McKissack v. State

1937 OK CR 47, 65 P.2d 1239, 61 Okla. Crim. 65, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 47
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 5, 1937
DocketNo. A-9133.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1937 OK CR 47 (McKissack 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
McKissack v. State, 1937 OK CR 47, 65 P.2d 1239, 61 Okla. Crim. 65, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 47 (Okla. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, P. J.

The plaintiff in error, for convenience referred to as the defendant, was by information charged with the larceny of one mule; was tried, convicted, and sentenced to- serve five years in the state penitentiary. From the judgment and sentence the defendant appeals, and alleges eleven errors committed in the trial of his case. The eleventh assignment being:

“That said court erred in overruling the motion of plaintiff in error for a new trial, and particularly on the ground of newly discovered evidence as set out in plaintiff in error’s amended motion for a new trial.”

This assignment covers all the other errors assigned' by the defendant, and it is not deemed necessary to set them out in full.

The testimony upon which the state relied for a conviction is in substance as follows: G. A. Heckhart stated:

“I live eight miles east and two and one-half miles north of Vici; on April 15, 1985, I lived in Vici and was working for the Stromberg Live Stock Pavilion Company; my duties were to enter the price of all stock purchased and the man who bought it on cards, and send one card to the office and one to the bidder; I was working the morning of April 15th, beginning about 6 o’clock; when *67 1 first saw the defendant Bill McKissack be ivas leading a mule, walking by the side of the mule as it was being led by Q. A. Mills; he had on a dark hat and sweater, and I think the sweater had a letter B on it; you could call the mule a mouse-colored mule, or brown mare mule; it had larger ears that most mules have; I imagine it Aveighed about 1,200 pounds, and was about lS1/^ or 16 hands high; I heard Q. A. Mills tell the defendant he Avould pay him $160 for the mule; I first saw the defendant about 8 o’clock in the morning, several hours before the regular sale begun. This mule was sold to Q. A. Mills.
“State Exhibit B is Avhat is known as a tail tag; when a mule comes in to the pavilion and is sold, we put a tag on its head and on its tail.”

Charles Beese, testifying for the state, stated:

“I work for the Stromberg Commission Company; Avas working there on the 15th day of April, 1935; I saw the defendant Bill McKissack there about 8:30; he and Mr. Mills came in the offce and reported an alley trade; the defendant Avas going under the name of W. H. McKinley; they gave me the number of this mule and told me Mr. Mills had bought it in the alley for $160; Mr. Millsi said go ahead and pay him, it was all light; I told them as soon as Mr. Stromberg came down.
“State Exhibit A is in the same condition now as when I made it; this is my writing on the exhibit, and shows the purchase of the mule from W. H. McKinley to Q. A. Mills, and the amount of the commission charges, and the total amount paid McKinley. After the sale Avas reported the defendant Avanted to get paid and he had to wait until Mrs. Stromberg came down; Avhen she came I gaAre her the account sales and she wrote out a check; I went to the door and called to Mr. McKinley and told him Mrs. Stromberg was there, and I heard her ask if that was W. H. McKinley, and she gave the check to him.”

Mrs. C. A. Stromberg, who wrote the check and delivered it to the party giving his name at the time as *68 W. H. McKinley, identified tbe defendant Bill McKissack as being the man who received the check.

Pauline Trimble, who was employed in the bank at Vici, April 15, 1935, identified the defendant as being the man who presented the check to the bank, giving his name as Bill McKissack, and for whom she issued a cashiers check for $100 and gave him $57.25 in money.

L. A. W. Vincent, cashier and secretary of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, at Arnett, Okla., at whose bank the defendant presented the $100 cashier’s check given by the bank of Vici, identified the defendant as being Bill McKissack who presented the cashier’s check for $100 at his bank and asked to have it cashed. Vincent further stated he did not cash the check until he had phoned the bank at Vici, and Miss Trimble described the man to whom she had given the $100 cashier’s check, and upon that' description the Farmers & Merchants Bank cashed the $100 check.

Other witnesses testified to the description of the mule that was stolen, and the proof furnished; that when the mule was bought at Vici the company put a tag. on the mule’s head and its tail. This mule was sold to another party, and by the time the owner of the mule could trace it it had been sold to a man at Atlanta, Ga. The owner and another man went to- Atlanta and identified the mule. The tag on the mule’s tail was still attached to the mule’s tail and proved to be the tag placed upon it by the Stromberg Company, at Vici, before the company sold it.

The foregoing is the substance of the testimony introduced by the state. No testimony was offered by the defendant.

*69 Defendant in his brief urges that the court erred in permitting1; certain hearsay testimony with reference to where the mule was sold by the defendant and where it was shipped to Fort Worth, Tex., and from Fort Worth tO' Atlanta, G-a., and insists that the admission of the testimony complained of which was given by Oraig Cooper was sufficient to warrant the court in reversing the case. He also contends that the testimony of Cooper shows that the description of the mule given by him was not the description of the mule given in the information.

On the question of the hearsay testimony, the defendant does not set out the testimony complained of as hearsay, and this court cannot delve into the realms of the mind of the defendant and the record and tell what testimony the defendant has reference to as being hearsay. Some of the testimony given, if separated from the other testimony of Craig Cooper, would in substance amount to hearsay, but as the defendant does not point out what testimony was hearsay, and in view of the fact that the testimony of Craig Cooper, from whose possession the mule was stolen, in detail practically covers that with reference to where the mule was stolen and shipped, and up to the time it was recovered, and the record further shows that some of the witnesses call the mule a mouse-colored! or brown mare mule, weighing about 1,200 pounds, and being about 15% to 16 hands high. All of the testimony of the state was before the jury, and many authorities are cited by the defendant on the question of hearsay testimony. It is not disputed by the state that hearsay testimony is inadmissible and would not be sufficient to sustain a conviction.

This court has repeatedly held that a conviction will not be reversed on the ground of improperly admitted evidence or the exclusion of evidence, unless after an ex- *70 animation of the entire record it appears there has been -a miscarriage of justice or the substantial violation of some constitutional or statutory right of the defendant. Keltner v. State, 52 Okla. Cr. 150, 3 Pac. (2d) 451.

The admission of incompetent evidence is not ground for reversal unless it affirmatively appears from the record that the appellant was injured thereby. Manning v. State, 7 Okla. Cr. 367, 368, 123 Pac. 1029; Sparks v.

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Related

England v. State
1954 OK CR 132 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1954)
Zuniga v. State
1953 OK CR 25 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Williams v. State
1950 OK CR 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Baker v. State
1943 OK CR 58 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK CR 47, 65 P.2d 1239, 61 Okla. Crim. 65, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckissack-v-state-oklacrimapp-1937.