Pierce v. State

1990 OK CR 7, 786 P.2d 1255, 1990 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1990 WL 8207
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 5, 1990
DocketF-87-446
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 1990 OK CR 7 (Pierce 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
Pierce v. State, 1990 OK CR 7, 786 P.2d 1255, 1990 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1990 WL 8207 (Okla. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

OPINION

LANE, Vice Presiding Judge:

On October 13, 1986, Jeffrey Todd Pierce was convicted, after a trial by jury, of Rape in the First Degree1, Oral Sodomy2, Anal [1258]*1258Sodomy3, Second Degree Burglary4 and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon5 in District Court of Oklahoma County Case No. CRF-86-1135. He was sentenced to thirty-four (34) years on the rape charge, eleven (11) years each for the sodomy counts and four (4) and five (5) years respectively for the burglary and assault counts. The trial court ordered that the sentences be served consecutively. Appellant has properly perfected his appeal from the judgment and sentence of the trial court.

S.B. was living temporarily in a furnished apartment in the Woodlake Apartment complex in north Oklahoma City while she was conducting a market survey in the area for her employer. On May 8, 1985, S.B. left her apartment to go to work. When she got to her car, she noticed a man looking at her, who quickly disappeared into the bushes. The man had blond hair and was wearing a bandanna around his head. He had on a tee-shirt and jeans as well as black leather gloves.

S.B. went to her job site but had to return to her apartment soon after her arrival to get more supplies. As she entered the apartment, she noticed that a window had been broken and that someone had been rummaging through her belongings. As she surveyed the damage, Appellant came out of another room in the apartment and grabbed S.B., threatening her with a knife. The two fought for several minutes before S.B. was overpowered.

Appellant pushed S.B. face down onto the floor. He held a pillow over her face and told her that he would kill her if she looked at him. Appellant demanded that S.B. perform oral sodomy on him and put his penis in her mouth. S.B. saw a meat-fork on the floor near her, which she reached for. Appellant intercepted the fork and stabbed her arm. He then pushed her back down to the floor where he raped and anally sodomized her.

Before leaving her apartment, Appellant forced S.B. to take a shower. He pushed her into the bathroom while still holding the pillow over her face. While S.B. was in the shower, Appellant left the apartment. 5.B. told police that nothing had been taken from her apartment except a bar of soap, a bottle of laundry detergent and the return address from a piece of mail which she had received.

S.B. reported that she believed her attacker was an employee of the apartment complex and that she had seen him outside her apartment earlier that day. At the time of the rape, Appellant was working for a company called Can-do, which performed landscape and maintenance work for the Woodlake Apartment complex. He had been employed with Can-do for about five years.

At trial, Oklahoma City Police Department chemist, Joyce Gilchrist testified that twenty-eight scalp hairs and three pubic hairs recovered from either S.B., her clothing or her apartment, were microscopically consistent with the characteristics found in Appellant’s hair. She also testified that there was not enough seminal fluid to determine the blood type of the donor, but Gilchrist was able to determine that the rapist was either a blood type 0 or a non-secretor. She testified that Appellant was classified as a non-secretor.

As his first allegation of error, Appellant claims that he was unfairly convicted based upon “other crimes” evidence which was improperly revealed to the jury during the testimony of Detective Cook and during the viewing of the composite drawing made by a police artist. The revelations by Cook occurred on cross-examination, during defense counsel’s exploration of how another suspect had been ruled out.6 The testimony in question is found at page 549 through 552 of the transcript:

[1259]*1259Q. Tell us — read that report and tell us where you state that you went out and got the better photographs and brought them back and she excluded him.
A. After seeing the better photographs, the five by sevens, she still thought it resembled the suspect a lot.
Q. What did you do about it?
A. Well, as it turned out—
WITNESS: I have trouble answering this question, Your Honor.
MR. BURGER: May we approach the bench?
MR. ALBERT: Judge, he’s asked the question. I think—
THE COURT: Go ahead. Tell the answer.
WITNESS: He’d already been eliminated by the serologist, Joyce Gilchrist.
Q. (By Mr. Burger) How has she eliminated him?
WITNESS: Same thing, Your Honor.
THE COURT: If you know.
WITNESS: Through hair comparison.
Q. (By Mr. Burger) I believe, Officer Cook, you were in the courtroom. I believe she testified she didn’t exclude anybody. I asked her about that name, she said who’s that. Would that make a difference in your answer?
MR. ALBERT: Give him an honest answer.
WITNESS: She compared some hairs but they weren’t from the B. case.
* ⅝ * sfc # ⅝
Q. What other scientific methods do we have that Cannon was excluded? The victim says looks very much like the assailant. Give us some factual reasons why he was excluded.
WITNESS: Your Honor, I’m going to get into some other areas.
THE COURT: Just go ahead. He asked the question, sir. Answer the question.
WITNESS: The hairs of Mr. Cannon were compared by Joyce Gilchrist to the pubic and scalp hairs found on the dead body of Judy Wikert.
Q. (By Mr. Burger) So, good deal. She excludes him, then from the crime of raping S.B.
A. She matched those hairs, B.’s and Wikert’s. To exclude one would exclude the other.
Q. She matched the hairs of B. and Wikert.
A. Yes, sir.
MR. ALBERT: Need to be more descriptive, officer.
WITNESS: Sir, we found hairs on the body of a homicide victim. Hairs were found on the body of S.B. Those hairs were compared together and found to be the same. Therefore, whoever committed the crime—

Appellant contests the admission of this testimony in three ways: that the procedure used to exclude the suspect was not scientifically recognized, that the comments by the prosecutor, Mr. Albert, lead to the answer given by the witness and finally, that the testimony constituted an evidentiary harpoon. He further contends that the trial court’s refusal to allow him to approach the bench at one point added to the problem. We reject all these contentions and find that counsel was given a multitude of opportunities to avoid the detective’s ultimate answer, all of which he disregarded. Any error in the admission of the testimony must be deemed invited error.

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

Related

Meek v. Martin
E.D. Oklahoma, 2020
BRAMLETT v. STATE
2018 OK CR 19 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2018)
Lott v. Trammell
705 F.3d 1167 (Tenth Circuit, 2013)
Cuesta-Rodriguez v. State
2010 OK CR 23 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2010)
Bryson v. MacY
611 F. Supp. 2d 1234 (W.D. Oklahoma, 2009)
Smith v. State
2007 OK CR 16 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2007)
Hogan v. State
2006 OK CR 19 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2006)
McCarty v. State
2005 OK CR 10 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2005)
Cannon v. Mullin
383 F.3d 1152 (Tenth Circuit, 2004)
Gilchrist v. OKL. EMPLOYMENT SEC. COM'N
2004 OK 47 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2004)
Ives v. Boone
Tenth Circuit, 2004
Gilchrist v. Citty
71 F. App'x 1 (Tenth Circuit, 2003)
State of Maine v. Cookson
Maine Superior, 2002
Mitchell v. Ward
150 F. Supp. 2d 1194 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1999)
Welch v. State
1998 OK CR 54 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1998)
Alvin Parker v. Ron Champion
148 F.3d 1219 (Tenth Circuit, 1998)
Parker v. Champion
Tenth Circuit, 1998
Slaughter v. State
1997 OK CR 78 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1997)
Hooper v. State
1997 OK CR 64 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1990 OK CR 7, 786 P.2d 1255, 1990 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 6, 1990 WL 8207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-state-oklacrimapp-1990.