Bradshaw v. State, A--17952

• Decision Date: 23 May 1973
• Docket Number: No. A--17952,A--17952
• Citation: 510 P.2d 972
• Parties: Thomas E. BRADSHAW, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 972

510 P.2d 972

Thomas E. BRADSHAW, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.

No. A--17952.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

May 23, 1973.

As Corrected June 5, 1973.

Bruce Green, Muskogee, for appellant.

Larry Derryberry, Atty. Gen., Fred H. Anderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Kenneth L. Delashaw, Jr., Legal Intern, for appellee.

OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge:

Appellant, Thomas E. Bradshaw, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court of Muskogee County, Case No. CRF--71--134, for the offense of Obtaining Property by False Pretense. He was sentenced to serve a term of ten (10) years in the State Penitentiary and a five thousand dollar ($5,000) fine, and a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

The State's first witness, Stella C. Holland, testified that during the last of August or early September 1970, she entered into a business arrangement with a one Mr. Davidson and the defendant. The defendant and Mr. Davidson approached her at her apartment in Muskogee selling fire alarm systems. The two returned to her apartment several times and the defendant seemed to be the spokesman of the two. Mrs. Holland testified that the pair wanted her to sell her AT&T stock and to go into the fire alarm business with them. She was to receive two hundred dollars ($200) a month, guaranteed. The pair never related to her the name of the business, but stated they had offices in San Francisco and New York. The defendant took her to her bank and secured from her safety deposit box all of her shares of stock and returned to her home and took the stock to Tahlequah. The next day after the stock had been sold the defendant related to her that she had only seventy-seven shares of stock.

Mrs. Holland then identified a contract which she had executed providing for an investment of four thousand dollars ($4,000). She then testified that defendant came by her house each month and gave her two hundred dollars ($200) each time until a total of eight hundred dollars ($800) was paid to her. She did not see the defendant after that, but one day after the charges had been filed, the defendant called her and requested that she drop the case 'because he did not want to go to jail.'

Mrs. Holland went on to relate that she gave the defendant all the money she had, including a check for one thousand dollars ($1,000).

Mrs. Holland then identified a money order issued by the First National Bank of Tahlequah for four thousand four hundred twenty-six dollars and seventy-seven cents ($4,426.77) payable to her, but she could not identify her signature and related she never received the money.

Finally, Mr. Holland testified that she gave the defendant her AT&T stock on the basis of the contract she had entered into.

Thomas R. Sherrill, a stock broker from Tulsa, testified that on August 26 or 27, 1970, his firm had sold one hundred ninety-seven (197) shares of AT&T stock as a result of a sale order placed by the First National Bank of Tahlequah. He identified two of the State's Exhibits as checks issued for the proceeds of the sale.

Robert Smith, cashier from the First National Bank at Tahlequah, identified the State's Exhibits as being checks issued by the Tulsa brokerage firm payable to the First National Bank of Tahlequah. He identified one check as being for four thousand four hundred twenty-six dollars and twenty-seven cents ($4,426.27) and one in the amount of four thousand two hundred ninety-seven dollars and thirty-nine cents ($4,297.39). The witness related that one check was payable to Stella Holland and the other a bank money order, with one being endorsed by Clifford O. Turk, a former officer of the First National Bank of Tahlequah.

Haskell Davidson next testified that around the last of August that he and the defendant had 'come by information that Stella Holland was suppose to have some money and they thought they would go talk to her about it.' Davidson related that he and the defendant had a 'deal' on fire alarms and that 'we were going to go and set her up.' Davidson then identified both contracts introduced by the State. He related that both contracts were executed in Mrs. Holland's apartment in Muskogee. He then testified that they had contacted Mrs. Holland a couple of times and that 'we got a thousand dollars off of her the first time and we went back and proceeded to get the stock.' He testified that although the contracts disclosed that he and the defendant were affiliated with the Vanguard Fire Alarm System and Interstate Engineers, neither, however, were in any way associated with the company. As a part of the scheme, Davidson testified that they had advised Mrs. Holland they would pay her so much interest and a certain guaranteed monthly payment in return for the money she invested. Mrs. Holland was supposed to have invested approximately four thousand dollars ($4,000), but that 'well we got around eighty-seven hundred dollars off of her all together.' He and the defendant had planned to pay Mrs. Holland for a while in order to prevent her from getting suspicious. Davidson then testified that they had gone to Mrs. Holland's bank in Muskogee, procured the stock, and returned her to her apartment. He and the defendant proceeded to Tahlequah where he dropped the defendant off and proceeded on to Tulsa. The defendant advised him that Clifford Turk, an officer of the First National Bank of Tahlequah, was a good friend and would take care of the stock for them. He returned to Tahlequah at a later time and testified that the defendant came out of the bank with the money in question, wherein both split the proceeds amounting to approximately eight thousand dollars ($8,000), but they had to give Turk five hundred dollars ($500) to handle the deal. Davidson then testified that he took the check payable to Stella Holland, went to Muskogee, and asked the victim to 're-sign' the contracts. When she signed the contracts, he placed the check under the contracts so that when she signed the contract, she also endorsed the check. He did not show the victim the check nor tell her about it and thereafter, he proceeded to Tahlequah with the instrument and relinquished the same to the defendant.

Leona Hipp, an employee of the First National Bank of Tahlequah, testified for the defendant. She identified Defense Exhibit Number 3 as being a receipt given to Mrs. Holland for one hundred ninety-seven (197) shares of AT&T stock with a date thereon of August 19, 1970. The witness recalled the transaction at the bank, but did not remember seeing Mr. Bradshaw in Turk's office on that date. She did, however, note that the receipt was made to someone living at Box 87, Park Hill, Oklahoma, but had no recollection as to who resided therein.

Clifford Turk, a former vice-president of the First National Bank of Tahlequah, next testified for the defendant. Turk related that he was acquainted with the defendant and recalled that Mrs. Holland had liquidated some AT&T stock at his bank. He testified that Mrs. Holland was in his office and that the defendant waited outside in the lobby. He further testified that Mrs. Holland had given him a Park Hill address and that he had never received any money from anyone for the transaction.

On rebuttal, the State recalled Mrs. Holland back to the stand. She testified that at the time the stock certificates were executed the defendant was at Clifford Turk's desk with her. She further testified that she did not tell Turk her address was Park Hill and that she did not know where Park Hill was located.

The defendant under his first proposition asserts that the trial court erred in failing to dismiss the case at the close of the State's evidence and at the close of the trial for the reason that there was no corroboration of the communication of the alleged oral false pretense. Defendant cites as authority 22 O.S.1971, § 743, which states:

'Upon a trial for having, with an intent to cheat or defraud another designedly, by any false pretense, obtained the signature of any person to a written instrument, or having obtained from any person any money, personal property or...