Miller v. State
| Decision Date | 26 February 1917 |
| Docket Number | A-2397. |
| Citation | 163 P. 131,13 Okla.Crim. 176,1917 OK CR 49 |
| Parties | MILLER v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court.
The general rule is that when a defendant is put upon trial, for one offense, he is to be convicted, if at all, by evidence which shows that he is guilty of that offense alone.
Generally speaking, evidence of other crimes is competent to prove the specific crime charged when it tends to establish: First motive; second, intent; third, the absence of mistake or accident; fourth, a common scheme or plan embracing the commission of two or more crimes so related to each other that proof of one tends to establish the other; fifth, the identity of the person charged with the commission of the crime on trial.
Evidence of another separate and distinct robbery, committed the preceding night, by the defendant upon another person, in the same neighborhood, in much the same way, is not admissible in evidence against one who is being tried for robbing a pedestrian on the street in a city by pointing a pistol at him. Such is not an exception to the rule, that evidence of matters other than those charged in the information are admissible. It is only when the testimony as to the separate offense will have some tendency to prove the offense charged in the information that it is admissible. It must, therefore have some logical connection with the offense charged.
When a prisoner is compelled by duress to make self-disserving statements, such statements cannot be put in evidence against him.
To render statements made by a prisoner admissible, they must be entirely free and voluntary; that is, must not be abstracted by any sort of threats or violence, nor obtained by any direct or implied promises. It is not important to determine whether they amount to a confession of guilt, or merely declarations of fact tending to show guilt.
Appeal from District Court, Muskogee County; Fred P. Branson, Judge.
Charlie Miller was convicted of robbery, and he appeals. Reversed and cause remanded.
The plaintiff in error, Charlie Miller, was tried and convicted on an information charging him with having robbed one W. J Orall of 42 cents, and he was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for the term of ten years. He appealed by filing in this court on February 9, 1915, a petition in error with case-made. The evidence in the case, briefly stated, is as follows:
W. J. Orall testified that about 11:30, Sunday night, June 28, 1914, as he was on his way home, he met a man in the 400 block on East Broadway, Muskogee, who asked for a match, and then threw an automatic in his face, and said, "Throw up your hands," and took from him 42 cents, consisting of a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and two pennies; that he then went on home and telephoned the police station, and about 20 minutes later the officers appeared with the defendant, and he told them the man who robbed him "was just about the same size"; that they showed him a battered penny which he identified as one of the pennies taken from him by the robber; that he did not remember where he got the penny.
Ed Davidson testified that in answer to a telephone call that there had been a holdup on East Broadway, he and Clark Compton left the police station in a car for the place named, and at the corner of D. and Okmulgee streets they picked up the defendant, and on searching him found 42 cents in money and a gun.
D. C. Hughes testified that they put the defendant in the patrol and took him to the station; that he put the 42 cents in an envelope, sealed it. He produced the pistol and the envelope; that the defendant made a number of statements, first saying that he was from Joplin, Mo., where he had worked in the coal mines eight or nine months; that a week before, he left there and came to Muskogee; that he then asked him where he spent the evening and he said he went to the city park early in the evening; that later after taking him out the second time, he said that he had been to a show on Broadway, and went to the park after the show was out; that later on he said that he had not been working at Joplin, but had been in Kansas City, and came by way of Joplin, and there bought the gun; that he asked him what time he left Joplin, and he said, "Friday, and got into Vinita Saturday evening, and rode the blind from Vinita to Wagoner"; that he asked him why he did not buy a ticket, and he said, "I only had 40 cents and wanted to save my money"; that he asked him where he got the pennies and he said he did not know; that he first said that his name was Webb, and finally said his name was Charlie Moore, and that he had worked in a restaurant on Second street, and had a brother working here at the Katy Hotel.
On cross-examination he testified in part as follows:
Earl Smith testified that he saw the defendant on Saturday night preceding the Sunday night that Mr. Orall was robbed on Dayton street. Against the objections of the defendant he was permitted to testify as follows:
That he had looked at the defendant on the Sunday night following and to-day, and was positive that the defendant was the man that robbed him.
As a witness in his own behalf Charlie Miller testified that he was 19 years of age; lived with his parents at Westville, Okl.; that he had lived in Muskogee, and returned there the last time on Sunday morning, the 28th day of June; that he left Joplin the Thursday before and went to Neosho, Mo.; left there Friday night; arrived at Afton Saturday morning; went from there to Vinita; left there Saturday night, riding on top of a coach to Wagoner; was put off at Wagoner about 1 o'clock Sunday morning, and caught a freight train to Muskogee; had breakfast at Jim Hallett's restaurant, Hallet was an old acquaintance and in their conversation he told him that he only had 85 cents. Went to the Yale show that evening; and then went to the city park, expecting to find his brother there; that returning from the park the officers drove up in an automobile, arrested him, and took him to the police station, and took him into a room, where one officer got him by the hair of the head and another by the legs, and they said, "Now, didn't you do it?" and he said, "No," that they did this about a dozen times and hit him with their fists, trying to make him say that he was the fellow that held the young man up, and every time he said that he did not do it they hit him.
Jim Hallett testified that he conducted a restaurant in Muskogee for five years; knew the defendant about three years; saw him Sunday morning, June 28th, at his place; that he paid 20 cents for his breakfast with a half dollar, and he gave him the change.
On rebuttal Mrs. Ella Everett testified that she knew the defendant, and saw him in Muskogee about the 18th of June.
R. H. Mauss testified that he saw the defendant near the Muskogee High School the night Earl Smith was robbed.
M. G. Bailey, of Muskogee, for plaintiff in error.
R. McMillan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
DOYLE, P.J. (after stating the facts as above).
Upon an information duly filed in the district court of Muskogee county, charging him with having robbed W. J. Orall of 42 cents in money, plaintiff in error was tried and convicted of robbery in the...
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