McGlumphy v. State

1975 OK CR 137, 538 P.2d 1097
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 14, 1975
DocketF-75-66
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1975 OK CR 137 (McGlumphy 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
McGlumphy v. State, 1975 OK CR 137, 538 P.2d 1097 (Okla. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

*1098 OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge:

Appellant, Darlene M. McGlumphy, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the Tulsa County District Court, Case No. CRF-73-1805, for the offense of Possession of a Forged Instrument, in violation of 21 O.S. 1971, § 1579. The jury recommended, and the court imposed, a sentence of five (5) years’ imprisonment. From said judgment and sentence a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

Defendant was convicted of possessing several stolen and forged checks belonging to Mr. Roy L. McGhee, Jr., owner of a Tulsa construction company on whose account the checks were drawn. The checks, several of which were introduced into evidence by the State, were “doubly forged,” i. e. both the drawer and payee’s name and endorsement were forged, and were cashed at several grocery stores throughout the state.

The State’s first witness, Mr. McGhee, identified State’s Exhibits One through Five, as checks stolen from his pickup truck around June 13, 1973, outside his residence in Tulsa. He stated that upon noticing his checkbook missing, he immediately informed his bank and ordered that they stop payment on his company checks numbered 163-500. At trial, Mr. McGhee examined the checks introduced by the State and testified that the signature of his name as drawer was a forgery, and the typed name of Cecelia M. Potter as payee was likewise unauthorized, as he had no employees or acquaintances by that name.

The next four witnesses for the State were employees of retail groceries in Tulsa, Vinita and Ponca City, who testified as to the cashing of the checks. Their testimony was substantially the same, and was to the effect that a white female, in her middle to late twenties, had, in June, 1973, endorsed' the checks as payee “Cecelia M. Potter” in return for groceries and cash. Each witness identified the checks which they had cashed by their mark or signature which they had placed thereon. None of the witnesses could positively identify defendant as the individual who had cashed the checks.

The State’s next witness, Mary Ann Bash, was given immunity on two pending charges, in return for her testimony as to involvement in a forgery ring involving defendant, the witness, the witness’ deceased husband Wilburn Almy, and a fourth individual named “Jimmy.” She identified State’s Exhibits One through Seven as checks which her husband had given to her, and on which the witness had forged the endorsement of Cecelia M. Potter, using Potter’s driver’s license as identification in passing the items in various establishments, the location of which she could not remember. She would then give the money to her husband, who would divide it with the defendant. The witness further testified that she had sustained head injuries in an automobile accident which might affect her memory, but that she was not aware of her memory being impaired as to her testimony at trial. She also stated that she had been convicted of one charge arising out of the operation of the forgery ring and was awaiting formal sentencing. She denied that any deal had been made with the District Attorney in return for her testimony.

The State’s eighth witness, Cecelia M. Potter, testified that she knew defendant, Mary Ann Bash, the late Wilbur Almy and a Jim Bombagetti, who she identified as the “Jimmy” mentioned in Bash’s testimony. She stated that she had lost her driver’s license while drunk at a bar with Almy and Bash, and that she was unaware of, and not involved in, the forgery operation. She admitted having served time in the penitentiary for a prior conviction and also testified to being interviewed by Assistant District Attorney Dunn after being “harassed” by a police officer, Lymon Griffin.

The next witness for the State was the investigating and arresting officer, Roy *1099 Nuttall. Before he was allowed to testify before the jury, an evidentiary hearing was held in which he stated that he had been assigned to investigate the McGhee forgery case in January of 1974. He stated that he had learned from an unidentified informant that defendant, Wilbur Almy and Mary Ann Almy (Bash) were involved in the crime. Nuttall stated that he had previously used the informant and found her to be reliable. Upon obtaining this information, the officer, whose expertise in fingerprint identification was stipulated to by defense counsel, stated that, he had positively identified defendant’s fingerprints on three of the seven checks introduced as evidence by the State by comparison with fingerprint cards in the police files. He then arrested the defendant without a warrant.

After finding that there was probable cause for arrest without a warrant, the trial court allowed Officer Nuttall to present the above testimony before the jury. He also stated that defendant allowed him to search her apartment, but that no incriminating evidence was found.

The defendant was the only witness in her behalf. She denied any criminal involvement in the forgeries, and explained her fingerprints on the checks by stating that she had innocently handled them for a moment when Wilbur Almy asked her to cash them for him at the bar where she was employed. She stated that she had lived with Jim Bombagetti for several months in 1973, and that she was acquainted with Wilbur Almy and Mary Ann Bash. Defendant also testified that Detective Ar-ley Owens and another detective had talked with her at her apartment in July or August of 1973 before her arrest.

.The State next called Arley Owens, a police investigator, to the stand in rebuttal. He stated that defendant called him several times during the period when she was a suspect in the forgery investigation. In one such call, defendant offered to give Owens “information as to certain checks.” (Tr. 253) At a subsequent meeting Owens exhibited a number of checks to defendant, including the seven introduced by the State at trial, and defendant related to Owens whatever information she possessed about them. Defendant told him the McGhee Construction Company checks had been stolen from a truck by an unknown person. She stated that she had signed checks numbered 314 and 317 (which were not among the seven checks involved in the instant trial), for a Ronnie McGowen, but did not know who cashed them. She further stated that checks numbered 185, 186, 187, 189, 192, 205 and 213 had been cashed by Mary Ann Almy (Bash) and a Virginia Jackson. (Check numbered 189 was State’s Exhibit Five, and check numbered 213 was State’s Exhibit Seven.) Defendant denied any knowledge of any other checks. She also told Owens that Officer Nuttall’s search of her apartment had failed to turn up checks drawn on Allen W. Motor Company and Scott Plumbing Company and the identifications of Cecelia Potter and Mary Johnson, all of which were hidden in a heating vent. 1

In her first assignment of error, defendant alleges that the evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to establish the offense of Possession of a Forged Instrument. Specifically, defendant claims that the State failed to prove possession with knowledge of the forgery, and with intent to utter or pass them, as required by 21 O.S.1971, § 1579, which reads: ■

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Munn v. State
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Williams v. State
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Bluebook (online)
1975 OK CR 137, 538 P.2d 1097, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcglumphy-v-state-oklacrimapp-1975.