Marks v. State

1982 OK CR 186, 654 P.2d 652, 1982 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 382
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 22, 1982
DocketF-80-753
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1982 OK CR 186 (Marks 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
Marks v. State, 1982 OK CR 186, 654 P.2d 652, 1982 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 382 (Okla. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

*654 OPINION

BRETT, Presiding Judge:

John Randall Marks, the appellant, was tried and convicted for the crime of Larceny of Aircraft, After Former Conviction of a Felony, pursuant to 21 O.S.1981, § 1720, in the District Court of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, Case No. CRF-79-370. The appellant was represented by counsel and tried by a jury. Punishment was set at 10 years’ imprisonment.

A Cessna 210 aircraft was owned by D.L. Rogers and kept and serviced by Keith Aviation at the Shawnee Municipal Airport. Keith Aviation had a set of keys to the aircraft in its office at the airport. Sometime during the night of December 1, 1979, the office was broken into and the keys to the aircraft were stolen. During that same night, without the permission of either Mr. Rogers or Keith Aviation, the airplane was removed from in front of Keith Aviation where it was tied down. The aircraft was subsequently discovered near the Earlsboro exit of Interstate 40 where the pilot of the stolen plane had made a landing. Blood found inside the airplane indicated that the pilot had been injured during the landing. A photograph of the appellant showing facial injuries present at the time of arrest was entered as evidence. The injuries suffered by the appellant were consistent with those probably suffered by the pilot. A ballcap was also found in the airplane. Testimony from an OSBI chemist indicated that hair found in the ballcap matched that taken from the appellant. Blood samples taken from the airplane and from the appellant also matched.

Mark J. Reisdorfer, a pilot/flight instructor employed by Keith Aviation, testified that he had given the appellant flying lessons, that the appellant was capable of taking off and flying the aircraft by himself, but had not yet landed without assistance.

Another witness for the State, Ronald D. Stanley, testified that he was traveling west on 1-40 at 1:45 a.m., on December 2, 1979, when he saw an airplane coming toward him that appeared to be out of control. After the plane landed very roughly,, he hurried to the site to offer assistance. When he arrived, he saw a person whom he identified at trial as the appellant, sitting on the airplane door which was laying on the ground. He described the person as having blood on his face and wearing a green fatigue jacket.

Francis M. Uhlfelder, who lives approximately 5 miles from where the aircraft was found, identified the appellant as the person who came to his door at 4:48 a.m., December 2, 1979, asking to use the telephone. Mr. Uhlfelder testified that the person identified himself as John, indicated he had been in an accident, and gave Mr. Uhlfelder a telephone number to call. Mr. Uhlfelder described the person as having blood on his face and wearing a green military-type jacket.

The appellant took the stand as the sole defense witness. He admitted that he stopped at Mr. Uhlfelder’s house to use the telephone, but he claimed his injuries were sustained when he fell from a moving automobile. He said that he had been hitchhiking and did not know the people who had given him the ride.

In his first proposition of error, the appellant complains of several references to other crimes that were made during the course of the trial. He claims that none of the other crimes evidence was admissible as none of it fell within the five exceptions set out in Burks v. State, 594 P.2d 771 (Okl.Cr.App.1979).

The first reference to another crime was made by the owner of the aircraft. He testified that the appellant stole the keys to the aircraft. The second reference was by an employee of Keith Aviation, who described the burglary of the offices during which the aircraft keys were taken.

Of the five exceptions to the other crimes exclusion, the only exception which could possibly apply in the present appeal is the common scheme or plan exception. The evidence falls within this exception because the burglary of the office and the larceny of the aircraft are “connected or related *655 transactions, and proof of one becomes relevant in proving the other.” Atnip v. State, 564 P.2d 660 (Okl.Cr.App.1977). To fall within the common scheme or plan exception, there must be a visible connection between the crime charged and the crime sought to be proved, not between the other crime and the defendant. Roulston v. State, 307 P.2d 861 (Okl.Cr.App.1957). A visual connection is shown whenever there is established a common scheme or plan where the crime is committed to prepare the way for another and the commission of the second crime is made to depend upon the perpetration of the first.

We were faced with a similar factual situation in Burks v. State, 568 P.2d 1311 (Okl.Cr.App.1977). In that case the defendant was convicted for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. On appeal, the defendant cited as error the admission of testimony concerning the burglary of the home of the owner of the automobile. We held that the testimony was “admissible for the purpose of showing how the defendant could have obtained the keys to the automobile in question. The evidence concerning the method of obtaining the car keys was relevant and had probative value.” Id. at 1313.

No error was committed when evidence of the office break-in was brought out at trial. The burglary of the office and subsequent larceny of the aircraft were so interrelated that proof of one tended to prove the other. We upheld the admission of testimony of a prior burglary in Burks, supra, and adopt the same reasoning in upholding the admission of the evidence in the case at bar. Furthermore, no objection was ever made to the admission of this evidence and it was therefore not properly preserved for appellate review.

In his closing argument, the prosecutor referred to the office break-in. To do so was not improper, as claimed by the appellant, as the prosecutor was merely restating the properly admitted evidence or drawing a reasonable inference thereon. Reeves v. State, 601 P.2d 113 (Okl.Cr.App.1979).

Also assigned as error by the appellant was the admission of the ballcap into evidence. At trial, he objected to its admission on the grounds that it was incompetent, irrelevant, and did not tend to prove any material issue in the case. On appeal, he claims that it was error to admit the cap because the attached evidence report referred to Burglary II, as well as Larceny of Aircraft.

When a specific objection is made at trial to the admission of evidence, no different objection will be considered on appeal. Cotts v. State, 34 Okl.Cr. 59, 244 P. 817 (1926). Because the appellant failed to object to the admission of evidence on the grounds that it referred to another crime, he cannot now raise the issue. Furthermore, the reference on the report to the burglary was not an isolated reference to the other crime, evidence of which was properly admitted during trial.

A requirement was enunciated by this Court in Burks v. State, 594 P.2d 771 (Okl.Cr.App.1979), that a limiting instruction must be delivered to the jury as to the use of testimony concerning other crimes at the time the evidence is received and in the final instructions to the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
1982 OK CR 186, 654 P.2d 652, 1982 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marks-v-state-oklacrimapp-1982.