Sanders v. State

1959 OK CR 74, 341 P.2d 643, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 234
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 24, 1959
DocketA-12683
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 1959 OK CR 74 (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, 1959 OK CR 74, 341 P.2d 643, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 234 (Okla. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

POWELL, Presiding Judge.

This case involves burglary with explosives,- and comes from the district court of Pontotoc County, where the plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was tried before a jury, convicted and the penalty assessed by the jury at confinement in the State Penitentiary for a period of 30 years. By statute the minimum sentence is 20 years, and the maximum SO years. 21 O.S.19S1 § 1441.

For reversal counsel fails to comply with Rule No. 7 of this Court and present his grounds for reversal or specifications of error under separate propositions, but argues without heading and at random. We shall treat the essential propositions of the petition in error covered in defendant’s brief.

The allegations of the information in part read:

“That is to say, the defendants Ro-mey Lee Wilcoxon, Walter Lee Sanders and Alonzo Scott Painter did, in said county and state, at the above named time and place, unlawfully, wil-fully, and feloniously enter a certain store building in the city of Ada, Oklahoma, said building being then and there controlled, occupied, and used by Standard Food Market, then and there unlawfully, wilfully, and feloniously by the use of and by the aid of nitroglycerine, dynamite, or other explosives, attempt to open a certain safe and receptacle then and there kept in the said store building by the said Standard Food Market, and then and there used by the said Standard Food Market for the secure keeping of money and other valuable property, without the consent of the said Standard Food Market, and with the felonL ous intent of the said Romey Lee Wilcoxon, Walter Lee Sanders,, and Alonzo Scott Painter then and there to crack and open said safe by the use of and by the aid of said explosives; contrary to the form of the statutes in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Oklahoma.”

The evidence is undisputed but that the Standard Food Market burned and was a total loss as result of the explosion alleged in the information.

The record discloses that there was no direct evidence to place defendant at the Standard Food Market, Ada, where he could participate in the crime charged, except by the testimony of one of his co-defendants. 1 The defendant applied for and was granted a severance, or separate trial, from those charged with him. His co-defendant, Alonzo Scott Painter testified for the State.

Under such circumstances in examining the testimony we have kept in mind, as suggested by counsel for the defendant, that a conviction upon the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice is prohibited by statute. 22 O.S.1951 § 742 reads:

“A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless he be corroborated by such other evidence as tends to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely show the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof.”

Next is the question of the sufficiency of the corroboration. A long line of cases from this Court is listed in the cumulative pocket parts under the section of the statute quoted. A typical case is Blumhoff v. State, 72 Okl.Cr. 339, 116 P.2d 212, *646 213, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of the syllabus reading:

“Evidence corroborative of an accomplice need not directly connect the accused with the commission of the crime. It is sufficient, although circumstantial, if such evidence tends to connect him with its commission.
“The testimony of an accomplice to sustain a conviction need not be corroborated in every particular in detail. The rule is that the testimony of an accomplice must be corroborated by such other evidence of material parts of his testimony as will tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense.
“Where the sufficiency of the evidence to corroborate an accomplice is challenged, this court will take the strongest view of the corroborating testimony that such testimony will warrant, and, if it can say that there is corroborating evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, it will uphold the verdict.”

We shall therefore commence by a consideration of the evidence of the co-defendant Painter:

Alonzo Painter testified that he lived in Copan, Oklahoma; that on March 11, 1958 he came to Tulsa and phoned Romey Wil-coxon at Raymond Gordon’s home just off Peoria, at about the twenty-nine hundred block; that he had a previous agreement with his codefendants Walter Lee “Chief” Sanders and Wilcoxon that they were to meet him at the bus depot. He said that he did phone Wilcoxon and that Wilcoxon picked him up at the bus station and then picked the defendant Sanders up at the train depot, and the three of them then drove out to the Gordon residence. He said they sat around at the Gordon residence for about two hours and drank coffee; that several weeks previously they had talked about going to Ada and that at this time they planned on what time they would leave for Ada, what time they would get there, and what time they would get back to Tulsa. He said that they had agreed to burglarize a supermarket, but he did not know in advance the name of the place that was to be robbed. He said they figured the place they would enter would have about five cash registers, and that they would get around $5,000.

Witness further testified that he and defendant Sanders and Wilcoxon left the Gordon residence in the Gordon car about 9:30 in the evening and drove out to an oil field lease and picked up about a pint of nitroglycerine; that they got some tools at the Gordon garage consisting of a drill, some punches and a couple of jimmy bars, before leaving, and that there were some tools already in the car. He said that all of them had firearms; that he had a .32-20, and that Sanders had a .22 with a large grip, and that Wilcoxon had a .25 Beretta. He identified the firearms mentioned, which were later received into evidence. He also identified a “jimmy bar” that was peculiar in that it had- a hammer head welded on that made possible better leverage. He said that they had in the car a total of four or five jimmy bars, two drills, ten or twelve punches and drill bits, and a sledge hammer. He said that he and Sanders and Wilcoxon had agreed to share equally in anything taken in the burglary; that is, one-third each. He said that they had. the nitroglycerine in a half pint Old Forrester whiskey bottle, and that after getting it they drove back through Tulsa and down through Sapulpa to Ada. He said they had some dynamite caps, copper wire and a flashlight battery for the purpose of setting off the nitroglycerine.

Witness said they arrived in Ada about four o’clock in the morning of March 12, 1958; that they drove in front of the store to be entered, circled the block and parked on the street back of the store, got out of their car and cut through between houses and walked around to the front of the Standard Market; that an occasional car would pass and they saw a police car parked in front of a cafe a block and a half or two blocks away. He said that the three of them brought from the car a drill, two or *647

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Sizemore v. State
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Rider v. State
1972 OK CR 56 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1972)
Cindle v. State
1967 OK CR 164 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1967)
Russell v. Paulson
417 P.2d 658 (Utah Supreme Court, 1966)
Fike v. State
1963 OK CR 93 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1963)
Sanders v. State
1962 OK CR 36 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1962)
Martin v. State
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Wilcoxon v. State
1959 OK CR 89 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
1959 OK CR 74, 341 P.2d 643, 1959 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-state-oklacrimapp-1959.