Tucker v. State

1949 OK CR 33, 204 P.2d 540, 89 Okla. Crim. 30, 1949 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 168
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 23, 1949
DocketNo. A-11136.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1949 OK CR 33 (Tucker 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
Tucker v. State, 1949 OK CR 33, 204 P.2d 540, 89 Okla. Crim. 30, 1949 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 168 (Okla. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

BRETT, J.

The plaintiff in error, Noah Tucker, defendant below, was charged by information, tried and convicted of the crime of robbery of Harris Condreay in Tulsa county, Okla., on the 26th day of January, 1948, by means of force and fear by hse of firearms, to wit, a pistol, and was sentenced to 25 years in the penitentiary.

Briefly, the record discloses that Harris Condreay, a filling station attendant employed by John Marlar, was operating a filling station at Third and Denver in Tulsa, Okla. On the night of January 26, 1948, while said Con-dreay was alone in attendance at the said station, about 2:30 a.m., the defendant Noah Tucker came in to use the restroom, and remarked it was awfully cold. He remained in the restroom only a few minutes and walked out, again mentioning the fact it was cold. Immediately thereafter Condreay heard a car door slam and got up and walked to the door to see if a car was going to pull out on either side of the station but he saw no car there and did not look behind the station. He started to walk to the east door, and the car pulled out into the east drive. Richard Johnson, who participated in the robbery, got out *32 on the left-hand side of the car, on the driver’s side. Con-dreay asked him what he wanted, and he told him to put in three gallons of gas, which he did. Johnson then asked him where the restroom was, and he told him inside. Henry Zot Deck, another participant in the robbery, had gotten out on the right-hand side of the car and walked inside of the station to the restroom. Condreay said that he noticed another man in the car but did not pay any attention, and did not recognize who it was. Johnson and Deck walked out of the restroom as Condreay was leaning up against the cash register. Johnson walked up to Con-dreay’s side and had his left hand in his overcoat pocket all of the time; he stuck his hand in Condreay’s left side and told him to get in there and pushed and pulled him into the restroom, going into his pockets and taking everything. From Condreay’s pockets he took five or six dollars and asked where the rest of the money was and Condreay told him it was in the cash register and he wanted to know how to get into the cash register. Condreay said he would have to use the crank and Johnson asked where it was. Condreay took the crank from his hip pocket and handed it to Deck who opened the cash register and took $56 therefrom. Johnson then asked if the door to the restroom could be locked. Condreay told him “No, not from the outside”, whereupon Johnson pulled the door to and told Condreay to stay “in there until we get gone”. Condreay said he stayed until the ’38 Plymouth coupe pulled out of the driveway, in which he said the men were riding, and thereafter he reported the robbery to the police station. He was unable to identify the defendant as the third man who remained in the car, and stated positively he did not know who the man was.

The record further discloses that Officers Walter Turner and Jim Cleveland of the Tulsa police force earlier *33 in the night had received a radio flash on their 2-way radio about a 1939 Plymouth coupe that had been stolen that night, and some time thereafter they received another flash that there had been a robbery of the Wilcox Filling Station at Third and Denver with a description of the automobile. The two descriptions tallied and they began a search. Shortly thereafter they drove out on the Sand Springs road hunting for the automobile. On the Sand Springs road they spotted the car, a ’39 model coupe, dirty color and a commercial tag on it as described in the flash. They drove within ten or fifteen feet of the back of the car and opened their siren whereupon the automobile being signalled drove faster. The occupants of the car began to get excited and tried to get it to go faster. It would not take them like they wanted to go, so one man jumped out and got away. The officers said they shot twice in the air, then they shot into the back of the car and. the two remaining occupants pulled over to a stop and the defendant Noah Tucker and Richard Johnson got out of the car. Thereafter Johnson and Tucker were returned to the filling station. Johnson was identified as the man who shoved him in the restroom and Noah Tucker was identified not as a participant in the robbery but as the man who came into the restroom immediately before. The next morning they picked up Henry Zot Deck. He was brought back to the filling station and identified by Condreay as being one of the men who participated in the robbery.

The record further discloses that Detectives Fisher and Smith and John Marlar talked to the defendant at the police station; that the defendant admitted that he was with the other two men Johnson and Deck; that they had been together all night and had been riding in a taxi until they picked up the Plymouth coupe on *34 South Peoria about the 500 block in Tulsa, and drove around awhile and into the Wilcox Service Station at Third and Denver. The record further discloses that he told them that he got out and went to use the restroom and sat in the car while the other boys robbed the place. He said he went inside to see what was going on and who all was in there, that thereafter he went and got back in the car, and Johnson and Deck drove the car around the front of the filling: station, and he sat in the car while the station was robbed; that thereafter they drove out on the Sand Springs road where they were apprehended by the officers; that he told them Deck jumped out of the car and took the money and the pistol with him.

The record further discloses that at the time defendant Tucker, Johnson and Deck were arrested they had been drinking, in fact, they were drunk.

The competency of the foregoing evidence is unquestioned.

The day after the robbery was committed a pistol was found on the Sand Springs road by a police officer. There was no evidence tending to connect defendant, Tucker, with this pistol, and no evidence introduced to show this pistol was used in the robbery. This evidence was permitted to go to the jury over the defendant’s objection.

The record discloses the state was permitted to offer evidence through officer Fisher in relation to the conversation he had with defendant Tucker as follows:

“Q. Did you have any other conversation with him with reference to how long he had been with these boys; how long he knew them or anything? A. That is right, we did, we asked him how long he had known the boys *35 and lie said several years, because they had been in the penitentiary at McAlester— Mr. Lucas: Just a minute. A. And Granite together. Mr. Lucas: Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial. He may tell how long he had known them. The Court: Objection overruled. Mr. Lucas: Exception. Q. (By Mr. Devine) : Just repeat that answer. A. He said he had known them several years because they had been in McAlester and Granite Penitentiary together.”

The defendant’s objection to this evidence was overruled. In this connection the defendant at no time took the stand or put his character in issue. Upon this state of the record the case was permitted to go to the jury.

The defendant contends that the evidence was wholly insufficient to support the verdict. With this contention we cannot agree.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1949 OK CR 33, 204 P.2d 540, 89 Okla. Crim. 30, 1949 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tucker-v-state-oklacrimapp-1949.