Wyatt v. State

1956 OK CR 40, 296 P.2d 222, 1956 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 179
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 28, 1956
DocketNo. A-12258
StatusPublished

This text of 1956 OK CR 40 (Wyatt 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
Wyatt v. State, 1956 OK CR 40, 296 P.2d 222, 1956 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 179 (Okla. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

POWELL, Judge.

Roy L. Wyatt, plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was in the district court of Blaine County, Oklahoma, charged by information with the crime of assault with a dangerous weapon, was tried before a jury, convicted, and the jury being unable to agree upon the punishment, the same was left to the court, who fixed the penalty at five years confinemeiit in the State Penitentiary. The case is here on appeal.

Counsel admit in the beginning that there was sufficient evidence for submission of the case to the jury. No complaint is made as to the instructions or errors at trial, but it is asserted that the punishment assessed is excessive. It is argued that the jury did not deliberate over the issues long enough. It is pointed out that the record shows that the defendant, the prosecuting witness and all the other witnesses except two officers were colored people. Counsel urges “From a consideration of all the evidence presented by the State, and the particular facts in this case, the writer respectfully contends that the ends of justice would be met by a modification of the sentence imposed from a five year term in the penitentiary, to a short term in the county jail.”

Counsel have presented an excellent and persuasive brief. But a careful, objective study of the entire record presents a different picture.

The evidence on the part of the State shows that the prosecuting witness, Matthew Johnson, nicknamed “Buster” and who went by the family name of his step-father, rather than that of his own father, whose name was Hodges, visited the Dew Drop Inn in Watonga on February 5, 1955, around 6:30 or 7 P. M. He observed the defendant, Roy L. Wyatt, “sitting over there talking to a man” ; that witness purchased a quart bottle of beer and took it over to the manager, Ruth Johnson, as a gift from him. She was his aunt by marriage. Witness walked over to the stove where he saw one Buford Randall and commenced to talk to him, and the defendant walked up and told witness that he had stepped on his foot, and witness said, “I told him no, I wasn’t on his foot” and “Well, he hauled off and hit me, and knocked me over the stove, and then while he was doing that he said something about — said I had snitched on him, or something.” Witness said that defendant hit him with a gun and when he saw a gun he just put up his hands. Witness said that defendant knocked him down and then reached down and picked him up and that he had a .45 calibre automatic pistol, army type, and he snapped it [224]*224on him twice but it failed to go off; that defendant backed him to the door way, and witness backed out of the cafe, and defendant snapped the pistol on him again and the pistol jammed and defendant was.trying to get it “unjammed” and Bud Johnson came up and, said witness, “Well he just hauled off and struck it [the pistol] in his belly and told him to get back or he would kill' him too.” Witness took advantage of the opportunity and got away, running across the street to Andrew Russworm’s store, and spoke to Sam Harris, who -operated the place, and he then discovered that Officer A. L. Beauchamp, commonly called “Red”, was over at the cafe and he then went to see the officer to report what had happened.

Witness claimed that he had not caused a warrant to be issued against the defendant as defendant claimed, and had not stepped on his foot. He said that he first got acquainted with the defendant many years before, when they both were serving time in the penitentiary at McAlester.

On cross-examination this witness admitted that after he got off from work as a laborer on February 5, 1955, that he had gone home and had taken a bath and cleaned up and had taken a small drink of whiskey before going to the Dew Drop Inn, but said that he did not drink beer and had drunk no more liquor prior to his trouble with the defendant.

Witness was severely cross-examined -concerning the automatic “snapping” but he demonstrated that he knew the “click” of the hammer when caused to “snap”. He said that out of doors defendant tried to “reject” the shell, but he illustrated what he meant by showing that defendant with one hand had pushed the slide back which this court will take judicial notice has the effect of ejecting the shell in the barrel and if the pistol mechanism is working right, causing-a new shell to go from the clip or magazine into the barrel. The .45 calibre army type Colt automatic was used by defense counsel in his cross-examination of defendant.

Witness was asked what happened to Buford Randall when defendant came up and jumped on witness. He said: “Yah, he [Randall] was the one that hollered 'gun’j. because if he hadn’t hollered 'gun’ I would have grabbed Wyatt, but after I seen there was a gun why I didn’t do nothing but just throw up my hands.” He said that Buford “just broke and ran” and that he would not now admit that he had seen a gun.

Buford Randall testified that he was standing with Buster Johnson in the Inn at the time in question, and that the defendant came over and stepped between him and Buster and began slapping Buster with his hand. He said he did not see anything in defendant’s hand. He said he heard Buster say, “What is the matter ‘with you, — I aint done anything to you”. Witness said that he got away as quickly as he could, going out the back way.

Ruth Johnson testified that she was Buster Johnson’s aunt by marriage; that on the night in question: “Well, I was sitting in a booth, and Buster Johnson come in and he bought a quart of beer and set it down on the table, and we got two glasses, and of course he poured it. And he went out to shoot pool and left there, and Mr. Wyatt come up and he seemed to think he bought it, and he said he did, and I told him he didn’t that Buster Johnson'bought it and I left. I went home.” She said that she was not there when the scuffle took place, and that there was no trouble between the parties before she left.

James Hodges, uncle of the prosecuting witness and who was also known as Bud Hodges and as Bud Johnson, said that on the night of February 5, 1955, he was approaching the front of the Dew Drop Inn in Watonga. Witness testified:

“Uh-huh — well, when I came up thpre,- — when I came up where they was arguing at, they was pretty near out in the street, — they was just about out in the street there. Mr. Wyatt had one hand, — his left hand, — ahold' of Buster’s collar and was backing him off, you know, whipping him over the head with a gun, and so I heared them before I got there, — Buster was hollering,. lie says, ‘Well’, he says, ‘You can kill me if you want to’, — he says, ‘You can kill me’, — he says,‘I ain’t done a thing [225]*225agin you’, — and lie says, ‘I am going to ■ kill you’, and lie was whipping him and Buster was hollering, you know—
“Q. Who said he was going to kill who? A. Well Wyatt was telling Buster he was going to kill him. Then when I got up there, well he had the gun, you known, and he was just whipping him over the head and shoulders, —he was dodging and he was trying to hit him over the head, and was hitting him over the head, snapping that gun.
“Q. This was outside the building? A. Yeh, that was on the outside, — on the outside of the building.

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Related

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1955 OK CR 34 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1955)
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1955 OK CR 25 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1955)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1956 OK CR 40, 296 P.2d 222, 1956 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wyatt-v-state-oklacrimapp-1956.