Miles v. State

1959 OK CR 25, 336 P.2d 930, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 183
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 4, 1959
DocketNo. A-12658
StatusPublished

This text of 1959 OK CR 25 (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, 1959 OK CR 25, 336 P.2d 930, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 183 (Okla. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

POWELL, Presiding Judge.

Marchmont Miles, plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged in the district court of Osage County with the crime of felonious assault and battery with a dangerous weapon; was tried before a jury, convicted and punishment assessed at confinement in the county jail for a period of six months, and has appealed.

For reversal of the conviction a number of errors are set forth in petition in error, and are argued in brief without compliance with the rules of this Court requiring arguments to be presented under headings of definite specifications of error, or propositions. Nevertheless, we have read and reread the briefs and the record.

The information charges in substance that defendant, while driving a 1957 Ford convertible automobile in a dangerous and reckless manner, and while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, to-wit:

“on United States Highway No. 60, at a point approximately 9 miles northeast of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in that said defendant was driving said automobile in a westerly direction along said highway at a dangerous and excessive rate of speed, to-wit: of the approximate speed of 85 to 90 miles per hour in the night time of said day, causing said automobile to swerve over and across the center line of said highway into the travel lane on the [932]*932south side of said highway, and then hack across the center line of said highway on the north side thereof, and causing said automobile to leave the travel portion of said highway into a drain ditch on the north side of said highway, causing said automobile to overturn several times and wrecking and demolishing said automobile, laying down approximately 635 feet of skid marks in the doing thereof, at which time and during which time the said Carmen Smith was then and there a passenger in, and riding in the said Ford automobile and the said Carmen Smith was violently thrown from her seat in said Ford Automobile by reason of the manner said automobile was being driven by the said Marchmont Miles at the time, crushing, cutting and bruising the body of the said Carmen Smith, and causing her to suffer severe and extremely personal bodily injuries, which injuries were of such nature as likely to produce great bodily harm and injury or death; all being sustained by reason of the acts and doings of the said defendant, as aforesaid, with the unlawful and felonious intent, then and there on the part of him, the said defendant, Marchmont Miles, to injure the said Carmen Smith and do her great bodily harm and injury * * ⅜”

It is further argued that defendant was entitled to a mistrial because of the circumstance that while the first witness for the State, Rebecca Harris, was testifying she was in a wheel chair, and the county attorney asked her if she was in a wheel chair prior to the date upon which the offense occurred, to which the witness, over objection, replied in the negative. The county attorney then inquired, “Are you crippled at this time?” and witness answered, “yes.” No objection to the question was interposed, but counsel for the defendant obj ected after the answer had been given and made a motion for mistrial. The court instructed the jury not to consider this testimony,. but counsel contends that the harm had already been done. However, the jury could see that the witness Rebecca Harris was injured. She was a necessary witness who had been in the car the defendant was driving at the time of the wreck. In fact, she was the owner of the car, but had picked defendant up and gotten him to drive her and Carmen Smith around Pawhuska, and then out to a nearby lake. Then, too, the testimony of the various witnesses, including the defendant himself showed that at the time of the accident Rebecca Harris was not crippled, but was fully able to travel about on her feet and drive her automobile, which the defendant was driving at the time of the accident because Rebecca and Carmen were both, according to their testimony, intoxicated. We find no error under the facts as reflected in the record.

Defendant complains of his cross-examination by the county attorney, alleging the same to have been improper and prejudicial. It appears by the record that the county attorney questioned the defendant as to whether or not he had been, for a long time, addicted to the use of alcoholic liquors. We note that the court sustained an objection to this question and instructed the jury not to consider the matter. Not only that, but the record discloses numerous instances in which the defendant had been convicted or plead guilty of drunkenness and driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. So, as contended by the Attorney General, the question asked by the county attorney called for an answer that amounted to a mere summary of that which had already been fully proven and admitted. The admonition of the trial court, we feel, in this case fully protected the defendant, and the error of the county attorney will be treated as harmless.

It is finally contended that the instructions given by the court failed to present to the jury the defendant’s theory of defense, and that by refusing to give the defendant’s requested instruction covering his theory of defense, the court denied to the defendant the right to have his defense [933]*933presented to the jury for their consideration. This proposition has given us much concern and we have read and re-read the record to be certain whether or not there was basis in the evidence that would entitle defendant to an instruction of the nature contended for.

It was the argument of counsel for the defendant that defendant was not intoxicated, and he introduced evidence to support such theory. This requires that pertinent evidence be summarized. The State presented evidence to the contrary, which was sufficient to support the judgment, except for another factor. Counsel in his opening statement not only contended that defendant was not intoxicated, and in due course presented evidence in support thereof in spite of certain admissions by defendant, hut contended that defendant had lost sleep and that he momentarily dozed at the wheel of his car with the result that it went out of control and down a bank into a creek. There was evidence by defendant that he was employed on the night shift at an oil rig. There was no evidence of the exact night when he last worked. It might be presumed from defendant’s statements that he had worked the night of July 3, 1957.

Specifically, defendant testified that he lived 10 miles west of Pawhuska, and had all his life. He admitted that he had visited his neighbor, Charley Whitehorn, about 2 o’clock in the afternoon of July 4, 1957, going there by car, and staying until about 6:30 or 7 P.M. He said that during this time a pint bottle of whiskey was passed around; that there were five persons present who consumed the pint, and that he took three or four drinks. He said that he had previously worked from 11 o’clock at night until morning and was tired (he did not specify the last night that he had worked), and that Jack Couch drove defendant, Mary Wilson, Carmen Smith and Kenneth Glenn, Jr. to Pawhuska and let Carmen and Kenneth out near Brown’s Cafe. He said that after this he, Couch and Mary Wilson rode around town two or three times and went hack out to Charley’s and Julia’s (White-horn). He said they stayed at Whitehorn’s about thirty or forty minutes. .He denied that there was any drinking on the second trip except Mrs. Whitehorn drank a can of beer. After this Jack Couch drove him towards his home. Mary Wilson was with them.

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Related

Boyd v. State
1953 OK CR 154 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Potter v. State
1954 OK CR 12 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1954)
Crossett v. State
1952 OK CR 166 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1952)
Beck v. State
1941 OK CR 170 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1941)
Turpen v. State
1949 OK CR 32 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Tillman v. State
1946 OK CR 48 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
1959 OK CR 25, 336 P.2d 930, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miles-v-state-oklacrimapp-1959.