not allow his daughter to have company on schoojl nights. On the night of the homicide Miller was at a church and took the daughter and a Miss Murr riding, but the daughter had left the car near her home and Mijller had taken Miss Murr to her home. The daughter was not at home when defendant returned. He immediately got in his car and went in search of her. He went to the filling station where Miller stayed and fired a single shot from a pistol which killed Miller. No one was present at the time except defendant and Miller. Defendant then sought medical attention and did what he could to aid Miller, who died in a short time. Defendant admitted firing the shot that caused the death, but testified he went to the filling station to inquire for his daughter; that when he did so Miller threw a rock at him and was attempting to throw another and he fired in his necessary self-defense.

The first contention is that at the time the information was filed the district court had no jurisdiction because the transcript of the committing magistrate holding defendant for trial had not been filed in the district court, and that the filing of such transcript is necessary to1 give jurisdiction. Section 17, art. 2 of the Constitution is:

“No person shall be prosecuted for a felony by information without having had a preliminary examination before an examining magistrate, or having waived such preliminary examination.”

Section 2509, Comp. Stat. 1921, is as follows:

“When a magistrate has discharged a defendant, or has held him to answer, he must return immediately to the clerk of the district court of the county, the warrant, *114 if any, the complaint, the depositions, if any have been taken, of all the witnesses examined before him, the statement of the defendant, if he have made one, and all undertakings of bail or for the appearance of witnesses, taken by him, together with a certified record of the proceedings as they appear on his docket.”

It has several times been held by this court that the fact that a preliminary examination has been had or waived constitutes a jurisdictional basis for prosecution of a felony 'by information. Tucker v. State, 9 Okla. Cr. 587, 132 Pac. 825; Muldrow v. State, 16 Okla. Cr. 549, 185 Pac. 332. In some of the cases it is indicated that it is necessary that a transcript of the magistrate finding probable cause be filed with the court clerk to give the court jurisdiction to try an accused on an information for the crime for which he was held by the magistrate. Lowrance v. State, 33 Okla. Cr. 71, 242 Pac. 862. See, also, Little v. State, 21 Okla. Cr. 1, 204 Pac. 305. Where an examining trial is hejld before a magistrate and the accused is held for the action of the district court, if he make objection by motion to quash in apt time, the district court is without jurisdiction to' try him until a transcript from the magistrate is filed. Section 2509, Comp. Stat. 1921, supra. The mere fact that the information is filed before the transcript is received will not deprive the court of jurisdiction if the order of commitment has been in fact made and entered by the magistrate and the transcript then is filed, for certainly, jurisdiction would attach and authorize a continuation of the prosecution upon the information from the time the transcript required by section 2509, Comp. Stat. 1921, supra, is filed. This precise question does not appear to have been presented to this court, but under a similar constitutional and statutory provision it has been held not fatal. In People v. Tarbox, 115 Cal. 57, 46 Pac. 896, it was said:

*115 “The information upon which he was tried was filed in the superior court on March 9, 1896, and the depositions, transcript, and order of commitment were not returned to the superior court by the examining magistrate until March 10, 1896. Upon his arraignment the defendant moved to set aside the information, upon the ground that it was filed before any commitment, deposition, or other record showing that he had had a preliminary examination, had been returned or filed in said court, and upon the further ground that no order of commitment was indorsed upon the depositions afterwards returned. Said motion was denied, and the defendant excepted. Good practice requires that the return of the examining magistrate should be made and filed before the information is filed, but we are not prepared to say that the filing of the information after the examination was had, and the order holding the defendant to answer was in fact made, was more than an irregularity, which would not justify a reversal of the judgment where it does not appear that it affected any substantial right of the defendant. Section 1258 of the Penal Code provides:
“ ‘After hearing the appeal, the court must give judgment without regard to technical errors or defects, or to exceptions, which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.’ ”

It is next argued that the court erred in refusing defendant’s requested instructions 3 and 4. Number 3 in substance refers to evidence introduced by defendant of notice given to deceased that the school board objected to girls riding during school hours and limits such evidence to the purpose of aiding the jury in determining who was probably the aggressor. The failure of the court to give this instruction was beneficial to defendant, for instead of limiting the evidence to a particular purpose, it permitted it to go to' the jury for all purposes. Number 4 states in part the law of self-defense; it is covered by the general charge.

*116 Complaint is made that the court erred in his instructions; this assignment is directed particularly to Nos. 8, 11, 13, and 16. No' exception was reserved to> No. 8, which in a general way states the substance of section 2719, Comp. Stat. 1921. There is no material error, certainly no fundamental error in this instruction.

Instruction 13 reads:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1931 OK CR 83, 296 P. 512, 50 Okla. Crim. 111, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lary-v-state-oklacrimapp-1931.