State v. Lumley

1947 OK CR 25, 178 P.2d 629, 83 Okla. Crim. 430, 1947 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 182
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 5, 1947
DocketNo. A-10662.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1947 OK CR 25 (State v. Lumley) 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
State v. Lumley, 1947 OK CR 25, 178 P.2d 629, 83 Okla. Crim. 430, 1947 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 182 (Okla. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

BRETT, J.

This is an appeal on a reserved question of law from a judgment of the district court of Tulsa county, Okla., S. J. Clendinning, judge, sustaining the motions of the defendant in error to suppress the evidence.

Two criminal cases, No. 11831 and No. 11832, were consolidated since motions to suppress applied with equal force in both cases, and since the facts in each were identical. In both the cases, the defendant, Mrs. Lumley, was charged with grand larceny. In the first case, she was charged with having committed on September 16, 1944, the offense of grand larceny of one kimono at the value of $75 and one string of pearls of the value of $50, or the *432 total value of $125, the same being the property of Mrs. Paul Pearman. In the second case, she was charged with grand larceny of one Leica camera of the value of $200; said theft is alleged to have occurred on or about February 1, 1944, the same being the property of Major Vincent F. Mulford Jr.

After a preliminary trial she was bound over to answer in the district court. Informations were filed and demurrers thereto overruled and pleas of not guilty entered to the same. The defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence in each case, alleging an illegal search of the defendant’s baggage because the officer was without a search warrant so to do and for the further reason that the defendant was not engaged in the commission of a crime in the presence of the officer.

The motions to suppress came on for hearing on March 27, 1945. The trial court sustained the motions to suppress the evidence and from that judgment this appeal is taken on the reserved questions of law. Therefore, the real question herein involved is, “Is the evidence sufficient to uphold the trial court in sustaining the motions to suppress.”

In order to ascertain the true state of facts in this case, it is necessary to consider the evidence in its chronological order. It appears from the record that Mrs. Lumley, the defendant, lived at the home of Major Mulford where she was employed by Major and Mrs. Vincent F. Mulford Jr., of Tulsa, as governess and housekeeper. Great confidence was reposed in Mrs. Lumley for she was given a cheeking account at the bank in order to make purchases in connection with running the household. It appears further that the home of the Mulfords was undergoing some remodeling and redecoration and that for a period of three *433 or four weeks, Mrs. Lumley had moved over to the house of the Pearmans, where she likewise had full charge of the Pearmans’ home. During the first two or three days that Mrs. Lumley was a resident of the Pearmans’ home, Mrs. Pearman testified that she commenced missing things; that Mrs. Pearman asked Mrs. Lumley about the things that she had missed and Mrs. Lumley turned the blame on other help in the house. An objection was interposed to this testimony and the same was sustained, to which an exception was raised and an explanation was made that the purpose in offering this evidence was to show the facts that the officer had and upon which he subsequently acted. This evidence was clearly admissible. Thereafter, the Mulford family and Mrs. Lumley moved from the Pearman home back to the Mulford premises and on the next day, the defendant left for Mineral Wells, Tex., on a vacation. Mrs. Lumley testified that Mrs. Mulford suggested the vacation and that J. Garfield Buell, the father of Mrs. Mulford, assisted her in making reservations and purchased a round-trip ticket for her. Mr. Buell told her to go and since she was going only for the baths, she would not need much baggage, but when she left, she took two bags and a wardrobe trunk, which aroused his suspicions.

When the Mulfords moved from the Pearmans’ home, into their own home, five corrugated boxes containing personal property of the defendant were packed and moved to the new address. The record discloses that these boxes were labeled, “Personal Property of Mrs. Lumley.” A few small boxes remained in the Pearman home. Mrs. Pearman opened one of these small boxes labeled, “Personal Property of Mrs. Lumley.” The record discloses a state of facts, in relation thereto as testified to by Mr. Buell, as follows, to wit:

*434 (Cross-examination of Mr. Buell by Mr. Gallaher) Mr. Buell:
“Mrs. Lumley left Sunday night. Monday morning Mrs. Pearman called me up and said, ‘Mr. Buell, I hate to bother you but I wish you would come out here’, and I went out — and she said, ‘this matter is very, very, serious’,— and I went out there at the Pearmans’ house and Mrs. Pearman handed me a list of the stuff as long as your arm, and she said, ‘all this stuff is gone’. ” Q. I see. A. And she said nobody could have taken it except Mrs. Lumley. Q. Except Mrs. Lumley. A. And she said, ‘all of her things except three or four little containers have been taken over to Mrs. Mulford’s house’. Q. Yes. A. And she said, ‘I opened one of these little boxes and found my things in here, and here is another one of them’, and I said, — she said, ‘probably I had no right to, but it was tied up with a robe taken to Mrs. Lumley’s room at 1792 East 27th street, and I opened that’, and let’s see, I can give you the list of the stuff that came out of there— Q. I don’t care about the list. You have answered quite fully, Mr. Buell. * * * (Redirect examination by Mr. Hickman) * * * Q. What was that stuff that you found prior to her arrest, before the search warrant was issued? A. Well, this one box that was opened, a brown velvet hat, white silk hat, eyelett hat trimmed with silk violets, velvet coat hangers, and a pink satin gown, and five yards yellow suede and four yards red suede, a rhinestone bag — that came out of that box. Q. Now, that was whose stuff? A. That was Mrs. Pearman’s stuff in her own house that had been wrapped up and marked by Mrs. Lumley, the ‘Property of Mrs. E. L. Lumley’, to be taken to 1792 East 27th street.’ Q. In whose handwriting was that written? A. In Mrs. Lumley’s handwriting. Q. Now was that the only box you went through as that time? A. That was the only box I went through at any time. There was one red wool coat there I think that had given them the first idea. Q. That was in whose house? A. That was in the Pearmans’ house, that is, in the house where the Pearmans live, 1344 East 26th Street. Q. It had not yet been moved over? A. It *435 had not been moved over yet. He had not gotten around to it.”

In view of the foregoing circumstances, Mrs. Pear-man contacted Don Martindale, 'a sergeant of the Tulsa police force, and explained the situation fully to him; that thereafter, Martindale made application to H. E. Chambers, judge of the municipal court of the city of Tulsa, and obtained the issuance of a search warrant to search the room set apart for and occupied by Mrs. Lumley at 1792 East 27th street, the. Mulford home. The search warrant was issued by the said judge to make a search for two pairs of goldhandled scissors, needlepoint chair set, one lady’s brown straw hat, string of pearls, lingeries, beaded bag with oriental design, two wool scarfs, one green and one red. Thereafter, and on or about September 27, 1944, the search warrant was executed in the room set apart for Mrs. Lumley at the Mulford home and certain articles were identified at said time by Mrs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1947 OK CR 25, 178 P.2d 629, 83 Okla. Crim. 430, 1947 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lumley-oklacrimapp-1947.