Tobin v. State

1930 OK CR 469, 293 P. 575, 49 Okla. Crim. 265, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 227
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 15, 1930
DocketNo. A-7491.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1930 OK CR 469 (Tobin 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
Tobin v. State, 1930 OK CR 469, 293 P. 575, 49 Okla. Crim. 265, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 227 (Okla. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

DAVENPOBT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter for convenience referred to as the defendant, was charged *267 with the crime of murder; was tried and convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and his punishment fixed at 10 years in the state penitentiary. Motion for new trial was filed, considered, overruled, and exceptions saved, and the defendant has by case-made and petition in error attached appealed to this court.

The testimony on behalf of the state, in substance, is that the deceased Eoss Hurst was a game warden; that the defendant and his wife were living in Perry, Okla., on the 14th day of September, 1928; the deceased was acquainted with the defendant and his wife, and on the evening of the shooting came to the home of the defendant; that the wife of the defendant desired the deceased to take her to- her brother’s home between Perry and Pawnee; on the road the deceased was driving going to his home in Pawnee; when they arrived at the home of the brother near Morrison, Okla., the wife of the defendant and her brother had a quarrel for some cause not developed by the testimony and the wife requested the deceased to take her back to her home in Perry; they arrived at the Tobin home about midnight.

The testimony further shows that the defendant had no knowledge of where his wife had gone or the purpose of her going, and had no knowledge as to who was with her, if any one; when the defendant returned home about midnight his wife was not at home; soon thereafter an automobile drove up near his home and turned around and went away; from the defendant’s statement it was shown that he believed his wife was in the car. The testimony further shows that, when a second car drove up in the yard near the house of the defendant, the defendant took his shotgun and went out to the car and demanded of the driver that he get out of the car with his hands up;, that the deceased got out of the car with his hands up; *268 after the deceased got out of the car on the running board he threw his hand toward his hip pocket as though to get a gun, and the defendant stated he believed the deceased was going after a gun.

There is no controversy between the state and the defendant as to who fired the shot that took the life of Ross Hurst. The testimony shows that no gun was found in the possession of the deceased; that immediately after the deceased got out of the car the defendant fired the shot that took the life of the deceased. The testimony further tends to show that after the shot was fired the defendant left his residence, and about 4:30 a. m., came to the jail in an intoxicated condition and stated to the sheriff he had gone to a bootlegging joint and drank quite a lot of whisky. The officers who went to the home of the defendant shortly after the shooting claim they found whisky on the table and beer or home-brew in the house.

Edna Highfill, called as a witness by the state in rebuttal, and over the objections of the defendant, was permitted to testify that on the 14th day of September, 1928—

“I knew the defendant Joe Tobin and lived a neighbor to the Tobin family; our home was a short distance from the Tobin home, both of the houses face south; on the night of the 13th, or the morning of the 14th of September, 1928, I was at home with the children; at the time the difficulty took place I was in my bedroom; my bedroom was a southwest room; the Tobin house was on the west side of my house; there was a west window in my room and a south window; the first thing that attracted my attention was a car in front of the Tobin house a few minutes before the shooting took place; after the first car drove in when I first saw the defendant he was at the car and had a gun in his hand; I heard the gun snap and the car left going east; after the car left the defendant stepped back on his own porch and was doing *269 something to his gun; I could see part of his gun; there was a man come out of the house and asked what he was doing with the gun and the defendant replied, ‘I know what I am doing/ that was the only words he said; then the defendant said, ‘I want that man and I am going to get him too.’ The defendant put the gun in the car and left, going east; the man that was talking to him set down on the porch for a few minutes and then went up the road in the direction the cars had gone; later I saw the man that was on the porch and Mr. Tobin return; he made a circle and backed the car up on the west side of the house and got out; after the defendant came back to the porch he sat down on his heels, with his gun on his knees; after that a car came up to the house from the east; as soon as the car was in the yard Mr. Tobin jumped up from the porch and stopped it just as they were making the circle; the car was in the southwest corner of the yard near my house; when the defendant got up from the porch and started toward the car, he said, ‘Halt, stick them up. stick them up. Who' are you, let’s see who you are. Get out of that car and let’s see what you are made of.’ The car was facing the northeast, and the defendant was on the west side of the car from me; the next that happened a shot was fired, and I heard the defendant say, after the shot was fired, ‘Lay there, like the dirty dog you are.’ ”

On cross-examination the witness stated that in talking to- the officers and other persons the next morning she denied she knew anything about the trouble or saw any of it, and stated she did not tell anything she had seen until her husband returned home and she told him.

The defendant testified in his own behalf, stating in substance:

“I knew Boss Hurst in his life time slightly; on September 18th and 14th, 1928, I lived at 819 M street, Perry, Olda.; my house had four rooms and a bath, and fronted south; I slept in the southwest bedroom; there was a door from the porch to this bedroom; the southeast room was *270 what we called the sitting room, or front room; there was no door between the two south rooms; at the time of the trouble I was conducting the O. K. Automobile Wrecking Company, handling new parts and doing repair work; my family consisted of myself and wife who is about 36 years old; she is a sister of John Prentice; on Saturday afternoon before this happened late Wednesday night or Thursday morning I saw Ross Hurst at my house. In the middle of the afternoon Saturday I had occasion to go home for some tools, and Ross Hurst and my wife were in the front room; they wasn’t drinking then but it looked as though they had been, there was a bottle of liquor on the table and glasses; I did not say anything right then to Hurst, I went on to the back room, to where my tools were, and called to her (referring to his wife) to come back there; I asked Hurst if he had any business there; he said he did not know, and I told him, ‘Well, I know and 1 want you to get out of here and not let me catch you here any more.’ John Prentice stayed at my house the following Monday night; we had a conversation about Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brumley v. State
1947 OK CR 137 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Holt v. State
1947 OK CR 65 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Sweet v. State
1940 OK CR 142 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1940)
Norris v. State
1939 OK CR 153 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)
Saied v. State
1938 OK CR 99 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1938)
Rich v. State
1931 OK CR 328 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1930 OK CR 469, 293 P. 575, 49 Okla. Crim. 265, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tobin-v-state-oklacrimapp-1930.