Luker v. State

1936 OK CR 121, 62 P.2d 255, 60 Okla. Crim. 151, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 93
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 23, 1936
DocketNo. A-9089.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1936 OK CR 121 (Luker 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
Luker v. State, 1936 OK CR 121, 62 P.2d 255, 60 Okla. Crim. 151, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 93 (Okla. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as the defendant, was convicted of assault without justifiable or excusable cause with intent to injure, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for two years. Motion for new trial was filed, overruled, *152 exceptions saved, and the defendant has appealed to this court.

The evidence in substance is as follows: B. F. Smith was owner and operator of a feed store in Olustee; the rear of the building was inclosed, and adjoining the main building and fronting, on the street was a large gate entering into the inclosure; on the night in question this gate was closed. On June 9, 1935, H. A. Savage, the sheriff of Jackson county, received information the Smith store was going to be burglarized that night; about midnight the sheriff, in company with two deputies, Rollins and Burnett, drove to Olustee, and J. L. Richards, the night watchman, went with them to the Smith building; Savage and Burnett took their position in the rear of the building within the inclosure, and Rollins and Richards took their position in weeds in a vacant lot across the street from the building, about forty-seven steps in a northwestern direction from the front door of the Smith building; Richards turned out the street light adjacent to the building and went across the street north for the purpose of turning, off another light when the shooting started, about thirty minutes after the officers had taken their positions. Rollins heard somebody walking up the road from the south, it was dark, and he could only see the dim outline of a person as they walked up the sidewalk. The parties walked up in front of the Smith building, on the sidewalk, and flashed a flashlight on the building; Richards and Rollins say they heard some kind of a noise like something had been hit or broken. Rollins raised up a little from his position, and immediately two shots were fired close together and the flash from the gun showed it was pointed toward Rollins, who at once fired three shots from his shotgun, the first shot being directed toward the man with the flashlight, and the *153 others toward the spot from where the two shots came. ■Rollins and Richards heard the parties running away from the building. On investigation the officers found shot had struck the window in front of the building where the man with the flashlight was standing; they also found some blood and the flashlight; footprints were found at the corner of the building where some one had been standing and from which the two shots were fired. Shots from the shotgun also lodged in the corner of the building.

B. F. Smith stated: “I heard the shots; there two light shots followed by three heavy ones.” Dick Warren stated he heard two pistol shots, or revolver shots, followed by three shots. The sheriff and Deputy Burnett, who were in the rear of the building, heard the shots but did not see the parties. When the shooting was over, Sheriff Savage phoned to Altus, to the officers there, and advised them what had taken place at Olustee, and who he thought the parties were. The officers went to the home of the defendant Luker, and there found the defendant and Victor Loftin, and upon examination it was found both men were wounded, and had been shot in the back, as shown by the doctor’s testimony. They were ordered taken to the hospital.

It is further shown by the testimony that, after the defendant in this case and Loftin were placed under arrest and taken to the hospital, the car of the defendant, which was parked some distance from his home on the street, was examined and it had a flat tire.

A pistol was found in the car, which the defendant admitted was the pistol he had at Olustee, and a number of tools, some soap, and a case knife. The defendant admits he had gone to the town of Olustee, in company with Victor Loftin, on the night of the shooting; that he had *154 been advised there was to be a poker game in the Smith building, or somewhere near there, and, as he had never been to Olustee before, he was using the flashlight to locate the Smith building, as the party advising him of the poker game told him to look for a certain advertisement of flour on the building, and they were using a flashlight to locate the Smith building in which the poker game was to be played. The defendant further states that he and Loftin parked their car two or three blocks from the building, as they had a flat, and had gone to one or more houses where they thought parties lived to secure information about the poker game and found no one at home, and they were walking down by the building and flashed their light on the building to see if they could see any one on the inside, and as they did that some one fired three shots and he drew his pistol and fired twice in the air, not trying to hit any one. The defendant states he did not fire his pistol until after he had been wounded by the shots admitted to have been fired by Deputy Rollins.

The defendant admits he had driven from Olustee to Altus on the flat, and had parked his car a short distance from his home a short time before the officers came up looking for him, and that the doctor ordered both Loftin and the defendant taken to the hospital, and goes into- detail as to the injuries received from the shots from the shotgun. He admits the pistol found in the car was the one he had used in Olustee; he also- accounts for the other tools and the soap and case knife found in the car by saying the children had the soap in the car when they had been to- Chickasha and had probably left it there, and the case knife had been used while eating a lunch and had not been taken out of the car; that he had bought the tools a few days before when he was tightening up a car for another party.

*155 Several parties testified to the defendant’s good character while living in Greer county near the Jackson county line. There are a number of pages in the testimony of things that transpired which it is not deemed necessary to set out. The foregoing is the substance of all the testimony material to arrive at a proper opinion as to whether or not the defendant was accorded a fair and impartial trial, and as to whether or not there is sufficient evidence in the record to sustain a conviction.

Seven errors have been assigned by the defendant in which he alleges there are sufficient errors to warrant a reversal of this case. They will all be considered under the seventh assignment: “The trial court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial filed by the plaintiff in error, to which plaintiff in error excepted.”

The motion for a new trial contains all the other assignments. There is no conflict in the testimony as to the officers being at the Smith building in Olustee the night the sheriff contends the burglary was attempted. The defendant admits he was at the Smith building with the flashlight, and that the flashlight was thrown in the building, the state contending it was for the purpose of entering the building, and defendant contending it was for the purpose of trying to locate parties in a poker game. As shown by the record, information had been received by the sheriff of Jackson county that the Smith store was going to be burglarized that night, and, acting, upon that information, he had taken two of his deputies, and the town marshal of Olustee, and surrounded the building.

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Related

Richardson v. State
1953 OK CR 169 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
State v. Lumley
1947 OK CR 25 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Mendenhall v. State
168 P.2d 138 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1946)
Sears v. State
1945 OK CR 15 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Loftin v. State
1936 OK CR 131 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)
Luker v. State
1936 OK CR 126 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1936 OK CR 121, 62 P.2d 255, 60 Okla. Crim. 151, 1936 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/luker-v-state-oklacrimapp-1936.