Whitfield v. State

1927 OK CR 144, 256 P. 68, 37 Okla. Crim. 37, 1927 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 23
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 14, 1927
DocketNo. A-5685.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1927 OK CR 144 (Whitfield 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
Whitfield v. State, 1927 OK CR 144, 256 P. 68, 37 Okla. Crim. 37, 1927 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 23 (Okla. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter *38 called the defendant, was indicted by a grand jury of the district court of Carter county, which indictment, omitting the caption, is as follows:

“At the January term, a term of the district court of the eighth judicial district of the state of Oklahoma, held in and for Carter county, the state of Oklahoma, in the town of Ardmore, and begun on the-day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, the jurors of the grand jury of said county, good and lawful men who had been drawn and summoned according to law and then and there returned, examined, impaneled, sworn, and charged, according to law, to diligently inquire into and true presentment make of all offenses against said state of Oklahoma, committed or triable within said county upon their oaths, in the name and by the authority of said state of Oklahoma, do present and find that in said county of Carter, in said state of Oklahoma, on the-> day of January, 1922, the above named defendant, Pat Whitfield, did then and there willfully, unlawfully, fraudulently, and feloniously with the fraudulent and felonious intent then and there to cheat and defraud and by means and use of a certain false and bogus instrument in writing, to wit, a certain false and bogus pay roll claim which the said Pat Whitfield then and there well knew to be false and bogus, receive and obtain from Carter county, a municipal division of said state of Oklahoma, the sum of $928.75 good and lawful money of the United States of America and of the value of $928.75, good and lawful money of the United States of America; which said false and bogus instrument is in words and figures as follows, as evidenced by a true copy thereof, hereto attached and made a part of this indictment, contrary to the form of the statutes in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the state.”

The defendant filed a demurrer to the indictment, which demurrer was considered by the court and overruled and defendant duly excepted. The defendant was tried by a jury and convicted, the verdict returned against him finding him guilty of passing a bogus instrument as *39 charged in the indictment, and asking the court to fix the punishment, as the jury could not agree upon the same. Motion for a new trial was filed, considered, and hy the court overruled and exceptions duly saved by the defendant. Upon the verdict rendered the court sentenced the defendant to confinement in the state penitentiary alt McAlester, in the state of Oklahoma, for a term of seven years. To reverse the judgment and sentence the defendant has appealed to this court.

The defendant has assigned nine errors alleged to have been committed by the trial court. The errors we deem necessary to consider will be disposed of as presented by the defendant. The first assignment of error is:

“The court erred in overruling defendant’s demurrer to the indictment and erred in overruling the defendant’s objection to the introduction of testimony as shown in their record herein.”

The defendant is charged in the indictment:

“That he willfully, unlawfully, fraudulently and feloniously, with the fraudulent and felonious intent then and there to cheat and defraud and by means and use of a certain false and bogus instrument in writing * * * obtain from Carter county, a municipal division of the state of Oklahoma, the sum of $928.75; that the defendant then and there well knew the said bogus payroll was false.”

The defendant urges that his demurrer to the indictment should have been sustained, for the reason that there is no authority in law for the alleged false or bogus instrument to be set out in the indictment as an exhibit to the same. Upon an examination we find that the pay roll alleged to have been false and bogus is attached to and made a part of the indictment; that is, it is alleged in the indictment that said false and bogus instrument is in words and figures as follows as evidenced by a true copy hereto attached and made a part of this indictment.

*40 The only argument the defendant in his brief presents upon the question of the pleading of the state on the bogus pay roll upon which the defendant is alleged to have procured the money from Carter county is as follows:

“The first thing we wish to call the court’s attention to is the exhibit attached to the indictment, and we are frank to say to you after a thorough search of all the authorities at our command, we fail to find where this court or any other court has discussed the question of an exhibit being attached to an indictment, and we take the position that an indictment cannot be aided by an exhibit, and that the exhibit is not a part of the indictment, and therefore an account or claim attached to the indictment is not a part of the indictment. If this is true the indictment is fatally defective in that it does not set out the instrument which is claimed to be false and bogus.”

In the indictment it is alleged that a true copy of the bogus pay roll is attached to the indictment and made a part of it. The indictment sufficiently informs the accused of the offense with which he is charged with such particularity as would enable him to prepare for his trial, and so defines the offense that the accused, if convicted or acquitted, will be able to defend himself in case he is indicted again for the same offense by pleading the record of such former conviction or acquittal and is good as against a demurrer. Smythe v. State, 2 Okla. Cr. 286, 101 P. 611, 139 Am. St. Rep. 918; Price v. State, 9 Okla. Cr. 359, 131 P. 1102; State v. Underwood, 17 Okla. Cr. 443, 190 P. 281.

The third error assigned by the defendant is against the court refusing to sustain his motion for an instructed verdict of not guilty. The motion to direct a verdict is within the sound discretion of the court, and, unless there is a total absence of incriminating evidence, it will not be error to let the case go to the jury. Where *41 there is a clear conflict of the evidence, or if the evidence is such that different inferences may reasonably be drawn therefrom, this court will not interfere with the jury’s determination; unless the evidence is clearly against the weight of the evidence, or there is something in the record which shows that it was influenced by passion or prejudice, this court will not substitute its judgment on the question of the weight of the evidence for that either of the jury or the trial court, provided there is competent evidence from which a jury might reasonably conclude that the defendant was guilty of the crime charged.

An examination of the record in this case shows that the evidence is conflicting, but sufficient to sustain the verdict of the jury, and the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict was properly overruled. Brimmage v. State, 17 Okla. Cr. 205, 187 P. 497; Davis v. State, 10 Okla. Cr. 169, 135 P. 438; Magnetti v. State, 13 Okla. Cr. 102, 162 P. 241; Pace v. State, 13 Okla. Cr. 580, 165 P. 1160; Valdez v. State, 18 Okla. Cr. 204, 194 P. 451; Murnand v. State, 18 Okla. Cr. 426, 195 P. 787; Cole v. State, 18 Okla. Cr. 430, 195 P. 901.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1927 OK CR 144, 256 P. 68, 37 Okla. Crim. 37, 1927 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whitfield-v-state-oklacrimapp-1927.