State v. Harris

249 P. 1046, 119 Or. 422, 1926 Ore. LEXIS 244
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 14, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 249 P. 1046 (State v. Harris) 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. Harris, 249 P. 1046, 119 Or. 422, 1926 Ore. LEXIS 244 (Or. 1926).

Opinion

BEAN, J.

The circumstances of the case are about as follows:

On or about the third day of November, 1922, the residence of J. C. Wamsley in Yoncalla was entered and a large part of its furnishings were taken and hauled away in a truck. The tracks of the truck were plainly visible in the soft earth near the Wamsley residence. Harris and his associate had quit work at an apple orchard and presumably had left the Yoncalla vicinity a few days prior to the larceny. On the day before the night of the larceny, Harris was seen in a truck on the street of Yoncalla with a stranger. A few days after the larceny a deputy sheriff, accompanied by J. 0. Wamsley, searched the premises of defendant Floyd Harris on Lost Creek, about twenty miles west of the town of Oakland. The town of Oakland is about twenty miles south of Yoncalla. On the way over to Lost Creek the officers noticed the prints of automobile truck tires in the road and then came upon the truck that made the tracks. The tread of three of the tires on this *424 truck corresponded to the prints of the truck tires found at the Wamsley residence on the day after the larceny. The officers met Floyd Harris and the stranger on the road a short way below the Floyd Harris residence. At the request of the officers Harris returned to his home with them, being advised that they had a search-warrant to search his premises. While the -officers were searching the Harris house, the defendant fled from the house. They searched for him and found fresh footprints leading up a canyon away from the house. Following these tracks, one of the officers found two blankets, which were recognized by one Wilson, foreman of the apple orchard where Floyd Harris and the stranger had worked for three or four days, as the two blankets used by Harris and the stranger and which were also identified by Wamsley as his property. Mr. Wamsley who had stopped below on Lost Creek, came to the Floyd Harris home and there found a considerable portion of the property which had been stolen from his home. The sheriff, after the indictment was found, made search for Floyd Harris, but was unable to locate him for about two years, or until just a short time before the trial when he was apprehended.

On October 31, 1924, defendant filed a petition to return the personal property alleged to have been stolen and to suppress the evidence. We fail to find any record of the petition to suppress the evidence having been called to the attention of the court, or of any hearing thereon before the trial of the cause, which began on- February 17, 1925. The bill of exceptions is silent in regard to any such preliminary proceeding.

The defendant objected to a portion of the evidence relating to the property alleged to have been *425 stolen and moved to strike ont all of the testimony relating thereto, on the ground that the same was obtained pursuant to an unlawful search and seizure. At the close of the case the defendant, by his attorney, moved the court for a directed verdict in favor of defendant on the ground that the testimony was insufficient to be submitted to the jury. The motion was overruled and the defendant assigns such ruling as error.

The disposition of this motion depends upon the same question as that raised by a motion of the defendant to strike out all the testimony relating to articles of property, which the witness testified as being found at the house occupied by defendant, on the ground that the same was obtained pursuant to an unlawful search and contrary to the Constitution of the State of Oregon. Unless the motion to strike out should have been allowed, there was unquestionably testimony sufficient to sustain the indictment and to be submitted to the jury. Upon-the trial the defendant offered testimony in regard to the issuance of the search-warrant.

The rule invoked by the defendant is that announced in the case of Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383 (58 L. Ed. 652, Ann. Cas. 1915C, 1177, L. R. A. 1915B, 834, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 341, see, also, Rose’s U. S. Notes), which was mentioned in the case of State v. Laundy, 103 Or. 443, 493 (204 Pac. 958, 206 Pac. 290), to the effect that the rule of practice is that “an accused person whose property is taken by an officer of the federal government in violation of the fourth amendment, is entitled to an order of the court upon the filing of a timely petition directing the return of the unlawfully seized property” etc. This court has held that the relevancy of a given article as evidence is not affected by the circum *426 stance that it was wrongfully seized; and hence, inquiry will not ordinarily be made during the trial concerning a collateral issue: State v. McDaniel, 39 Or. 161 (65 Pac. 520); State v. Wilkins, 72 Or. 77, 80 (142 Pac. 589); State v. Ware, 79 Or. 367, 377 (154 Pac. 905, 155 Pac. 364).

Section 1854, Or. L., provides for the issuance of a search-warrant upon probable cause shown by affidavit naming or describing the person and describing the property and the place to be searched. Section 1855 directs that the magistrate must, before issuing a warrant, examine on oath the complainant and any witness he may produce, and take their depositions in writing, and cause them to be subscribed by the parties "making them.

Following this section of the Code is a form of search-warrant and directions for the execution thereof and the return to be made by the officer, etc. Section 1864, Or. L., enacts as follows:

“Grounds' of Warrant Controverted, Proceedings Thereupon. If the person from whose possession the property was taken controvert the grounds of issuing the warrant, the magistrate must proceed to examine the matter by taking testimony in relation thereto.”

Section 1865, Or. L., is as follows:

“Property, when to be restored. If it satisfactorily appear that the property taken is not the same as that described in the warrant, or that there is no probable cause for believing the existence of the grounds on which the warrant was issued, the magistrate must cause it to be restored to the person from whom it was taken.”

In order for the defendant to have the benefit of the petition, which he filed to suppress the evidence, *427 he should have obtained an order of the court ruling thereon before the trial of the cause.

This is an appellate court and it is the purpose to review the proceedings of the Circuit Court. Ve cannot review the correctness of an order not shown to have been made by the record. After a search-warrant has been issued upon probable cause shown by affidavit, if the defendant from whose possession property has been taken, desires to contest the grounds of issuing the warrant he should at a proper time appear before the magistrate who issued the warrant, and controvert the grounds upon which the warrant was issued or raise an issue in regard to the issuance thereof. As will be noticed by the statute it is the duty of the magistrate to examine the matter by taking testimony in relation thereto.

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Related

State v. Swain
510 P.2d 1341 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1973)
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503 P.2d 514 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1972)
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166 N.E. 444 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
249 P. 1046, 119 Or. 422, 1926 Ore. LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-harris-or-1926.