State v. Atkins

446 P.2d 660, 251 Or. 485, 1968 Ore. LEXIS 482
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 8, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 446 P.2d 660 (State v. Atkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Atkins, 446 P.2d 660, 251 Or. 485, 1968 Ore. LEXIS 482 (Or. 1968).

Opinions

RODMAN, J.

(Pro Tempore).

The defendant appeals from his conviction of first degree murder of Lynn Michael Wilson. Wilson, the swing-shift attendant at the B & B Texaco station in Portland, had been working alone the evening of October 28, 1965. At 11:30 p.m., the station was found open, but unattended. Two new tires were missing and $173 had been taken from the cash register. The next day Wilson’s body was found beside a road a few miles from the station. He had been shot four times in the back of the head and neck and his hands were tied behind him. There was no money on the body.

In March 1966, the defendant and one Lawrence G. McManis were jointly indicted on a charge of first degree murder of Wilson. The defendant was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. His only assignment of error is the receipt in evidence [487]*487of admissions made by him to police officers. He claims that in connection with the eliciting of these admissions he was denied the right to have his counsel present, was not advised of his constitutional rights and his statements were the product of coercion.

The background facts necessary to understand the defendant’s contentions are complicated and bizarre. The defendant was the father of an infant child born of one Eose Grant. Tom Sipes was the brother of Miss Grant. Through the defendant’s association with Miss Grant, he had known Sipes for several years.

Several weeks before the murder, the defendant, Eose Grant, Tom Sipes and Sandra Williams were arrested by Portland city police and charged with an “after hours” ordinance violation. Some time before, a complaint had been filed against these four charging them with armed robbery, but they had not been previously apprehended. The women had lured two men named Snyder and Young from a Portland night club to a secluded place; there Sipes and Atkins robbed them at gunpoint. At a lineup conducted in the jail the victims of the armed robbery identified the two women; however, they were unable to identify the defendant or Sipes. The defendant was sentenced to ten days in jail on the ordinance violation, Sipes was held in custody on another charge pending against him, and Miss Grant and Miss Williams were detained on the armed robbery charge. This crime will be referred to as the Young-Snyder armed robbery hereafter. By October 28th, the date of the Wilson murder, the defendant had been released from custody; the others remained in jail.

In the early evening of October 28th, the defendant went to the home of Mrs. Laverne Grant, the mother of both Miss Grant and Sipes, and asked her [488]*488to help him “pull a job” that night, because he needed money. Mrs. Grant testified that the defendant expressed bitterness over the lineup identification of Eose Grant, and said that if he committed a crime again he would “blow their brains out.” Shortly after the murder, the defendant, his father, and Lawrence G. McManis drove to Georgia. Before they left, the defendant put two new tires on the car used for the trip. There was other scientific and testimonial evidence tending to prove that Atkins and McManis were the murderers which it is unnecessary to set forth in this opinion.

At the trial Multnomah County detectives Earl Son and Jack Elliott testified that the defendant admitted his presence at the robbery and murder, but claimed that it was the codefendant McManis who forced Wilson into the car and subsequently shot him. They also testified that the defendant made admissions concerning the tires stolen from the service station. It is these admissions which the defendant claims were erroneously received.

The trial court held an in camera hearing to determine the admissibility of the defendant’s statements. The court found that the defendant had been fully advised of his constitutional rights, had waived the right to have his attorney present when he gave the statements, and had made the statements freely and voluntarily.

The evidence is clear that on the two occasions he made admissions he was fully advised of his constitutional rights by the officers questioning him. On the first occasion, he was also advised of his rights by his attorney immediately prior to the questioning. Earlier he had been advised of these rights by another police officer and by a district judge. There can [489]*489be no doubt that he was advised of and fully understood his rights in connection with the making of the incriminating statements.

The essence of the defendant’s other contentions is that the police placed Sipes in the defendant’s cell block with instructions to obtain a confession to the Wilson murder from the defendant; that Sipes struck the defendant and threatened to kill him unless he confessed to that crime, and that because of his fear of Sipes he falsely confessed to participation in the murder; he also contends that he was questioned in the absence of his attorney immediately after the attorney had demanded the right to be present. In addition to the facts recited above the following evidence was produced at the in camera hearing:

On November 10, 1965, the defendant was arrested and arraigned on the Young-Snyder armed robbery charge. He remained in jail at all times thereafter through the month of January 1966. Sipes likewise remained in jail through this period.

On December 21, 1965, the defendant appeared before the judge of a different department of the Multnomah County circuit court on the Young-Snyder armed robbery charge and was permitted to enter a plea of guilty to the included offense of unarmed robbery by putting in fear. On December 22nd, the defendant again appeared in court and asked to be permitted to withdraw his plea of guilty. His attorney, George Tamblyn, advised the court that he had mistakenly told his client that he had the right to withdraw his guilty plea if he later changed his mind. On this basis, the court permitted the withdrawal of the guilty plea made the day before. After the withdrawal, the defendant told the court that, in fact, he wished to enter a guilty plea but he feared to do so because [490]*490of the threat of physical retaliation from his codefendant, Sipes, when Sipes learned that he had plead guilty. The judge acknowledged that the chief criminal deputy of the Multnomah County district attorney’s office had previously discussed this problem with him. Sipes’s trial on the armed robbery charge had been set down for January 14, 1966.

After a discussion between the judge, the deputy district attorney in court, and the defendant’s attorney, an understanding was reached that Atkins would orally enter his plea of guilty, but that no journal entry or other public record would be made of the plea until after Sipes had been tried. On this basis, the defendant again entered a plea of guilty and a presentence report was ordered.

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State v. Atkins
446 P.2d 660 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
446 P.2d 660, 251 Or. 485, 1968 Ore. LEXIS 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-atkins-or-1968.