Scott v. State

1970 OK CR 62, 471 P.2d 470, 1970 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 260
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 13, 1970
DocketNo. A-14944
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1970 OK CR 62 (Scott 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
Scott v. State, 1970 OK CR 62, 471 P.2d 470, 1970 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 260 (Okla. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge.

Jack Dempsey Scott, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged by Information in the District Court of Pottawatomie County, with the crime of Armed Robbery, Subsequent Offense; he was tried by a jury who found him guilty of Robbery with Firearms, Subsequent Offense, on the 23rd day of November, 1955, and left the punishment to be fixed by the court. Thereafter, the court sentenced the defendant to a term of sixty years imprisonment in the state penitentiary at Mc-Alester. From said judgment and sentence, a post conviction appeal has been granted by this Court.

■ The facts adduced on the trial reveal that around 3 :00 o’clock in the morning of August 15, 1955, Mr. L. H. Boylan, owner of the Shawnee Motel Courts on North Harrison Street, was awakened when the bell rang. He had a vacancy at the motel and went to answer the door. When he [472]*472unhooked the screen door, the defendant asked him if he had a vacant room and he replied that he did. Upon entering the room Mr. Boylan noticed that the defendant had a stocking pulled down over his face and he held a revolver in his hand; at which point the defendant told him he wanted his money and ordered Mr. Boylan to the back of the room and made him give him his billfold. After taking the money from the billfold, the defendant went through the boxes, the tables, drawers, etc. and made Mr. Boylan lay down on the studio cotich. All this time the defendant wore the stocking over his face, wore a pair of white flannel gloves, and kept the gun pointed at Boylan. Mrs. Boylan, in the meantime, had awakened and she could see what was going on and slipped out and called the police. The police happened to be six or seven blocks from the motel in the patrol car when they received the call and immediately proceeded to the motel. The three officers answering the call were Bill Chandler, Raymond Block and Bill Willis. Before these officers arrived at the motel, a Mr. and Mrs. Lyons from Oklahoma City, came to the motel and Mr. Lyons rang the bell, seeking a room. Mr. Lyons was admitted to the room at which point Mr. Boylan said, in the hearing of Mrs. Lyons, “Come on in, we’re having a holdup here.” and Mr. Lyons immediately raised his hands. The defendant asked Mr. Lyons for his money. Mr. Lyons pulled three one dollar bills from his pocket and tossed them on the floor and then handed him his pocketbook. The defendant then directed the two men to a closet. Mr. Lyons entered the closet, but there was not room for Mr. Boylan and Boyland went in the bathroom. The defendant closed the doors and tried to fasten them, but was unable to do so, and he then left.

Mrs. Lyons, in the meantime, started for help and about that time the patrol car drove up. The officers proceeded around to a window on the north side of the building, they looked through a crack in the air conditioner and they could see the defendant with the silk stocking over his face, holding a gun on these two men. Mr. Chandler tried to get around so that he could shoot the robber, but could not without endangering the people in the room; then all three officers stationed themselves so they could apprehend the defendant when he came from the building.

The defendant came out the front door, pulled the stocking off of his head, and Mr. Chandler told him to halt and drop the gun. When he did this, the defendant ran and as he rounded the corner of the building he ran into Bill Willis, who also told him to stop. The defendant started shooting at Mr. Willis and then proceeded on around the building, started to run between some buildings and Mr. Block told him to stop, but instead he kept shooting at the officers. Mr. Block then shot the defendant in the hand and the officers found him between the two buildings with the gun. He had been shot in the hand, he had a mask and a silk stocking and white gloves. The officers apprehended him. All the witnesses identified the robber as the defendant.

The defendant was taken to the hospital where, subsequently, Bill Holt, then Chief of Police, testified to a conversation he had with the defendant in said hospital, wherein he asked the defendant what had happened and the defendant related, “Well I didn’t intend to kill them.” When asked who he did not intend to kill, the defendant replied, “the officers.”

Arnold Crawford was a witness for defendant, and stated that he lived at Duncan and was employed by Halliburton and was a nephew of defendant and that prior to May, 1953, the defendant was normal; that in May, 1953, the defendant was injured in a car accident; and this witness was notified when the accident happened and rode with the defendant in an ambulance to Oklahoma City, and that part of defendant’s brains were exposed; that defendant was taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, and Dr. Lisle removed part of the brain. That after the injury to defendant he did not appear to be [473]*473normal and was nervous, and at times, would complain that someone, or people, were chasing him.

Minnie West, a witness for defendant, testified that she lived at Duncan and was a sister of the defendant and that after defendant received the head injury in 1953 he was not normal, and testified to strange actions by defendant after the head injury.

Gene Smith testified that he lived at Duncan; had known defendant well since 1930 and was a friend of his; that after the accident in which defendant was injured, the defendant’s actions were not normal and he apparently was having delusions that he was being chased and that one time when the defendant was out of his head he cut the witness on the shoulder with a knife.

George Brown testified that he lived at Comanche and had been a Deputy Sheriff for Stephens County and the defendant had been a whiskey wholesaler; that the defendant has an obvious scar on his head and has had it since the automobile accident in 1953; that the witness had known him before the accident and there was nothing wrong with him, and testified of strange actions by the defendant since he was injured. He further stated that at one time in November, 1953, the defendant had five to seven thousand dollars in his pockets and in a paper sack in bills and had run his car off in a ditch and did not appear to know what he was doing and was crazy.

The defendant, Jack Scott, was a witness and testified about his previous convictions, and said he did not remember anything about the alleged robbery in this case.

Dr. C. C. Young testified that he had examined the defendant and treated his wounded hand, and testified that the brain injury which the defendant had received was to the area called the cerebral cortex which controls memory loss, memory and personality and motion and that such injury would affect those things in the individual and would have brought about a change in personality.

The defendant was recalled and on further cross-examination was asked by the County Attorney as to whether he remembered about his conviction of Possession of Narcotics being upheld against him by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Defendant’s counsel objected. The defendant did not admit such conviction in his testimony, and this was not proved by the State.

In rebuttal the State called as a witness Jim Harrington, the Sheriff of Pottawatomie County, who testified that he had transported the defendant to the penitentiary for safekeeping and had a conversation with him and the defendant could hear and answer questions and converse in a normal conversation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1970 OK CR 62, 471 P.2d 470, 1970 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-state-oklacrimapp-1970.