State v. Tremblay

479 P.2d 507, 4 Or. App. 512, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 928
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJanuary 14, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 479 P.2d 507 (State v. Tremblay) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Tremblay, 479 P.2d 507, 4 Or. App. 512, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 928 (Or. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

LANGTRY, J.

This appeal is from a conviction of first degree murder. ORS 163.010(1). The defendant, Tina Lee *514 Tremblay, was jointly indicted with her husband, Robert Antonio Tremblay, Mark Steven Barton, and Raymond David Pister, for billing G-ary Eugene DeVillez on July 16, 1969. They were tried separately.

The actors in the killing, including the victim, appear to have been members and prospective members of motorcycle gangs that had moved into the Portland-Vaneouver area from California. Two days prior to the killing, decedent and others had gone to Vancouver, Washington, where Mark Barton and the Tremblays lived, and administered a severe beating to Barton. On the night of the killing, Barton and the Tremblays went to a Portland house where decedent had a room separate from several other occupants of the house. They took with them a borrowed .22 rifle. The defendant’s version of the affair was that she remained in their vehicle while Barton and her husband entered the house. An altercation commenced, Barton called to her, and she brought the rifle into the house. Her husband took it as a fight between Barton and the decedent was in progress and shot the decedent. She testified that the gun was unloaded when she took it into the house and she did not have bullets for it. After decedent was shot, her husband handed the gun back to her and it accidentally discharged, wounding her husband in the foot. Barton and the Tremblays returned to Vancouver.

The details of the defendant’s story are sharply contradicted by the testimony of others who were occupants of the house. For example, one testified that he first heard the commotion when the defendants pounded on the door. No one responded, “So they just walked in,” without permission. He then saw three people in the kitchen, whom he positively iden *515 tified as Mark Barton, Robert Tremblay (known as “Rat”), and the defendant. He said:

“One person had a rifle * * *. I think that she had a pistol or a knife, or some sort — some sort of sidearm.”

But he was not completely clear in his memory about the weapon the defendant had. He testified:

“* * * And then, not Mark but the other — the other guy, Rat, took a couple shots through the door-.”

This was the door to the decedent’s room. (Barton’s hat was later found in the room.) A fight ensued in the area of the hallway leading to decedent’s room while the witness took two women who were living in the house, and a dog, upstairs. He testified he returned :

“And he [Rat] came out [of the hallway leading to the victim’s bedroom] and got the rifle from her. And then I heard a few more shots and by that time, I was — I was outside * *

He testified that he believed “Rat” carried the rifle as the three left. With reference to the defendant, he testified:

“Well, she said something to the effect of keep your nose out of it, or it’s none of your business, you keep out of it and yon won’t get hurt, something to that effect. I don’t recall the exact words.”

The police investigation turned up two empty .22 shell casings in the hallway outside decedent’s room, and a similar empty shell casing at the victim’s feet in the kitchen where he died. One bullet hole was found in the door of the victim’s bedroom and inside his room were fragments of a bullet which had struck a box of motorcycle parts.

*516 This defendant contends that the rifle was present only to scare the victim. Testimony of the witness related above is more than ample for the jury to have made valid inferences to the contrary. Further, the jury could conclude from cogent direct and circumstantial evidence that the three intruders first broke and entered the house, and, second, broke and entered the victim’s dwelling room therein.

This defendant’s husband was first tried separately and convicted of second degree murder.

The defendant assigns as error (1) that a felony-murder instruction based on burglary should not have been given; (2) receiving five photographs of the corpse; (3) that certain requested instructions of the defendant should not have been rejected; (4) that parts of the state’s argument were inflammatory and prejudicial.

.'(1.) ORS 163.010 defines first degree murder:

“(1) Any person who purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated malice, or in the commission of or attempt to commit rape, arson, robbery or burglary, kills another, is guilty of murder in the first degree.”

ORS 164.230 defines burglary:

“Any person who breaks and enters any dwelling house with intent to commit a crime therein, or having entered with such intent, breaks a/ny dwelling house, or is armed with a dangerous weapon therein, or assaults any person lawfully therein, is guilty of burglary * * (Emphasis supplied.)

The court instructed the jury that if it found that the defendant or' her accomplices caused the death as specified in the indictment while committing or *517 attempting to commit the crime of burglary in a dwelling, it was first degree murder. The court properly instructed on the elements of burglary. The defendant contends that the assault which was necessarily coupled with the breaking and entering to make up burglary merged with the ultimate ldlling, and that, therefore, the burglary premise cannot apply. Defendant relies upon State v. Branch, 244 Or 97, 415 P2d 766 (1966), in which the Oregon Supreme Court held that an attempt to predicate a second' degree murder charge upon a homicide which occurred when the defendant was perpetrating an assault upon the victim could not stand. Defendant quotes:

“In order to preserve the distinctions between the degrees of murder and manslaughter, courts in other states have held that where the only felony committed (apart from the murder itself) was the assault upon the victim which resulted in the death of the victim, the assault merged with the killing and could not be relied upon by the state as an ingredient of a ‘felony murder’ * * 244 Or at 100.

In Branch the only other crime was the assault itself. Burglary consists of two things- — one, breaking and entering a dwelling house; two, intent to commit a crime therein. The crime which a burglar usually intends to commit after he breaks into a dwelling is larceny. Defendant concedes her argument could not apply in that situation. We think her argument fails because it is obvious that the legislature intended to give added protection to persons who are within a dwelling place.

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Bluebook (online)
479 P.2d 507, 4 Or. App. 512, 1971 Ore. App. LEXIS 928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tremblay-orctapp-1971.