Pack v. State

1929 OK CR 273, 279 P. 698, 43 Okla. Crim. 424, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 293
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 13, 1929
DocketNo. A-6474.
StatusPublished

This text of 1929 OK CR 273 (Pack 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
Pack v. State, 1929 OK CR 273, 279 P. 698, 43 Okla. Crim. 424, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 293 (Okla. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiffs in error, who will hereinafter be referred to as the defendants, were con *425 victed of the crime of conveying intoxicating liquor from a point unknown to affiant, to a point on East Main street, in the city of Norman, and each sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and be imprisoned in the county jail for 60 days. The defendants have perfected their record, and appealed to this court.

The defendants filed their" motion to suppress the evidence of the state oh the ground that said defendants were arrested and searched without a search warrant by Bill Greenway, in violation of their constitutional and legal rights, which motion was by the court heard, considered, and overruled, and defendants duly excepted. Defendants then filed a demurrer to the information, which demurrer was heard and overruled by the court, and defendants duly excepted.

The state called Harvey Cobb, who testified in substance that he lived in Cleveland county. He knew Morris Pack and Barney Smolin. The defendants came to his place of business some time between 6 and 7 o’clock in the evening. “I don’t know how they came there; they had their car in my garage when I returned, it was a Chrysler roadster No. 70 model; I did not talk to either of them; Bill Green way was there that evening; about the only thing I remember was Mr. Pack said not to open the car; I went to get a key to open the back end and could not find it; Mr. Pack asked Smolin if he had a key and Mr. Smolin said he did not.” On cross-examination witness stated that the defendants had been to his garage once or twice before. “Their car was standing in the doorway of the garage when I saw it; when Mr. Smolin went back to the car we heard some kind of a noise like something had been thrown and Mr. Greenwav caught hold of Mr. Pack’s arm and took him back with him; *426 be had a six shooter out and told Mr. Smolin to put the grip back in the car, and defendant said he did not have anything; Green way then said, ‘You go get that grip and put it back in the car’ and defendant refused the second time, and Greenway then said, ‘Get it,’ and got his six shooter and says, ‘Get it or I will shoot your legs from under you’; the defendant objected to putting the grip back in the car; I do not know what was in the grip; the defendant put the grip back in the turtle of the car; Green way took Morris Pack and the car away with him.”

William Green way testified he was an officer; that he knew Barney Smolin and Morris Pack; that he did not know them until June 24,1926, when he arrested them in front of the Norman Hotel on East Main street, in Norman, Oklahoma.

“I went out and said I wanted to look into the car, and he said, ‘Are you an officer?’ and he said he didn’t have any key, and I said, ‘We will go down to the Cobb garage and get one,’ and we drove down to the Cobb Motor Company; we waited about ten or fifteen minutes and' could not find a key; Mr. Pack said I could go to the city with him and get another key and I said I didn’t have time to go to the city; he then said I could not look into the car; just about that time another gentleman came up; he opened the rear end of the car and got out a suit case and threw it there in the garage; Greenway then took hold of Mr. Pack and said, ‘Let’s go back there,’ and said, ‘You put that suit case back where you got it,’ and Smolin said he did not have to, and I said, ‘The best thing you can do is to put it back,’ and he refused to do it the third time; Pack was telling him not to put it in there, it was not his, and he said he would not put it back; I then took my gun out like this, and said, ‘You had better put it back in there or I will shoot your legs out from under you’; he sáid, ‘If you feel like *427 that about it, I wilt have to put it back’; I then took Mr. Pack and drove away down to the county jail; I opened up the grip and found three quarts of whisky in it; I had not examined the grip before that time; I had no warrant for the arrest of either of the defendants when I arrested them in front of the Norman Hotel; I did not see them commit any offense, but I thought they had whisky in the car, and I drove down to the garage to get a key to open the car, and, when Mr. Smolin took the suit case out of the turtle of the car, I did not know what it contained, and did not know until after I had placed them under arrest and had driven the car down to the county jail.”

This is in substance all the testimony we deem necessary to set out for the purpose of deciding this case.

The defendants moved the court to strike the testimony of the witness Greenway, on the ground that there was no foundation laid for its introduction, and for the further reason that he had no warrant for the arrest of the defendants, or either of them, or a search warrant to search the defendants’ car, which motion was overruled and defendants duly excepted. The defendants then demurred to the evidence on the ground that the proof offered by the state is wholly insufficient to warrant or sustain a conviction in this case, which demurrer was overruled, and defendants duly excepted. The defendants then offered the testimony of the county clerk to show that the appointment of Greenway as deputy sheriff had not been approved by the county commissioners, and therefore he could not be a deputy sheriff.

The-defendants assign several errors committed in the trial of the case upon which they rely for a reversal. The only errors we deem necessary to consider are assignments 10 and 11; No. 10 being:

“Error of the court in admitting, over the objection of the defendants, testimony of the witness Bill Green- *428 way for the reason that the said Bill Greenway arrested the said defendants and seized the grip and contents thereof without a search warrant.”
“No. 11. ErroT of the court in overruling the defendants’ motion for a new trial.”

These two assignments may be considered together, as they relate to the same question. It is denied by the defendants that Greenway had been legally appointed deputy sheriff, but, for the sake of this opinion, we think it is immaterial whether he was a legally appointed deputy sheriff or not. Greenway himself admits that, when he placed the defendant Morris Pack under arrest in front of the Norman Hotel, he did not have a warrant for the arrest of defendant, or either of them, nor did he have a search warrant to search their person or the car, but he took Morris Pack into custody, and, when advised by Pack that he did not have a key to unlock the turtle of the car, he drove some distance in the car with him to the Cobb Motor Company, where he attempted to borrow a key.

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Related

Klein v. State
1924 OK CR 43 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1924)
Taylor v. State
1927 OK CR 121 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK CR 273, 279 P. 698, 43 Okla. Crim. 424, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pack-v-state-oklacrimapp-1929.