Schorr v. State

1972 OK CR 176, 499 P.2d 450, 1972 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 552
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 28, 1972
DocketA-16213
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 1972 OK CR 176 (Schorr 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
Schorr v. State, 1972 OK CR 176, 499 P.2d 450, 1972 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 552 (Okla. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

SIMMS, Judge:

Appellant, Kenneth B. Schorr, was convicted of the crime of Possession of Marijuana in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, and sentenced to a term of six years in the pentitentiary and assessed a fine of $2,500.00, in accordance with the jury verdict. From the judgment and sentence in the case, appellant has perfected a timely appeal to this Court.

The facts, briefly stated, are that appellant was operating his Volkswagen bus in an easterly direction on N. W. 39th Street, also designated as U. S. Highway 66, within the city limits of Bethany, Oklahoma. As the Volkswagen passed to the east of the intersection of Council Road and 1ST. W. 39th Street, the defendant negotiated a U-turn which was observed by Officer Joe Resneder of the Bethany Police Department.

Allegedly, appellant, in making the U-turn, did not have his vehicle fully in the lane marked for left hand turns.

*452 Appellant operated his vehicle in a westerly direction hack to the intersection of Council Road and N. W. 39th, where he made a right hand turn onto Council Road and headed North to a location where the vehicle was stopped by Officer Res-neder. Upon ascertaining that appellant did not have a drivers license, Officer Res-neder requested the appellant and the two passengers of the Volkswagen to follow the officer to the Bethany City Police Station. The appellant was permitted to drive his vehicle to the station.

After a relatively short time at the Bethany Police Station, defendant was separated from his two companions and asked to sign a “rights waiver” and a “search waiver.”

Under color of authority of the “search waiver,” the officers searched the Volkswagen bus and found marijuana inside the bus. This search purportedly took place after 7 P.M. on the evening of the day of the arrest.

The defendant and his two companions were thereafter transported to the Oklahoma County Jail and at that jail, the following morning, the defendant was interrogated by Captain Sharp of the Bethany Police Department and Captain Sharp obtained a written statement from the appellant.

Appellant, in his brief, asserts numerous errors on the part of the trial court as grounds to reverse and remand, or, in the alternative, dismiss the case against him. However, it is but necessary to discuss two of the propositions asserted by appellant to determine this appeal.

Proposition Three, in appellant’s brief, complains that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence, over defendant’s objection, certain unidentified letters containing hearsay statements of an inflammatory and prejudicial nature.

Factually, during the search of the Volskwagen bus by the officers, there was discovered in the sack containing the marijuana, certain letters, one being attached to the bottom of the sack, the other inside the sack. One of the letters, according to the record, had been written to the defendant by his brother, and mailed from Barcelona, Spain.

The letter from Barcelona, Spain, was addressed to “Kenny Schorr, Esq.,” and signed “Boyd.”

The letter contained certain language which is necessary to be set out in this opinion. Within the letter there was written :

“I hope the shrink thing is going well and that you are staying out of trouble”;
“Don’t get stoned much”;
“I really miss some good grass (all they have here is hash)”;
“Been laid a couple of times”;
“Save me a joint and some good records”.

Not only was the questioned letter introduced into evidence, but the prosecutor alluded to the letter and part of its contents in his final summation to the jury, thus emphasizing some of the language contained in the letter which the appellant had not authored. Unquestionably, the language set o'ut in the questioned letter was prejudicial, and had a tendency to inflame the minds of the jurors as to the defendant even though he was not directly responsible for its contents.

Appellant concedes, however, that the fact that a letter addressed to the defendant was found in the same sack with the marijuana was properly admissible as part of the res gestae and might, in its best light, from the standpoint of the state, tend to connect the defendant with the marijuana. However, appellant re-emphasizes that the contents of the letter, as set out above, were introduced by the state for the sole purpose of prejudicing the appellant in the minds of the jury.

Neither the appellant nor the state cite, in their briefs, any case directly in point on the issue of the admissibility of letters under the circumstances as above set out. Appellant contends that this particular letter was the rankest hearsay imaginable and was *453 written evidence in court of statements made out of court, offered as an assertion to show the truth of the matters asserted therein, and thus resting for its value upon the credibility of the out of court asserter.

A somewhat analogous fact situation may be found, however, in Goben v. State, 20 Okl.Cr. 220, 201 P. 812 (1921). In Goben, the state introduced into evidence a letter found in the bottom of a trunk, which letter bore the initials of the defendant. The letter was not signed, except by the name of “Jack” and was not a statement in writing made by the defendant or his co-defendant. This Court held that the defendant’s objections to the introduction of the letter should have been sustained and the letter excluded.

Also, in Shaw v. State, Okl.Cr., 134 P.2d 999 (1943), this Court reiterated the general rule that “the hearsay rule applies as forcibly to statements in writing as it does to those verbally made.” Ferriman v. Turner, 99 Okl. 277, 227 P. 443, 446. In Shaw, supra, the state introduced into evidence, over the objection of defendant, certain books, pamphlets and other writings of which defendant was not the author, for the purpose of showing the principles of the communist party, allegedly advocated by defendant, where the books and writings were not properly authenticated. As well, in Shaw, supra, there is no evidence that the defendant sanctioned the matter set out in said writings.

Again, this Court pointedly held that to admit such evidence, neither authored nor sanctioned by the accused, was reversible error and does not come within any exceptions to the hearsay rule.

We next turn to appellant’s proposition six which is “the trial court erred in overruling defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence illegally obtained by the alleged consent of the defendant.” He bases this proposition of error primarily upon the fact that the “Miranda warning” given appellant by the officer before he, the appellant, signed the consent to search was substantially defective. The so-called “Miranda warning” read to appellant and signed by appellant reads as follows:

“Before we ask you any questions, you must understand your rights, You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1972 OK CR 176, 499 P.2d 450, 1972 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schorr-v-state-oklacrimapp-1972.