Sanders v. State

1930 OK CR 87, 287 P. 842, 46 Okla. Crim. 298, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 464
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 8, 1930
DocketNo. A-7063.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1930 OK CR 87 (Sanders 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
Sanders v. State, 1930 OK CR 87, 287 P. 842, 46 Okla. Crim. 298, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 464 (Okla. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called the defendant, was convicted in the district court of Tulsa county of the crime of robbery with firearms, and *301 was sentenced to serve a term of ten years in the penitentiary at McAlester. The record was perfected, and the case appealed to this court.

The testimony in substance shows that J. D. Perry-man was in charge of a filling station owned by the South-land Gasoline Company, in West Tulsa, on the 23d day of September, 1927; that the defendant came to the filling station and demanded Perryman and a young boy at the station with him to “stick ’em up”; that the man who demanded them to stick ’em up took $52 in cash from Perry-man, and then compelled Perryman and the crippled boy who was with him at the time to go a short distance from the filling station with him, when he turned around and marched them back to a Chevrolet car of Perryman’s. During this time the defendant had his gun on Perryman and the boy; when they got back to the car, he had them get in, and, pointing the gun at Perryman, had him drive him some distance down through some woods, and then made Perryman and the boy get out, and told them he would leave the car at the post office; the defendant drove off, taking with him the $52 in money and the Chevrolet car he had taken from Perryman.

The witness J. D. Perryman positively identified the defendant as being the person who robbed him of his money and ear. The testimony further shows that shortly thereafter the defendant was arrested near Seminole, and at the time of his arrest had in his possession the automobile which had been taken from the witness Perryman. Perryman was called to Seminole, and there identified the defendant as being the man who held him up and robbed him. At the time the defendant was taken into custody in Seminole he did not give the name of Ed Sanders. When confronted with the fact that the officers were looking for the car, the defendant stated that a strange man had *302 loaned him the cay to go and get some beer; he stated he did not know the name of the stranger, or where he lived.

The testimony on behalf of the defendant was in the nature of an alibi.; some four or five witnesses testifying that on the day of the alleged robbery at Tulsa the defendant was in and around Seminole and Earlsboro, and at such a great distance from Tulsa that he could not have possibly been in Tulsa at the time of the robbery from the time he was seen in and near Seminole and Earlsboro. Most of the witnesses testifying that the defendant was in Seminole county on the date of the robbery in Tulsa, Tulsa county, Okla., were relatives of the young man; one was a young lady sweetheart.

The record shows that Perryman positively identified the defendant as being the man who held him up and took his money and car; the witness was with the defendant .several minutes at the filling station and in the car which he was compelled to drive until he got down in the woods, where the defendant made Perryman and the crippled boy get out and leave him.

The defendant’s testimony denies that he was in Tulsa at the time the robbery took place, and states he was in Seminole county, which is shown to be about 125 or 130 miles from Tulsa, and his relatives and sweetheart testify to the same facts as does the defendant.

The defendant has assigned several errors alleged to have been committed by the court in the trial of his case. The first error assigned by the defendant is that the court erred in overruling his demurrer to the information. A study of the information shows that the allegations in the information are in ordinary and concise language, charging the defendant with robbing J. D. Perryman of $52 in cash and one Chevrolet roadster automobile of the value *303 of $375, and by taking, stealing, and carrying away said money and automobile by means of force and putting the defendant in fear by the use of firearms.

It is urged by the defendant that his demurrer to the information should have been sustained; the defendant insisting that the information is duplicitous, charging robbery and larceny under all the separate statutes of the state of Oklahoma. With this contention we cannot agree. The information does charge that the defendant took from him $52 in cash at the filling station, and then when he came outside he forced the witness and a crippled boy to get in the car of the prosecuting witness and drive him a short distance away, and made them get out, and drove on with the defendant’s car. The taking of the money and the car being one continuous transaction, the allegations as to the taking by the defendant of the articles do not make the information duplicitous, as the information only attempts to charge one offense, that is, of robbery with firearms of the $52 in money and the Chevrolet car.

In Hill v. State, 19 Okla. Cr. 406, 200 Pac. 253, the question discussed by the defendant in this case was discussed at considerable length by the court. In that opinion, in the first paragraph of the syllabus, the court said:

“To constitute robbery the taking must be either directly from the person or immediate presence and against the will of the party robbed, and must be by force or a previous putting in fear. It is the previous violence or intimidation that distinguishes robbery from larceny. The information in this case charged the taking of money from the person of another by means of force and fear, brought about by pointing a revolver and threatening to shoot if resisted, followed by the allegation, ‘Said defendants did then and there wrongfully, willfully, unlawfully, forcibly, violently, and feloniously take, steal, and carry away.’ Held, to sufficiently charge the crime, of robbery, *304 and, the words ‘steal and carry away’ being mere surplus-age, the information was not bad for duplicity.”

The court did not err in overruling defendant’s demurrer to the information.

It is next urged by the defendant that the court erred in selecting and impaneling the jury. The defendant in his second assignment contends that the jury was improperly selected, drawn, and impaneled, and that by reason thereof the defendant’s substantive and substantial rights were impaired in this cause.

The record discloses that considerable testimony was taken upon the question of the selection of the trial jury. This question has been before the courts of the different states in many different forms, in all of which cases the courts have held that the important thing to be considered is the question, Were the rights of the defendant impaired • by the manner in which the jury was drawn, selected, and sworn, and did the manner of selecting, impaneling, and swearing the jury deprive the defendant of a fair and impartial jury to sit in the trial of his case? If the record discloses that, by reason of the method of selecting the trial jury, the defendant was deprived of any right guaranteed him under the Constitution and laws of this state, then the panel should haye been quashed, and the court should have ordered a new jury drawn. A substantial compliance with the law in drawing, selecting, and impaneling a jury is sufficient.

In Young v. State, 41 Okla. Cr. 226, 271 Pac.

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Related

Roulain v. State
1973 OK CR 114 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1973)
Staley v. State
1953 OK CR 175 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1953)
Rutherford v. State
1952 OK CR 77 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1952)
Wilson v. State
1949 OK CR 120 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Little v. State
1945 OK CR 1 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Wilcox v. State
1940 OK CR 24 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1940)
Crowdis v. State
1936 OK CR 65 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)
Langley v. State
1932 OK CR 90 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
1930 OK CR 87, 287 P. 842, 46 Okla. Crim. 298, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-state-oklacrimapp-1930.