Marshall v. State

1977 OK CR 111, 561 P.2d 1370
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 16, 1977
DocketNo. F-75-550
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1977 OK CR 111 (Marshall 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
Marshall v. State, 1977 OK CR 111, 561 P.2d 1370 (Okla. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Judge:

Appellant, Billy C. Marshall, a/k/a Billy Gene Marshall, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was originally tried and convicted in District Court, Osage County, Oklahoma, on the charge of Robbery By Fear, After Former Conviction of a Felony, and was sentenced to ten (10) years’ imprisonment. He appealed, won a new trial, was tried and convicted a second time, and was sentenced to thirty (30) years’ imprisonment. From said judgment and sentence, defendant has filed this timely appeal.

Briefly stated, the testimony shows that the defendant entered the house of 63-year-old Verlie Mae Park, in Skiatook, Oklahoma, on May 18,1973, after ascertaining that her husband was not at home. Mrs. Park testified the defendant grabbed her, threw her on the living room sofa, and “told me if I screamed or said anything he’d kill me.” (Tr. 124) She was pushed into a bedroom and her house ransacked when she did not produce money as demanded by the defendant. She also testified that a second intruder aided the defendant in searching her house, but she could not identify him. The defendant took her jewelry box, purse and some old gold coins, and before leaving he took off her clothes and put her in a closet. After the robbery Mrs. Park was admitted to a hospital, suffering from a stroke.

Darie Monday said that on May 18, 1973, the defendant and another person came to his house. He saw a television set, some shotguns and a jewelry box in defendant’s car, and said that the defendant had two gold coins in his possession which were later sold to a coin dealer. He said the defendant’s friend spoke of burglarizing a house, and the defendant said that he had tied the lady in the house and put her in a closet.

Wade McKee, a rare coin collector, testified the defendant sold him the two gold coins placed into evidence by the State as belonging to Mrs. Park. Larry Robinson testified he saw several credit cards with the name of Earl Park printed on them in the defendant’s car, and said the defendant told him he had robbed a woman. Earl Park is the husband of the victim.

In a hearing outside the presence of the jury, senior investigator Larry Johnson of the Tulsa Police Department said he twice read the defendant his rights and each time the defendant said he understood them, and defendant did not request an attorney. Defendant signed a “rights waiver,” and then signed a statement. Roy Frye, Jr., also charged in the crime, testified that he was arrested with the defendant, denied anything was said to him on arrest, but admitted that something was read to him which he did not fully understand. He said the defendant requested an attorney several times. At the end of the hearing, the court denied defendant’s motion to suppress the confession.

Johnson testified that the statement contained defendant’s responses to his questions regarding the Park robbery. He said after the statement was typed out, “I then had Mr. Marshall read it along with me.” (Tr. 644) During that reading two questions were corrected; one was penciled through and the defendant initialed it. The statement was admitted but not read into the transcript and does not appear in any part of the record before this Court.

An Osage County jailer testified that when he inventoried the defendant’s personal possessions taken on his arrest, he discovered German money identical to that taken in the Park robbery.

The only witness for the defense was Raymond Lewis, an inmate at the Oklahoma State penitentiary, serving time for [1372]*1372murder. He and the defendant shared a cell at the Osage County jail. He said it was his opinion, based on association with other criminals, that the defendant “wasn’t guilty.” (Tr. 765) This was done without objection.

Defendant first assigns as error the trial court’s overruling of his motion to suppress his confession as not meeting the requirements as set out in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The defendant dwells at length on the Miranda mandates for accepting a confession. He correctly notes that “a heavy burden rests on the government to demonstrate that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to retained or appointed counsel.”' 384 U.S. at 475, 86 S.Ct. at 1628.

The United States Supreme Court went on to say that a valid waiver will not be presumed simply from the silence of the accused after warnings are given, and affirmed its ruling in an earlier case which said, “The record must show, or there must be an allegation and evidence which show, that an accused was offered counsel but intelligently and understanding^ rejected the offer.” Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506, 82 S.Ct. 884, 890, 8 L.Ed.2d 70 (1962), as quoted in Miranda v. Arizona, ibid.

Procedure for determining the voluntariness of the confession is found in Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964):

“A defendant objecting to the admission of a confession is entitled to a fair hearing in which both the underlying factual issues and the voluntariness of his confession are actually and reliably determined. . . .” 378 U.S. at 380, 84 S.Ct. at 1783.

In the present case, the court held a hearing out of the presence of the jury at which the Tulsa police officer who took the defendant’s statement and a co-defendant testified. The officer testified he twice advised the defendant of his Miranda rights and received assurances on both occasions that the defendant understood them:

“I advised them that the second time they were under arrest, that, they at that time had certain rights, those rights were first of all to remain silent, the right to — that any statements made could be and would be used against them in a Court of law, the fact they had a right to have an attorney present either of their own choosing or one appointed by the Court, that the attorney could be with them during any and all questioning, they had a right to stop answering questions at any time they desired.” (Tr. 533)
* * * * * *
“I asked them individually, I said, ‘Do you understand what I just said?’ and they said, ‘Yes.’ And I‘d go to the next one and I’d say, ‘Do you understand what I just said?’ and he’d say, ‘Yes.’ And I asked 3 of them, individually, separately, one, two, three.” (Tr. 545)
* * * * * *
“I asked him again if he understood the rights that were there before him [the waiver of rights form], and he stated he did and I asked him then if he would sign the waiver the fact that he understood the rights and was willing to make a statement and he signed the waiver in my presence stating that he was indicating that he understood his rights, was recognance [sic] of them and willing to talk to me.” (Tr. 557)

The defendant refers us to testimony he gave at his prior trial but he fails to include it in the record here on appeal.

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Related

Elliott v. State
1988 OK CR 81 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)
Reeves v. State
1979 OK CR 104 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1977 OK CR 111, 561 P.2d 1370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marshall-v-state-oklacrimapp-1977.