Miles v. State

1928 OK CR 350, 273 P. 284, 41 Okla. Crim. 283, 1928 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 88
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 24, 1928
DocketNo. A-5913.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1928 OK CR 350 (Miles 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
Miles v. State, 1928 OK CR 350, 273 P. 284, 41 Okla. Crim. 283, 1928 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 88 (Okla. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

DOYLE, P. J.

The plaintiff in error was convicted upon an information, which, omitting formal parts, charges:

“That the said Paul Miles in the County and State aforesaid and on the day and year aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully, wrongfully, willfully, intentionally and feloniously make an assault in and upon one Charley Mitchell, with a certain weapon, to wit: a revolver, which he, the said Paul Miles then and there had and held in his hand, and did then and there with said weapon, to wit: a revolver unlawfully, willfully, wrongfully, intentionally and feloniously shoot the said Charley Mitchell, with the unlawful, wrongful and felonious intent then and there on *285 the part of him, the said Paul Miles to kill and murder the said Charley Mitchell, contrary to,” etc.

The jury rendered the following verdict:

“We, the jury, drawn, empaneled and sworn in the above entitled cause, do upon our oaths find the defendant guilty of assault with intent to kill, as charged in the information herein, and fix his punishment therefor at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a period of 5 years.”

To reverse the judgment rendered in pursuance of the verdict, the defendant appeals.

It appears: That the defendant, a young man about 27 years of age, a cripple having a defective or withered right arm and leg, was a teacher at Leonel. The complaining witness, Mitchell, D. L. Barry, and Paul Wills composed the school board of the district, and defendant was boarding with Paul Wills. That on the 9th day of April the three members of the school board met at the home of Mr. Wills and discussed the fact that it was reported that defendant had kissed two girls attending his school, aged 11 and 12 years. The board then went to the schoolhouse; there Mitchell demanded the resignation of defendant, although the school term lacked only a few days of expiring. Defendant refused to resign, and the board went to the county seat, interviewed the county attorney and county superintendent, and about dark returned to the home of Mr. Wills, where the defendant resided. The defendant was driving up Mr. Wills’ cows, and the members of the board waited outside until he came.

The prosecuting witness testified: “I think we turned our lights on the car possibly the last two miles. When we got there Mrs. Wills informed us that Mr. Miles had gone after the cows and we stayed outside on the south side of the house. When he came up he stopped within about 20 feet of where we were. I addressed him by saying: ‘Well Paul, we are back again.’ He said, T see.’ Then I said: ‘Have you changed your mind about resigning? He *286 said ‘ No.’ I said ‘Well we have arranged to have a hearing in the morning,’ and he said, T am glad to know it. I hate to be kicked out of here like a dog.’ I informed him I thought for his own good it would be best that he resign. Then he said, ‘Mitchell, get off that old stuff, you know better than that. Mitchell, I have just began to find you out, I find you are a two-faced lying son of a bitch.’ At that moment I stepped forward a couple of steps, then I stepped back. When I stepped forward Mr. Miles drew a gun, and when I stepped back I stood there for several seconds, he holding this gun on me and finally he fired one shot. I hollered ‘Oh, he shot me,’ and I ran around the house. Then Mr. Berry led me to my car. which was standing in the lane, about one hundred yards from the house. Mr. Miles hollered, ‘Mitchell, how bad are you hurt?’ I told him I didn’t know, it was bad enough.”

Paul Wills testified that “Mr. Mitchell said, ‘We are back.’ Defendant said, ‘Yes, what are you going to do with me?’ Mr. Mitchell asked him if he had changed his mind and he said he had not. And defendant then said, ‘You fellows are just trying to kick me out of here like I was a dog. Mitchell, I am just finding you out; you are just a double crossing, or something of that sort of ‘son of a bitch.’ Mr. Mitchell jerked his hands out of his pockets and said, T won’t take that,’ and started towards him; Miles was off about 15 feet, and I would judge he got about half way to him, when Miles shot him. He jerked the gun out of his left overcoat pocket and it went off.”

For the defense, Paul Miles, as a witness in his own behalf, testified: “My age is 27 years, I came to Dewey county when six months old and have lived here practically all my life; I have a withered arm and leg since I was 2% years old, since old enough I have been engaged in teaching school in Dewey county, was principal of the school and Mrs. Binghnum was my assistant; I have been teaching there for four years and boarded with Mr. Wills. The school board called at the school that day and Mr. Mitchell asked me to resign and I told them that I did not think *287 I had done any wrong and would not resign, three more days of school and two for examination would be the end of the term, the board left saying that they were going to Taloga'; that evening I went home to Mr. Wills; after supper Mrs. Wills told her six year old boy to go after the cows, I said, T will just go after them myself,’ and I went. It was cool that evening and I put on my overcoat, it was about a half mile to the pasture. Returning with the cows I saw the car drive up, the lights were burning on the car, I put the cows in the corral and came on to the house, I saw three men standing there, I supposed they were waiting for me so I stopped about 12 feet of them; Mr. Mitchell said, ‘We are back,’ and said ‘The county superintendent will be out tomorrow morning if you don’t resign.’ I said, T will just wait to see what she does, I will have a chance to state my case.’ He said, T think Mr. Miles it would be to your advantage to resign.’ I said ‘Mr. Mitchell, you don’t care for my advantage, you don’t care for my welfare at all. You have been two-faced all along. I am just finding you out,’ and I called him the words that Mr. Wills related here on the stand. He said, T won’t take that off anybody,’ and he took his hands out of his pockets and came towards me, I saw something flash in his right hand, I retreated a few steps and said, ‘Look out, Mitchell.’ He advanced to within 2 steps of me, about six feet I should judge; my gun was in the slash pocket of my overcoat; I reached in there, got the gun and shot from the hip; Mr. Mitchell hollered, ‘Oh, he shot me’ turned and ran to his car followed by Mr. Berry; I put his gun back in my pocket, walked out and said, ‘Are you badly hurt, Mr. Mitchell?’ and he said, ‘Bad enough.’ I thought Mr. Mitchell had a knife in his hand and when he got within six feet or two steps of me I considered that I could not retreat fast enough to get out of his way, I would have to turn around and by that time he would be on me and I considered that I *288 could not wait any longer with safety so I shot Mr. Mitchell in self-defense.”

The first assignment of error is the usual one, that the court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.

The second assignment is that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the information.

The grounds of the demurrer were that the information does not state facts constituting an offense against the laws of the state of Oklahoma, and that said information charges more than one offense in the same count.

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Related

Bland v. State
2000 OK CR 11 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2000)
Reeves v. State
1975 OK CR 87 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)
Plumlee v. State
1971 OK CR 309 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1971)
Denson v. State
1970 OK CR 73 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1970)
Davidson v. State
1958 OK CR 84 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1958)
Crossett v. State
1952 OK CR 166 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1952)
Isaac v. State
1946 OK CR 88 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1946)
Jenkins v. State
1945 OK CR 68 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Palmer v. State
1944 OK CR 19 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1944)
Fields v. State
1943 OK CR 64 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1943)
Woodruff v. State
125 P.2d 211 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1942)
Childs v. State
1940 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1940)
Phelps v. State
1938 OK CR 46 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1938)
Skelley v. State
1938 OK CR 30 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1928 OK CR 350, 273 P. 284, 41 Okla. Crim. 283, 1928 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miles-v-state-oklacrimapp-1928.