Van Brunt v. State

1937 OK CR 117, 70 P.2d 1103, 62 Okla. Crim. 188, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 30, 1937
DocketNo. A-9186.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1937 OK CR 117 (Van Brunt 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
Van Brunt v. State, 1937 OK CR 117, 70 P.2d 1103, 62 Okla. Crim. 188, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 112 (Okla. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, P. J.

The plaintiff in error, the defendant in the trial court, was by information charged with the crime of murder, was tried, convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentenced to be confined in the state penitentiary for a period of ten years, and by petition in error, with case-made attached, has appealed to this court.

The testimony on behalf of the state in substance shows the Cole and Van Brunt families lived in the same block on Timmons street, in the city of Seminole, Seminole county, Okla. For some time prior to the date of the killing, April 30, 1935, there had been trouble between the families; on the day of the killing, about an hour and a half before the trouble, as shown by the defendant’s testimony, the Cole and Van Brunt families had a row, and the Cole family, not including the deceased or the father of the deceased, went to the Van Brunt house *190 and were quarreling and abusing the defendant, and finally became so boisterous the officers were sent for and the defendant in this case went to' the office of the justice of the peace, but no charges were filed against the Coles. It is uncontradicted by both the state and the defendant that the families were unfriendly.

After the defendant returned to his home, as he states, about an hour and a half thereafter, Frank Cole, the father of Cecil Cole, the deceased, came home and received information that there had been another family row, and that the defendant in this case had been abusive and had taken part in the row. He saw the defendant coming across the street toward his home and Frank Cole went out to1 where the defendant was:, and states he spoke to the defendant and told him he was getting tired of his abusing and annoying his family.

The defendant says Frank Cole took hold of his hands and then let loose of one of them and struck him, and defendant ran to his home. Frank Cole says he did not strike him with anything,, but did stop the defendant and told him he had to desist in his conduct toward the Cole family. This meeting of the parties was just in front of the Van Brunt home.

It is not disputed by the defense, and the state shows by positive testimony, that when the defendant broke away from where the deceased and his father were standing he rushed into the house 'and came back in a few minutes with his pistol in his hand and began firing. The proof shows Cecil Cole was wounded in the shoulder, and one bullet that produced his death struck him in the temple; one bullet burned or grazed the car of Frank Cole, and one of the Cole girls was slightly wounded. Six shots were fired by the defendant at the Coles. The *191 defendant says lie was shooting a.t Frank Cole and not at any other member of his family; that he did not intend to injure Cecil Cole. Witnesses who did not see the first shots fired saw the defendant when he was firing the last shots, some of them stating he was down on one knee holding the pistol in both hands. The deceased, Cecil Cole, fell in the street, dying from the effects of the wound in his head.

The defendant admits firing six shots; that he then' went back in the house for the purpose of getting more shells and that he reloaded the pistol. Several witnesses testified to seeing the defendant on the porch, some of them saying he got off the porch, ’but they all admit he fired the shot that took the life of Cecil Cole, and that he continued to shoot until all the shells in the pistol were fired.

No weapon was shown to be on the deceased, or father of the deceased, at the time the defendant was shooting. The defendant states Frank Cole, the father of the deceased, struck him with some kind of a stick or something while out at the edge of the street where they first met and were talking. He admits after the incident in the street he turned and went into his house, and, instead of remaining in the house, secured the pistol from a cedar chest and came back out and went to shooting. He had abandoned the difficulty or fight and left Frank Cole in the street, and the proof shows that neither Frank nor the deceased was pursuing the defendant or attempting in any way whatever to do him an injury.

The proof on behalf of the defendant conclusively shows there was considerable trouble between the two families, and that the anger of the defendant had not cooled from the time he had had the trouble with the *192 Cole family more than an hour and a half before the shooting toot place. The defendant stated he fired the shots believing it was necessary to defend himself from being killed or receiving great bodily injury.

The foregoing is the substance of the testimony as to what took place at the scene of the difficulty.

The defendant urges as grounds for reversal of his case six assignments of error. The first, second, and third assignments relate to the question of the verdict being, contrary to the law and the evidence. The fourth assignment raises the question of the admission by the court of irrelevant and immaterial evidence. The fifth and sixth question the right of the court to permit Andrew Miller to testify in chief in said court, over the objections of the plaintiff in error, for the reason that the post-office address of said witness Andrew Miller was not served upon the defendant or his attorney of record; and for the further reason that the court erred in refusing to grant plaintiff'in error reasonable time in which to prepare to meet the evidence and testimony of the state witness Andrew Miller.

It is urged by the defendant that the court erred in permitting Andrew Miller to testify as a witness in chief for the reason that the correct post-office address of Andrew Miller was not given when the name of Andrew Miller was served on the defendant as his post-office address was given as Marietta, Okla.

When the case was called for trial, the state and the defendant announced ready for trial and testimony was taken, no question being raised that the post office address of Andrew Miller was incorrect, until he was called as a witness after the jury had been impaneled' and other witnesses called and testified. Miller in his *193 testimony stated that Bumeyville was his post office but that he sometimes received his mail at Marietta, when' he was there visiting with his grandparents; that at the time Cecil Cole was killed he was living in an apartment in Seminole, and was just across the street when the shooting took place. The defendant admits the name of Andrew Miller was named in the list of witnesses to be used in chief, and that he had not raised the question or complained that the post-office address was not correctly given.

The defendant does not insist that, by reason of the fact that the post office being incorrectly given, his rights1 had been prejudiced, but insists that under the constitutional provisions of section 20, article 2, the state is required in capital cases at least two days before the case is called for trial to furnish the defendant with a list of witnesses that would be called in chief to prove the allegations in the indictment or information, together with their post office address.

This question has been before this court many times, and has been raised by the defense in different ways. In Addington v. State, 8 Okla. Cr.

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Related

State v. Layman
1960 OK CR 107 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1960)
In Re Williams
1959 OK CR 75 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1959)
Ex Parte Merton
1949 OK CR 41 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Holt v. State
1947 OK CR 65 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Ex Parte Jenkins
1946 OK 191 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1946)
Jenkins v. State
1945 OK CR 68 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK CR 117, 70 P.2d 1103, 62 Okla. Crim. 188, 1937 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-brunt-v-state-oklacrimapp-1937.