Taylor v. State

1973 OK CR 444, 516 P.2d 1351, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 681
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided November 28, 1973·No. No. F-73-103·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BRETT, Judge:

Appellant, James Lester Taylor, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court, Woodward County, case No. CRF-72-40, for the crime of Pandering in violation of 21 O.S.1971, § 1081. He was sentenced to serve a term of fifteen (15) years in the state penitentiary in accordance with a verdict of the jury and a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

At the trial, the State called four witnesses including the two women, Patricia Ann Watkins and Alberta Sue York, whom the defendant was' alleged in the Information to have caused, induced, persuaded and encouraged to come into the State of Oklahoma from without the State for the purpose of prostitution.

Miss Watkins testified that she and Miss York had come from Tennessee in the company of the defendant and Miss York’s brother, John Burgan. She stated that she had known the defendant for approximately one year in Tennessee and that during the final month of that period, she had voluntarily undergone a “training period” to become a prostitute. The precise “training” she received is not elucidated by the testimony except that she was told “how to check for v. d. and different things people might want.” (Tr. 127) In response to the prosecutor’s inquiry of who had been her teacher during this training, she responded “The questions — some of the questions and a lot of the answers was told to me by Alberta Sue, and when it came to the sex it was Jim.” (Tr. 127) She further testified that prior to leaving Tennessee, she and John Burgan, Alberta Sue and the defendant met at a certain motel in Pigeon Forge and discussed going out West to find a job. Miss Watkins stated that the idea of the party of four traveling west to find jobs originated with the defendant and that the type of job he was to obtain for her was working in a house of prostitution.

The party left Tennessee in two cars with Miss Watkins, according to her testimony, traveling with Alberta Sue for the initial stage of the journey. After driving non-stop to Oklahoma, the four found accommodations at a motel in Henrietta. Leaving the men at that motel, the two women drove to Oklahoma City where, Miss Watkins testified, they engaged in an act of prostitution with two truck drivers in a truck parked on the outskirts of the [1353]*1353city. She stated that this project was undertaken at the direction of the defendant and that he received the total proceeds of the transaction. The women rejoined the two men in Henrietta and the party traveled to Woodward, Oklahoma. In Woodward, they went to a certain hotel where the women waited in the lobby while the defendant talked to the manager.

Alberta Sue York testified that she had married the defendant just prior to their leaving the State of Tennessee. It was her testimony that the party intended only to drive through Oklahoma on their way to California via Colorado. She stated that she had driven to Oklahoma City with Patricia Watkins, but that the purpose of that trip was sight-seeing and shopping. She denied that she had engaged in an act of prostitution while on that side trip to Oklahoma City or any other time in Oklahoma. It was her testimony that her husband and herself were going to California to visit his children and his mother. She testified that Patricia Watkins had told them in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, that she wanted to go to California with them to find her father who had abandoned her mother because she would like to “spit in his face.” (Tr. 165) She stated that when they were in Woodward, her husband told her that he had obtained a job for her working in the bar of the hotel, but that she had not wanted to take that j ob.

Dee Martin testified that on November 13, 1972, she was the manager of the hotel in Woodward. She stated that on that date the defendant had telephoned her and that following that telephone conversation with him, she called the sheriff, A. C. Gas-ton. Thereafter, the defendant appeared at the hotel with the two women and inquired of Miss Martin if they could work as prostitutes at the hotel.

The Sheriff, A. C. Gaston, testified that on November 13, 1972, he had received a telephone call from Dee Martin advising him that the defendant, James Taylor, had offered two women for prostitution; that the car that defendant drove had a Tennessee license tag; and that he said that he had just come from Tennessee. As a result of that phone call, he arrested the defendant “for bringing women into the State of Oklahoma” and the two women as material witnesses.

The defendant, testifying in his own behalf, admitted that he had approached Dee Martin to inquire whether the two women might work as prostitutes in the hotel that she managed. He stated that he was traveling through Oklahoma on his way to California to visit his mother arid his children, but had gone to Woodward because Patricia Watkins insisted that she needed money and wanted to go to work. He stated that he believed that if anyone would put the girl to work as a prostitute, Dee Martin would. He testified that he was aware that Dee Martin, as manager of the hotel in question, employed prostitutes because she had a widespread reputation as one engaged in the business of offering women for prostitution. In addition, he related a previous experience which had provided him with direct personal knowledge that prostitutes were employed at that hotel.

Title 21 O.S.1971, § 1081, under which the defendant was convicted, makes criminal the act of procuring or inducing a woman to become or remain an inmate of a house of prostitution and the act of procuring a woman to come into or leave the State of Oklahoma. The statute sets forth numerous means and circumstances under which such procurement or inducement is criminal. Three of its provisions relate to procuring a woman to come into or to leave the State. They declare that a person is guilty of the crime of pandering who (1) “shall, by fraud, or artifice, or by duress of person or goods, or by abuse of any position of confidence or authority procure any female person ... to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution,” or, (2) “shall procure any female person, who has not previously practiced prostitution . . . to come into this State or to leave this State for the purpose of prostitution,” or [1354]*1354(3) “shall receive or give or agree to receive or give any money or thing of value for procuring or attempting to procure any female person ... to come into this State or leave this State for the purpose of prostitution . . . ”

The charging portion of the Information in the instant case states that the defendant, on November 13, 1972, in Woodward County, committed the crime of Pandering in that:

“Said defendant, James Lester Taylor, did then and there unlawfully, wilfully, knowingly and feloniously, cause, induce, persuade and encourage Alberta Sue York and Patricia Ann Watkins, two (2) female persons, to come into the State of Oklahoma from without the State of . Oklahoma, for the purpose of Prostitution.”

At the close of the evidence, the jury was instructed that:

“The statute under which the defendant is charged insofar as this case has been presented is as follows:

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Taylor v. State, 1973 OK CR 444, 516 P.2d 1351, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 681 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

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