Story v. State

1969 OK CR 112, 452 P.2d 822, 1969 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 407
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 26, 1969
DocketA-14380
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1969 OK CR 112 (Story v. State) 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
Story v. State, 1969 OK CR 112, 452 P.2d 822, 1969 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 407 (Okla. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

NIX, Judge.

Plaintiff in error, Reed Story, Jr., hereinafter referred to as the defendant, was *824 charged by information in the District Court of Oklahoma County with the crime of Burglary First Degree. He was tried by a jury, found guilty and sentenced to eight years in the penitentiary. From that judgment and sentence he has appealed to this Court.

Defendant has alleged several assignments of error, but it will be necessary only to discuss two questions in order to dispose of this appeal. These questions concern the admissibility of defendant’s confession; and the introduction of, and the testimony concerning one of the items taken in the burglary, to wit: a wrist watch.

Briefly stated, the evidence indicates that approximately seventeen days after commission of the burglary, the Del City Police Department was notified that the Ada Police Department had a boy in jail who^ had admitted getting into a house in Del City. In response to this information, two Del City Policemen, Officers Cain and Huff, went to Ada where they first interrogated another boy, and then the defendant. Officer Cain, after finding out the defendant was 17 years of age, testified as follows:

“I asked him if his parents knew where he was .at and he said they didn’t and I asked him if they wanted to call his parents and he said that he didn’t want his parents to know where he was at. I said that he didn’t have to tell us anything and anything that he did say may and could be used against him and he had a right to obtain a lawyer which he declined.”

The officer’s testimony does not indicate any more detailed admonitions.

After this advising of rights and further questioning regarding the burglary, the defendant wrote out and signed a confession in the absence of parent, guardian, or attorney. This confession was admitted into evidence at defendant’s trial over objection of defense counsel, Mr. Andrew Hamilton, who stated:

“Yes, Your Honor, we again object. On the basis that it’s not a proper confession; that the man was not advised of his rights under the statutory and case decisions of Oklahoma and the United States of America and that the confession was not a voluntary confession and was illegally obtained from a minor 17 years of age without the presence of his parents or an attorney.”

The United States Supreme Court, in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), held that prior to any in-custody police questioning, the accused must be warned in clear and unequivocal terms (1) that he has a right to remain silent; (2) that any statement that he does make may be used as evidence against him; (3) that he has a right to consult with, and have present prior to and during interrogation, an attorney, either retained or .appointed; and, (4) that if he cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning, if he so desires.

Each of these four warnings must be given and it is not sufficient to give some, but not all, of the warnings. The result of any questioning which is not in compliance with these requirements would be inadmissible in a trial. See, 10 A.L.R.3rd, at 1060. In particular, the Supreme Court said:

“In order fully to apprise a person interrogated of the extent of his rights under this system then, it is necessary to warn him not only that he has the right to consult' with an attorney, but also that if he is indigent a lawyer will be appointed to represent him. Without this additional warning, the admonition of the right to consult with counsel would often be understood as meaning only that he can consult with a lawyer if he has one or has the funds to obtain one.” 384 U.S., at 473, 86 S.Ct. at 1627.

A search of the record in the instant case fails to reveal that the interrogating officers advised the defendant that if he could not afford an attorney, one would be appointed for him prior to any *825 questioning, if he so desired. Not only did the interrogators fail to fully comply with the Miranda requirements in the instant case, but it appears somewhat doubtful that the defendant, who the record reveals was age 17 and had only completed the seventh grade in school, gave a knowing and intelligent waiver of his rights under Miranda. It is questionable that a 17 year old boy of sub-normal education could intelligently comprehend the effect of his waiver after the inadequate warning given herein in the absence of either a parent, guardian, or an attorney.

Prior to the Miranda decision, this Court had held in Olivera v. State, Okl.Cr., 354 P.2d 792 (1960) in the second syllabus, as follows:

“Ordinarily confessions of defendants 17 and 18 years of age, accused of burglary, are inadmissible in evidence where there is absence of parent or guardian, or counsel, since such defendants should be deemed incapable of waiving the constitutional and statutory safeguards provided by law in a criminal case, unless it appears beyond a reasonable doubt that the minor defendants fully understood the effect and the results growing out of such waiver.”

However, in the third paragraph of its syllabus in Olivera, supra, this Court held:

“Where 17 and 18 year old defendants’ convictions are not dependent for affirm-’ anee upon confessions, but said convictions are amply supported by conclusive evidence of guilt, though the trial court may possibly have erred in admitting the confession in evidence, under such conditions the admission of the same in evidence is harmless.”

Thus, even if the confession was improper in the instant case, it is possible that, after a review of the record, if the conviction was amply supported by conclusive evidence of guilt, that the admission of the confession might not constitute reversible error, prior to the United States Supreme Court decision m Miranda, supra. However, the requirements of Miranda became effective to those trials begun after June 13, 1966, and are applicable in the instant case. Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966).

Accordingly, we conclude that, under the circumstances, admitting the confession was not only improper, but error.

Aside from the-confession, there is also a serious question as to the lawfulness of the search which resulted in evidence which was admitted at the trial.

Officer Cain testified that the defendant, during his interrogation, admitted taking a wrist watch from the scene of the burglary, and that the watch could be found at his residence in Cleveland County, which was the home of his parents, laying on a ledge above the kitchen sink. As a result of this information, gained from the questioning of defendant on February 22, 1966, Officers Cain and Huff went to the residence on February 25,1966, without a search warrant and found the house locked with no one in the home. Officer Cain then testified that they stood on a saw-horse or scaffold .and looked in a window, where they could see the watch on a ledge.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1969 OK CR 112, 452 P.2d 822, 1969 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 407, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/story-v-state-oklacrimapp-1969.