State v. Laplant

42 P.2d 158, 149 Or. 615, 1935 Ore. LEXIS 174
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 42 P.2d 158 (State v. Laplant) 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. Laplant, 42 P.2d 158, 149 Or. 615, 1935 Ore. LEXIS 174 (Or. 1935).

Opinion

*617 KELLY, J.

On the 16th day of August, 1933, Adrian L. French, a collector for the Piggly Wiggly Company, Multnomah county, Oregon, was held up at the point of a revolver and robbed as he was on the stairway leading from the loading zone to the platform of the warehouse of said company at 22d and Vaughn streets, Portland.

That morning he had collected the money and checks, of which he was robbed, for the Piggly Wiggly Company amounting in the aggregate to $1,573.50 of which approximately $900 was in money. In making his rounds for the purpose of collecting the same, he had used his own automobile. The robbery was effected by one man, who then compelled French to return to his automobile and deliver the keys thereto to a confederate, who had entered the car while the robbery was being perpetrated. The robbers drove off in French’s car. The car was abandoned on Irving street between 23d and 24th streets, Portland in front of the Clifton Apartments at 2356 N. W. Irving street.

Defendants Clarence L. Copley and Raymond L. LaPlant were jointly indicted for the crime. Separate trials were had.

The first assignment of error is based upon the action of the trial court in permitting Mr. C. Gr. Stevens, a police officer, called by the state, to give testimony over the objection of defendant, concerning certain articles found in apartment No. 31 of the Arbor Court Apartments at 4th and Columbia streets, Portland.

It is argued in defendant’s brief that these articles, consisting of two revolvers, an overcoat, a suede jacket, and a coil of rope, were found at a place with which appealing defendant had no connection and over which he had no control. While it is true that appealing defendant’s codefendant Clarence L. Copley and Copley’s *618 wife were living in those apartments, nevertheless there is evidence in the record to the effect that before the commission of the crime charged and only a few minutes afterward appealing defendant was in those apartments, that he had one of the firearms identified by officer Stevens in his possession and that later he commented upon the danger of being arrested by reason of wearing the suede jacket. We cannot agree with defendant in his contention that he had no connection with or control over the apartment where the Copleys lived and where the incriminating articles are said to have been found. We think that the record discloses that it was a rendezvous for both defendants herein.

Defendant cites the case of State v. Beebe, 66 Wash. 463 (120 P. 122), to this point. That was a case of homicide. In that case, the trial court permitted the state to introduce threats made by the codefendant not on trial in the absence of the defendant on trial and also statements made by the defendant not on trial in the nature of admissions of guilt. There the court say that there are no facts shown by the record indicating that appellant had anything to do with the homicide other than what occurred at the time of the shooting. In the case at bar, there is the testimony of Mrs. Muriel Webster to the effect that appealing defendant and his co-defendant were jointly engaged in a campaign of crime; that together they planned the crime charged herein and pursuant to such planning they jointly committed it; that in its commission one of the guns in question was used and one of the defendants was wearing a suede jacket. Also, that, after committing the crime, they repaired to the apartments in question and divided the loot. No reversible error was committed by permitting the officer to testify concerning the articles in question.

*619 The second assignment of error presents the question of the propriety of permitting officers Barker and Davis to testify that they found six shells in a pocket of a pair of trousers which was among appealing defendant’s effects and which were brought from his room at the Lorraine hotel, at 13th and Alder streets, Portland, to the police station after said defendant’s arrest. Officer Davis testified that when the defendant found that he was going to be held he asked if the officers were going up to the room, and, when advised that in all probability they were, defendant told the officer that his rent was up and asked the officer “to bring his (defendant’s) things in”.

When asked, on direct examination, whether he had authorized or directed the police or any one else to search his apartment, defendant testified that he had not. On cross-examination, defendant testified that his room rent was not due for 30 days; but he did not deny' that he had told officer Davis that his rent was up or that he had asked the officer to bring his things in. In this state of the record, it may well be said that defendant requested the officer to take charge of his personal effects which were in the room at the hotel. Such a request, if voluntarily made, constituted a waiver of the constitutional immunity against unlawful search and seizure.

If, however, error was committed in admitting the testimony concerning the six shells under discussion, we are unwilling, in the state of this record, to hold that it was reversible error. The identification of defendant LaPlant, by Mr. French, the gentleman, who was robbed, is direct and positive.

Henry Mundlin, a young man, positively identified defendant LaPlant as one of the two men who abandoned the automobile which was stolen when the rob *620 bery was committed. These men brought the automobile to a stop in front of the Clifton Apartments at 2356 Northwest Irving street where young Mundlin and his father were employed.

Mrs. A. McPherson, who at the time was one of the tenants at said Clifton Apartments, also identified defendant LaPlant as the person who got out of said automobile there. She saw but one person leave the car, and with commendable candor stated on cross-examination that there was a possibility that she could have been mistaken in her identification of the defendant on trial as being that person.

Besides the testimony of these identifying witnesses, there is the testimony of Mrs. Webster heretofore mentioned.

Opposed to the state’s showing, there is only the testimony of witnesses Bond, Waters and Williamson to the effect that at about 10:30 or 11 a. m. of the day of the crime defendant LaPlant purchased a suit of clothes at Rosenblatts Clothing store at Broadway and Washington streets, Portland, and later in the day'some alterations were made upon the trousers of said suit. Mr. Bond made the sale, Mr. Waters saw defendant in the store carrying the suit on a hanger and Mr. Williamson met the defendant when the sale was made and superintended the alterations. Mrs. Copley, the wife of appealing defendant’s codefendant, contradicted much of Mrs. Webster’s testimony and testified that at one time Mrs. Webster vividly described a winter which she claimed to have spent in Switzerland; that LaPlant then called Mrs. Webster a liar; and that afterward Mrs. Webster said to Mrs. Copley:

“* * * that she didn’t have to take that off of any man and that she didn’t intend for him to get away with it and that after she got some money from bim, *621

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Van Hooser
501 P.2d 78 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1972)
State v. O'BRIEN
496 P.2d 191 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1972)
State v. Carroll
444 P.2d 1006 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1968)
State v. Nichols
388 P.2d 739 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1964)
State v. Henderson
184 P.2d 392 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 P.2d 158, 149 Or. 615, 1935 Ore. LEXIS 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-laplant-or-1935.