Wilson v. State

1923 OK CR 111, 217 P. 885, 24 Okla. Crim. 332, 1923 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 297
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 5, 1923
DocketNo. A-3815.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1923 OK CR 111 (Wilson 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
Wilson v. State, 1923 OK CR 111, 217 P. 885, 24 Okla. Crim. 332, 1923 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 297 (Okla. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

BESSEY, J.

In the information filed November 14, 1919, Calvin Wilson, plaintiff in error, was charged jointly with his son and others with the crime of rioting. At the trial, February 13, 1920, the son was discharged, and the plaintiff in error was found guilty as charged, and his punishment fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of three years. To reverse this conviction he appeals.

For convenience in this opinion the plaintiff iu error will be referred to as the defendant. The state introduced evidence tending to show that on or about the 15th day of February, 1919, Calvin Wilson, Arlie Wilson, Melvin Rogers, and Le Roy Dorr committed the crime of rioting, by going in the nighttime and shooting into a house occupied by one J. D. Glover with shotguns and Winchester rifles. The state’s case rested largely upon the testimony of Le Roy Dorr and Melvin Rogers, self-confessed accomplices.

The defendant in his brief contends that the judgment of the trial court should be reversed for three reasons:

First. That there is' no sufficient corroboration of the testimony of the accomplices.

Second. Because of the reception of incompetent and prejudicial testimony.

Third. Misconduct of the county attorney in his argument to the jury.

The testimony of Le Roy Dorr, one of the accomplices, is in part as follows:

“Q. Tell the jury what conversation you had with Calvin Wilson and Arlie Wilson at that time. A. We was — we hap *334 pened to be up there and struck up with them, and they asked us did we want to make some money easy, and we told them we did, and he said he had a fellow over there he wanted to move; that he had control of the place this fellow was on.
“Q. Who do you mean by he? A. Calvin Wilson. We told him that we would like to make some easy money, and he said he would give $10 if we would help him move them. We told him all right. He said that he had tried every way, and that he thought the only way he could move him was to scare him off the place, and we told him all right, and we talked around there a while, and he said we would go over to his house, and Melvin Rogers and myself could take a gun and go over there and give Glover a talking to, and we told him all right, and we goes over to Calvin’s and gets a Winchester, and Arlie goes with us.
“Q. Who did you get that Winchester from? A. Calvin. And we goes down there pretty near to Mr. Glover, and Arlie stops about 200 yards from the house, and we goes right down to the house and hollers, ‘Hello,’ and Mrs. Glover, she came out — I suppose it was Mrs. Glover; it was a lady — and we asked her where Mr. Glover was at. She said he was down near the end of the field south, making posts. We told her we wanted to see him; so we goes on down there and asked him was that Mr. Glover. He said he' was, and we told him we was strangers in that part of the country and we was friends of Mr. Wilson, and that we come down there to see about getting him to move, and he said something about they had a case in court. We told him we didn’t care nothing about that; he had to be out of there by Monday morning; if he didn’t, we was going to shoot the top of his house off. He said he was not seared of nothing like that; and me and him kind of got into an argument, and his boy stopped the old man.
“Q. Were you armed at that time? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. What did you have? A. I had a Winchester. * * *
“Q. Tell the jury what the frame-up deal was and all about it. A. They said it would be the best — we all decided *335 it would be best to wait until along about 11 o’clock before we started up, and we set around and smoked and talked about it until about 11 o’clock, and got the guns and goes over there.
“Q. Where did you get your gun? A. There at Calvin’s house.
“Q. What kind of gun did you get? A. Single-barreled shotgun.
“Q. Did the other men get guns, too? A. Melvin Rogers, he got a .22 rifle; Calvin, he had a Winchester, a .38 it looked like; Arlie had a single-barrel shotgun, same as I had.
“Q. Do you know whose guns they were? A. I suppose they was Calvin’s; he had them there at the house; he got them for us.
“Q. After you got the guns, what did you do? A. We started across the field and goes over to Glover’s house.
“Q. When you got to Glover’s house, or near there, what did you do then? A. Calvin says: ‘I will go up here, in front of this house, behind a log. You all go around to the north of the house, towards the field.' You all need not be a bit uneasy; if he comes out I will get him.’ So we goes around to the large trees north of the house, and commenced shooting. Arlie and myself.
“Q. Where was Melvin Rogers at that time? A. He was between Arlie and myself and Calvin.
“Q. Say you began shooting? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. What were you shooting at, if anything? A. At the house.
“Q. At whose house? A. Glover’s.
“Q. How many shots did you fire? A. Five shots.
“Q. How many shots did Calvin Wilson fire? A. One.
“Q. How many shots did Melvin fire? A. He didn’t fire any; if he did, I couldn’t hear it.
*336 “Q. How many shots did Arlie Wilson tire, if any? A. Four shots.”

After this, according to Dorr’s testimony, they all returned to the home of the defendant, near there, where they spent the rest of the night. The testimony of Melvin Rogers, also an accomplice, was to the same general effect.

There was some corroboration of these witnesses, con.necting the defendant with the crime. By the testimony of J. D. Glover, occupant of the house where the riot took place, in his account of the visit of Dorr and Rogers the day before the shooting, it appears that the following occurred:

“Q. Go ahead and tell us what Le Roy Dorr said, if anything. A. He said he was a stranger in the country, and was a friend of Calvin Wilson’s, and said he had come down to tell me to leave the place. I says, ‘Young man, what have you got to do with it?’ He says, ‘That is enough.' I said, ‘What.are you down here for, anyhow?’ He says, ‘I am deputized to come down here and tell you to vacate the place.’ I said, ‘Deputized by who?’ He says, ‘That is all right, by who;’ and I said, ‘I have got a case pending in court, and whatever the court says I am willing to abide by it;’ and he says, ‘I will just give you until Monday to leave here;’ and I says ‘Them threats don’t — ’ and he said, ‘By Monday to leave here; if you don’t, I will tear the top off your house.’ I says, ‘Young man, them threats don’t bother me any, and I will be there at the tearing of the roof off the house.’
“Q. Were these men armed at the time? A. One of them had a Winchester.

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Related

Gates v. State
1950 OK CR 16 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1950)
Wilson v. State
1949 OK CR 120 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1949)
Passmore v. State
1948 OK CR 95 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1948)
Hunsaner v. State
164 P.2d 404 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Hunsaker v. State
1945 OK CR 133 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
Hagan v. State
1943 OK CR 29 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1943)
Fitzgerald v. State
1938 OK CR 83 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1938)
McDonald v. State
1936 OK CR 70 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)
Crowdis v. State
1936 OK CR 65 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)
Kennamer v. State
1936 OK CR 32 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1936)
Messer v. State
1935 OK CR 37 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1935)
Patton v. State
1933 OK CR 35 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1933)
Fritz v. State
1930 OK CR 302 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1930)
Cornett v. State
1929 OK CR 50 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK CR 111, 217 P. 885, 24 Okla. Crim. 332, 1923 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-state-oklacrimapp-1923.