Patterson v. State

1974 OK CR 166, 527 P.2d 596
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 4, 1974
DocketF-74-258
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1974 OK CR 166 (Patterson 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
Patterson v. State, 1974 OK CR 166, 527 P.2d 596 (Okla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinions

OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge.

Appellant Charles “Pat” Patterson, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court, Comanche County, Case No. F-73-322, for the offense of Delivery and Distribution of Heroin, After Former Conviction of a Drug Offense. The jury fixed his punishment at forty (40) years imprisonment and a fine of Forty Thousand ($40,000.00) Dollars, and from said judgment and sentence a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

The evidence introduced at trial on behalf of the State presented the following version of the facts. On March 6, 1973, one Steven Bonner, also known as Steven Humphrey, also known as “Tina,” a homosexual transvestite, was arrested in Lawton, Oklahoma for Impersonating a Female, Soliciting for Prostitution, and Associating with a Known Prostitute. At the booking desk at the Lawton Police Department, Bonner approached arresting officer Dean Nowe with an offer to aid in Officer Nowe’s narcotics investigations in return for leniency in the above-mentioned charges against Bonner. Nowe agreed and proceeded to set up a dope “buy” from defendant Patterson, using Bonner as the informant. On March 17, 1973, the attempted buy took place as follows. At approximately 9:00 a. m., Officers Nowe and Jim Ingram, driving a Chevrolet automobile, picked up informant Bonner at a residence in Lawton after Bonner had failed to appear at their pre-arranged meeting place. The three then went to an apartment complex where Mr. Nowe picked up a Plymouth automobile and drove it to a shopping center in another part of Lawton where he parked and locked it. The two officers and Bonner then went to Southwestern Hospital in the Chevrolet. There, Dr. French Worthen conducted a thorough body search of Bonner, in order to determine that Bonner did not have any narcotics secreted on his person, prior to the attempted buy. Officers Ingram and Nowe searched the female clothing in which Bonner was dressed. No narcotics were discovered in either search. At the same time, the officers attached a “bugging” device to Bonner’s chest, where it was concealed beneath his female attire. They then accompanied Bonner back to the shopping center. There they were met by John Lavick, a Southwestern Bell Telephone Company employee, whose phone company [598]*598panel truck was to be used by the officers to conceal the “bug’s” receiver while Bonner was making the buy. At that point, Officer Nowe unlocked and searched the Plymouth which he had earlier left at the shopping center. Finding no drugs in the car, he put Bonner behind the wheel and gave him $30.00 with which to make the buy. Officer Ingram, in the Chevrolet, followed Bonner to defendant’s house and parked nearby. Officer Nowe and Mr. Lavick drove to a driveway across the street from defendant’s house and set up the electronic receiving device. When Bonner arrived at defendant’s house, he was admitted through a garage door by defendant himself. Present inside the house were defendant, Bonner, and an otherwise unidentified individual named “Queenie.” The State’s version of the transaction inside the house was presented at trial first through the testimony of Bonner.

At first, Bonner testified that he had not made a heroin buy from defendant as alleged. After a short in camera hearing, the District Attorney asked Bonner if he appreciated that he was testifying under oath. After answering in the affirmative, Bonner changed his version of the transaction to the following: upon entering defendant’s house, he gave defendant the $30.00 which had been given to him by Officer Nowe. In exchange, defendant gave Bonner two small tinfoil packages of heroin. While inside, Bonner also injected himself with one of the two packets of heroin.

The only other version of the events inside defendant’s house, presented by the State, was that portion of the conversations overheard by Officer Nowe on the electronic receiver. He testified that he heard three voices, one of which he identified as that of Bonner, one as that of the defendant, and one as that of an unidentified person. The conversation which he overheard, along with the individuals whom he identified as the speakers, was as follows:

BONNER: “Where is Queenie?”
DEFENDANT: “In the bedroom.”
BONNER: “Give me a cigarette. You want to go to work today — you want to go to work?”
UNIDENTIFIED: “Yes. I want to go to Brookings and get some coats.”
DEFENDANT: “I have been trying to get Queenie to get me some leather pants.”
BONNER: “Where’s Mamie?”
DEFENDANT: “Down at the Ice Dock.”
BONNER: “What are you cooking?”
DEFENDANT: “I am making some coffee.”
BONNER: “I sure hope Pat’s got some stuff and he’ll sell me some. I have been . . .” [objection at this time sustained by trial court]
* * ⅝ * * *
BONNER: “Would you sell me something for my nerves? I want to get two papers.”
UNIDENTIFIED: “What are you copping for?”
BONNER: “Thirty dollars, right?”
DEFENDANT: “Yeah.”
BONNER: “Ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty.”

Nowe stated that the above portion of the conversation was only a partial one, and that he had been unsuccessful in his attempt to tape record the conversation due to his failure to operate the tape recorder correctly. Officer Nowe also testified that he observed defendant emerge briefly from the house during the transaction and “give a close look” to the Plymouth parked in his driveway. Shortly after defendant 'had re-entered the house, Bonner emerged and departed in the Plymouth.

Officer Ingram met Bonner at a pre-ar-ranged place, where they were momentarily joined by Officer Nowe and Mr. Lavick in the phone company truck. Mr. Lavick left, and Nowe joined Bonner and Ingram in the Plymouth. From Bonner, they received the two tinfoil packets of heroin [599]*599(one full and one empty except for traces). They drove to another location and conducted a strip search of Bonner, during which they removed the “bugging” device from his body. This search, plus a second search of the Plymouth by Officer Nowe, was fruitless. The three then returned the Plymouth, dropped off Officer Ingram, and Bonner and Nowe proceeded to the residence of Sgt. Carl Morrow of the narcotics division of the Lawton Police Department. There, Nowe sealed the tinfoil packets in an evidence envelope and, along with Morrow and Bonner, signed and dated the seal. The evidence was sent to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Oklahoma City, where tests showed the contents to be heroin. Bonner, Nowe, Morrow, Lavick, Dr. Worthen, Ingram, and John P. McAuliff (the state chemist at the OSBI laboratory), testified at trial to their roles in the above statement of facts.

Defendant’s only witness was himself. He testified that Bonner came into his house and asked for “something for his head.” Defendant then went out to his driveway in search of his newspaper, looking underneath the Plymouth parked there. He testified that Bonner lived with him and his wife in the same house, and had never tried to buy heroin from him — either before, during, or after the transaction in question.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dufries v. State
2006 OK CR 13 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2006)
Ott v. State
1998 OK CR 51 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1998)
Johnson v. State
1977 OK CR 9 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)
Holloway v. State
1976 OK CR 17 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1976)
Patterson v. State
1974 OK CR 166 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1974 OK CR 166, 527 P.2d 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patterson-v-state-oklacrimapp-1974.