Nelson v. State

1955 OK CR 102, 288 P.2d 429, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 21, 1955
DocketA-12180
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 1955 OK CR 102 (Nelson 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
Nelson v. State, 1955 OK CR 102, 288 P.2d 429, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256 (Okla. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

BRETT, Judge.

The plaintiff in error, Alex LeRoy Nelson, defendant b.elow, was charged in the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, by information, for the crime of manslaughter in the first degree. Specifically, it was alleged that, while driving his automobile, on December 11, 1953, at a high, dangerous, and reckless rate of speed, under the then existing circumstances, to-wit, 40 to 45 miles per hour and, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and, while failing to stop at a stop signal at an intersection at 15th Street and Peoria Avenue, in the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, he did propel the same into the intersection, and against the side of a Pontiac automobile, then occupied by Thomas James Hardman, Jr., thereby inflicting certain mortal wounds upon the body of the said Hardman, from which wounds the said Hardman did languish and die, contrary to statutes in such cases made and provided. The defendant was tried by a jury, convicted, and the jpry being unable to agree upon the punishment, and so stating in its verdict, left the same to be fixed by the trial court. The-trial court set said punishment at four years in the State Penitentiary, at McAlester, Oklahoma, and entered judgment and sentence accordingly, from which this appeal has been perfected.

The defendant herein urges that the information is insufficient to charge an offense under the statutes, and was likewise insufficient to inform the accused of the nature of the offense sought to be charged against him.

The charge herein alleged, was brought under the provisions of T. 21, § 711, O.S.1951, defining manslaughter in the following terms:

“Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree in the following cases:
• “1. When perpetrated without a design to effect death by a person while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor.”

The charging part of the information alleged defendant caused the death of deceased as the result of the commission of certain misdemeanors, to-wit:

“1. ‘ * * * while driving and operating- an automobile in a westerly direction on 15th Street, near the inter *433 section of Peoria Street in the City of 'Tulsa, * * * at a high, dangerous, and reckless rate of speed, for the then existing circumstances, to-wit, 40 to 45 miles per hour.’ (T. 47, § 121.3, O.S. 1951, as amended in the 1953 statutes.)
“2. * * * and while driving the said automobile the said defendant was driving and operating the automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquor.’ (T. 47, § 93, O.S.1951, as amended in the 1953 statutes.)
“3. • ‘ * *■ * and did fail to stop at. a stop signal at the intersection of, 15th Street and Peoria Avenue, in the City of Tulsa, * * *.’ (T. 47, § 125.4, O.S. 1951, as amended in the 1953 statutes.)”

The defendant contends that “each of the separate misdemeanors upon which .the charge of manslaughter is predicated, should be alleged in a manner so that each will be complete unto itself”, and urges that “a deficiency in one, results, in the insufficiency of all, else we have only garbled language, as. in this case.” An examination of the foregoing charging part of the information discloses that the information of course could have been more detailed in its allegations but we are of the opinion that it meets the principles of law hereinafter set forth. In Holleman v. State, 74 Okl.Cr. 258, 125 P.2d 239, 242, quoting from Price v. State, 9 Okl.Cr. 359, 131 P. 1102, it was said:

“We think the reasoning of Judge Furman in disposing of a similar conterition in Price v. State, supra (9 Okl.Cr. 359, 131 P. [1102] 1104), is applicable herein. It was there stated:
“ ‘Under the old common-law doctrine of strictly construing criminal law and all proceedings in criminal cases, and that an indictment or information should be certain to a^ertain intent in every particular, the objection now urged to this information would undoubtedly be good. But these doctrines have long since been repudiated in the state of Oklahoma. I.t is true that an indictment should be reasonably certain as to the offense charged in order that the defendant may not be surprised and may be able to prepare to make his defense, and also to enable him to plead á judgment of acquittal or conviction in bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offense. This is all that a defendant is in reason and justice entitled to. If an indictment is couched in such language as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended, it is all that the law requires.’”

In Coslow v. State, 83 Okl.Cr. 378, 177 P.2d 518, 520, the late Judge Barefoot, speaking for the court, said:

“This court has never applied strict rules of construction in passing upon the terms of an indictment or information. * * * ”

We are of the opinion that the information herein- states the charge with that degree of certainty which, enables the defendant to know what was intended, and to acquaint ' him with the offense of which he stood charged, Moreover, it was sufficient to enable the court to pronounce judgment upon the conviction. Furthermore, it is sufficiently definite and certain as to stand as a bar against a second prosecution for the same offense, if the defendant should be convicted thereon, Coslow v. State, supra.

Next, the defendant urges the evidence was insufficient to sustain the jury’s verdict, and that the trial "court erred in overruling his demurrer to the evidence. The facts established from the state’s case, that the decedent, Hardman, sixteen years of age, was driving the automobile in which hé'was riding, accompanied by Lynn Barrett II, 'fifteen years of age. The Hardman boy had been driving only eight months. . The Barrett boy testified they were driving south on Peoria Street, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at about 50 yards from the intersection; the traffic light was red; about 50 feet from the intersection the light changed to green. Barrett related they were going 15 miles an hour at that time. After the light changed to green, the speed of the automobile was accelerated. He further stated he looked to the east side of the street, after seeing the light was red, and his vision was fixed on the Crosstown Grill,’ an eating establish *434 ment where young people .congregated. He expected to see someone there whom he knew;, this distracted his attention from the traffic signal. He first testified defendant’s automobile was traveling 45 to 50 miles per hour, then changed his evidence to the effect that he saw the said automobile only three or four split seconds before the crash, and he did not really know how fast it was going.

Mr. and Mrs. Fryhover, disinterested witnesses, said they came from the Crosstown Grill. Mr. Fryhover related that he first looked at the lights at the time of the collision; the light on Peoria Street was green, and on 15th street, it was red; the Hardman automobile was going 15 miles per hour and the defendant’s about 35 miles per hour. It is apparent he did not see the lights before the cars hit, for he testified * * at tjme ⅜-he cars hit, of course, we looked at the lights.”

Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK CR 102, 288 P.2d 429, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nelson-v-state-oklacrimapp-1955.