McDonald v. State, F-82-725
| Decision Date | 04 January 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. F-82-725,F-82-725 |
| Citation | 674 P.2d 51 |
| Parties | Alan James McDONALD, Appellant, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
The appellant, Alan James McDonald, was charged conjointly with his wife, Shari McDonald, with First Degree Murder and Assault and Battery with Intent to Kill, in Tulsa County District Court, Case No. CRF-81-3898, wherein the death penalty was sought; he was convicted of both crimes, was sentenced to life imprisonment and twenty (20) years' imprisonment, respectively, and he appeals.
At approximately 9:30 A.M., on November 2, 1981, employees Tammy Howell and Mahid Eidinejad unlocked the door to a Church's Fried Chicken restaurant in Tulsa, to prepare for the day's business. The two women entered along with the defendant and his wife, Shari, who had arrived at about the same time as the two employees. Defendant, a former employee, had been in the restaurant earlier that morning at approximately 1:00 A.M., talking with the manager whom he knew and who was counting the previous day's receipts.
Tammy Howell testified that she was stocking the restaurant and when she turned around, the defendant's wife, Shari, pointed a gun at her and Mahid and forced them into the stockroom. She stated that Mahid gave the defendant the safe's combination, but he could not open it and threatened to kill them if Mahid did not give him the correct combination. Defendant's wife continued to brandish the gun at them. Howell testified that Mahid gave the defendant a second set of numbers but he returned with a long tool and hit both of them on the back of the head. A bloodied fourteen (14) inch long pipe wrench was found in the stockroom and admitted into evidence. Tammy stated that she awoke a few minutes later thinking the defendant and his wife had left and she yelled for help, but they had not left and one of them came back and beat her again.
Bread deliveryman, David St. Clair, testified that he heard cries for help when he knocked at the back door. He and a customer who had just pulled up to the restaurant, realized something was wrong when the defendant and his wife ran out of the restaurant and so they telephoned Tulsa police and wrote down the license tag number of the defendant's vehicle. St. Clair testified that the stockroom was a mass of blood; that the bodies looked like potato sacks piled over one another or like "tenderized steaks."
Medical testimony established that Mahid died from approximately eighteen (18) blows to the head from a blunt instrument, fracturing her skull in six (6) places. Tammy Howell was unconscious for a week with a fractured skull and she lost the hearing in an ear and the use of a finger.
Defendant testified that he had no idea that his wife was going to pull a gun; that they needed money badly; that he hit the deceased once and Tammy twice in the head, but only to knock them unconscious and not to kill them; and that he admitted he committed the robbery.
In his first assignment of error, the defendant alleges that the trial court erred in failing to direct a verdict for him since the evidence presented failed to prove each and every element of first degree murder under 21 O.S.1981, § 701.7(B). 1 Section B specifically lists six felonies which afford a basis for first degree murder under our felony-murder doctrine, but does not mention any "attempt" crimes. Defendant would have us believe that, since the State only proved him guilty of attempted robbery, he could only have been found guilty of Second Degree Murder, pursuant to 21 O.S.1981, § 701.8, 2 since only robbery and not attempted robbery is mentioned in Section 701.7(B).
We find our decision in James v. State, 637 P.2d 862 (Okl.Cr.1981), dispositive of this issue; therein we stated:
[T]he argument that, because the money was not taken the appellant did not commit Murder in the First Degree in the commission of Robbery with Firearms, is unpersuasive. The felony murder statute is intended to prevent certain felonies as well as homicide, and the Legislature, in its wisdom, determined that there are certain felonies in which homicide is most likely to occur. The likelihood of a homicide is not lessened by the fact that the perpetrator of the robbery ran without the money or goods or that the perpetrator committed the crime only to discover that the anticipated money or goods did not exist or was not in the possession of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
In re Adoption of the 2018 Revisions to the Okla. Unif. Jury Instructions-Criminal
...armed robbery in the statute defining armed robbery." Id. ¶ 13, 637 P.2d at 865. See also McDonald v. State, 1984 OK CR 2, ¶ 8, 674 P.2d 51, 53 (following James). Causation. In a line of cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals has recognized a nexus requirement between the underlying felony an......
-
Stiles v. State
...the commission of a misdemeanor, during the heat of passion, or while resisting the decedent's attempt to commit a crime. McDonald v. State, 674 P.2d 51 (Okl.Cr.1984). The evidence at trial did not support manslaughter instructions on any of these fact situations, and it was not error for t......
-
McDonald v. Champion
...court's decision to instruct the jury on the first-degree offense was affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in McDonald v. State, 674 P.2d 51 (Okl.Crim.App.1984). II. A. Ex Post Facto Petitioner asserts two grounds for habeas relief. First, he argues that the ex post facto application o......
-
Weatherly v. State
...38. We have held that an "accumulation of error" argument will be rejected were all of the alleged errors are meritless. McDonald v. State, 674 P.2d 51 (Okl.Cr.1984). None of the assignments of error herein have merit and this assignment is Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, the judgme......