Tice v. State

1955 OK CR 59, 283 P.2d 872, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 214
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 4, 1955
DocketA-12133
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 1955 OK CR 59 (Tice 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
Tice v. State, 1955 OK CR 59, 283 P.2d 872, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 214 (Okla. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

BRETT, Judge.

Plaintiff in Error, Jimmy Joe Tice, defendant below, was charged by information, in the Superior Court of Comanche County, Oklahoma, with having on or about January 17, 1954, committed the crime of burglary in the second degree, T. 21, § 1435, O.S.1951, a second and subsequent offense, T. 21, § 54, O.S.1951, after a prior conviction in the State of Texas. The crime charged herein was allegedly committed in the nighttime in said County and State, by breaking and entering the south door of a certain beer tavern, and talcing, stealing, and carrying away, with felonious intent, from said premises, lawful money, belonging to one R. C. Cross. The defendant was tried by a jury, convicted, his punishment fixed at 10 years in the penitentiary, judgment and sentence was entered accordingly; from which this appeal has been perfected.

The first contention advanced by the defendant is that:

“The Court committed reversible error in refusing to strike from the evidence State’s Exhibits 1, 2, and 3, being the indictment, judgment and sentence of the Texas Court; and in overruling the special demurrers relative to the second and subsequent felony at the close of the State’s evidence and at the close of all the evidence.”

The foregoing contention is predicated upon the proposition that, the State of Oklahoma offered in evidence, Exhibits 1, 2, and 3, being the indictment, judgment, sentence, and commitment made and entered on a charge of burglary in the District Court of Wichita County, Texas. In said documents, it was recited that the defendant had plead guilty to the crime of burglary in said District Court of the State of Texas, on or about April 28, 1947. It appears, at the trial of the within case, said Exhibits 1, 2, and 3, were properly identified, and Jimmy Joe Tice, the defendant herein, was identified as the defendant therein, all by competent evidence. In this connection, the defendant urges that the proof of certain essential elements of the prior conviction were lacking. It has been held in this jurisdiction that the best method of proving a prior conviction is made, first by offering in evidence the indictment, or information, judgment, sentence, and commitment. Proof of the fact should then be made that the defendant, in the case on trial, is one and the same person as the defendant in the prior conviction relied upon to establish the offense of a second or subsequent conviction. Further proof should be made that the judgment and conviction is final, and not appealed from, or if appealed from, that final disposition has been made of the' same, adverse to the defendant. If the defendant’s judgment and sentence has been suspended, that fact should be shown. Morse v. State, 63 Okl.Cr. 445, 77 P.2d 757; Spann v. State, 69 Okl.Cr. 369, 103 P.2d 389; Bird v. State, 85 Okl.Cr. 313, 188 P.2d 242. Defendant admits that Exhibits 1, 2, and 3, were admissible per se, but he asserts that there was no proof that the judgment and sentence was a final judgment.

In the case at bar, however, all the latter elements appear circumstantially. The indictment introduced into evidence is not questioned. The conviction therein was on a plea of guilty on the indictment for the burglary of a house, by breaking into and entering. The finding of defendant’s guilt by the court was entered thereon on May 13, 1947, without suspension thereof, or objection and exception thereto; and no appeal was perfected therefrom. In the judgment entered on May 13, 1947, it appears that Jimmy Joe Tice was sen *875 tenced to confinement in the penitentiary for a term of two years, and he was committed as follows:

“ * * * be delivered by the Sheriff of' Wichita County, ■ Texas, immediately to the Superintendent of Penitentiaries of the State of Texas, or other person legally authorized to receive such convicts, and the said Jimmy Joe Tice shall be confined in said penitentiaries for a term of Two (2) years in accordance with the provisions of the law governing the penitentiaries of said State. And the said Jimmy Joe Tice is remanded to jail until said Sheriff can obey the directions of this sentence.”

The foregoing' facts established prima fa-cie, the finality of the judgment and sentence. The defendant offered no evidence to contradict this prima facie showing. To the contrary, his father testified he had personal knowledge of defendant’s conviction, sentence, and incarceration in 1947.' We are therefore of the opinion that proof of the prior conviction in Wichita County, Texas, of a prior burglary, and its finality, was sufficiently established by circumstantial evidence to fulfill the requirements of the law.

Next, the defendant contends:

“No competent evidence was presented by the State of Oklahoma to establish that the acts committed in the foreign jurisdiction, and defined as an offense under the laws of the foreign jurisdiction, if committed in the State of Oklahoma • at the time they were committed in the foreign jurisdiction, constituted a crime under the laws of the State of Oklahoma punishable ' by imprisonment in the Penitentiary in the State of Oklahoma.”

In support of this contention, defendant concedes such proof of the Texas indictment was properly made, wherein it was alleged, in substance, as follows:

“* * * that Jimmy Joe Tice, hereinafter called defendant on or about the 28th., day of April A.D., 1947 and anterior- to the presentment of this indictment, in the County of Wichita and State of Texas,, did then and there unlawfully,' by force, -threats, and fraud, break and enter a house there situated and occupied and controlled by one V.- N. Mills hereinafter called owner, without the consent of said-owner, then and there with the intent of said defendant- fraudulently to take, steal and carry away from and out of said house the corporeal personal property then and there in said house belonging to said owner, * *

Thereafter, the State of Oklahoma introduced the finding of the guilt on the defendant’s plea of-' guilty to the foregoing charge, -and further introduced the judgment, sentence, and commitment. Defendant does not. question . the proof of the foregoing proceedings, or the validity of the documents by which it was established. He seeks to sustain this contention, by placing emphasis on the phrase, “by force, threats, and fraud”, under which guise he seeks to establish that the statutes of Oklahoma do -not define burglary in such terms. Pie seeks to establish that the charge in Texas was brought under Article 1389 of the Vernon’s Ann. Texas Penal Code, reading as follows, to-wit:

“The offense of burglary is constituted by entering- a house by force, threats or fraud, at night, or in like manner by entering a house at any time, either day or night, and remaining concealed therein, with the intent in either case of committing a felony or the crime of theft”,

while the Attorney General argues the action in Texas was brought under the provisions of Article 13%, Texas Penal Code. Neither of these arguments are controlling, for the reason, we are only concerned in determining whether the Texas conviction meets the requirements of Section 54, T. 21, O.S.1951, reading as follows:

“Every person who has been con■victed in any other Státe, government or country of an..offense which, if committed within this-State, would be punishable by. the laws of.

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK CR 59, 283 P.2d 872, 1955 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tice-v-state-oklacrimapp-1955.