Stephens v. Parr

1979 OK CR 1, 589 P.2d 1069, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 184
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 10, 1979
DocketNo. P-78-176
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1979 OK CR 1 (Stephens v. Parr) 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
Stephens v. Parr, 1979 OK CR 1, 589 P.2d 1069, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 184 (Okla. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

ORDER BY OPINION

BRETT, Judge:

This is an original proceeding in which petitioner is seeking to have this Court issue the alternative writ of prohibition or mandamus to prohibit the District Court of Oklahoma County from placing him on trial in Oklahoma County District Court Case No. CRF-78-759. This Court entered a Rule to Show Cause set for hearing on May 9, 1978, at 1:30 p. m. At that hearing, petitioner was represented by Mr. Ralph Samara of Oklahoma City and the respondents were represented by Mr. James P. Laurence, Assistant District Attorney for Oklahoma County. The Court assumed jurisdiction.

On January 10, 1978, an information was filed in the Oklahoma County District Court, Case No. CRF-78-101, in which petitioner was charged with the offense of Unlawful Possession of Controlled and Dangerous Drugs With Intent to Distribute, Cocaine, under the provisions of 63 O.S. Supp.1975, § 2-401(B), ¶ 1. The preliminary hearing was conducted on February 6, 1978, at which time upon direction of the magistrate, the State amended the information to charge petitioner with Attempted Sale or Distribution of a Controlled Drug, Phencyclidine (PCP). At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, petitioner was bound over to stand trial on the amended charge.

On February 24, 1978, prior to arraignment, a motion to quash the amended information was filed before the Honorable Stewart Hunter, District Judge for Oklahoma County, who, after conducting a hearing, sustained petitioner’s motion, dismissed the information, discharged the defendant, and exonerated the petitioner’s bail bond. On the same day, the District Attorney refiled the information, setting forth the same facts but under a new case number CRF-78-759.

On March 23, 1978, the examining magistrate, Special Judge William M. Allen, sustained petitioner’s motion to quash the information and dismissed Case No. CRF-78-759, for the reason that the prosecution lacked authority to file and prosecute the information. At that hearing, the District Attorney served notice of intention to appeal from the adverse ruling of the magistrate under the provisions of this Court’s Rule Six.

On April 7, 1978, District Judge Jack R. Parr conducted a hearing on the District Attorney’s Rule Six appeal and reversed and vacated the order of Special Judge William M. Allen and remanded the information to the same magistrate for further preliminary examination. Thereafter, petitioner filed his application and petition in this Court seeking issuance of the alternative writ of prohibition or mandamus.

The question we must consider in this matter is whether the District Attorney’s failure to appeal Judge Hunter’s order sustaining petitioner’s motion to quash precluded him from further prosecuting the case.

Title 22 O.S.1971, § 492, provides:

“If the defendant do not require time, as provided in the last section, or if he do, then on the next day, or at such further day as the court may have allowed him, he may, in answer to the arraignment, either move the court to set aside the indictment, or information or may demur or plead thereto.”

Title 22 O.S.1971, §§ 493-500, pertain to the setting aside of an indictment or information and the hearing that must be provided when a motion to set aside or quash the indictment or information is properly filed. Section 499 of 22 O.S.1971, provides:

“If the motion [motion to set aside] be granted the court must order that the defendant, if in custody, be discharged therefrom, or if admitted to bail, that his bail be exonerated, or if he have deposited money instead of bail, that the money be refunded to him unless it direct that [1071]*1071the case be resubmitted to the same or another grand jury.” (Emphasis added)

Section 500 provides:

“If the court direct that the case be resubmitted, the defendant, if already in custody, must so remain, unless he be admitted to bail; or if already admitted to bail, or money have been deposited instead thereof, the bail or money is answerable for the appearance of the defendant to answer a new indictment or information; and unless a new indictment or information is found before the next grand jury of the county is discharged, the court must, on the discharge of such grand jury, make the order prescribed in the preceding section.”

Section 501 then provides:

“An order to set aside an indictment or information as provided in this article is no bar to a further prosecution for the same offense.”

Section 501 therefore refers to an order setting aside an indictment or information for the reasons set forth in Section 493.

Section 502 provides, that the only pleadings permissible to the defendant are a demurrer or a plea. Section 503 provides that pleas and demurrers must be made in open court, and Sections 504-507 set out the procedure for demurring to the indictment or information. Section 508, provides:

“If the demurrer is sustained, the judgment is final upon the indictment or information demurred to, and is a bar to another prosecution for the same offense, unless the court, being of opinion that the objection on which the demurrer is sustained may be avoided in a new indictment or information, direct the case to be resubmitted to the same or another grand jury, or that a new information be filed.”

Clearly, section 508 refers to sustaining a demurrer to a felony offense after a preliminary examination has been conducted, and the defendant has been bound over to stand trial.

In the instant matter, we do not have petitioner’s motion to quash before this Court. Nor are we concerned with whether the Court’s order sustaining petitioner’s motion was proper. Had the District Attorney followed the provision of the statutes which provide the means and manner for the State to appeal a final order of the trial court, that question would have been resolved by this Court. However, no appeal was attempted on the part of the State. Judge Hunter’s order dismissing Case No. CRF-78-101 reads as follows:

“NOW, on this 24th day of February, 1978, this matter comes on to be heard upon the Defendant’s Motion to Quash amended information, filed of record on February 21, 1978, and the Court having read and examined the transcript of the Preliminary Hearing in this cause and being fully advised in the premises, and upon consideration thereof, finds and orders that said Motion to Quash Amended Information is sustained, case dismissed and Defendant’s appearance bond exonerated.”

We therefore conclude that petitioner’s motion was in the nature of a demurrer under Section 504, which was sustained by the trial court. Therefore, that order became a final order from which the State should have appealed.

Absent statutory authority, the State has no right to appeal in criminal cases. Title 22 O.S. 1971, § 1053, provides that:

“Appeals to the Criminal Court of Appeals may be taken by the State in the following cases and no other:
1. Upon judgment for the defendant on quashing or setting aside an indictment or information.
2. Upon an order of the court arresting the judgment.
3. Upon a question reserved by the State.”

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Related

Still v. Dalton
1981 OK CR 6 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1981)
State v. Truesdell
1980 OK CR 97 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1979 OK CR 1, 589 P.2d 1069, 1979 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stephens-v-parr-oklacrimapp-1979.