Milton v. State
| Decision Date | 06 June 1912 |
| Parties | MILTON v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court.
In a prosecution for forgery in the first degree, the evidence is held to support the verdict, and that no reversible error was committed on the trial.
The granting or refusal of a continuance in a criminal case is largely a matter of discretion of the trial court; and this court will not reverse the trial court on the decision of a matter which rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, unless it is shown that there has been an abuse of the discretion.
Every court has inherent power to do all things reasonably necessary for the administration of justice within the scope of its jurisdiction.
The judge of a superior court has power to administer oaths without an express provision therefor by statute.
Appeal from Superior Court, Pottawatomie County; Geo. C. Abernathy Judge.
R. D Milton was convicted of forgery in the first degree, and appeals. Affirmed.
Plaintiff in error, R. D. Milton (hereinafter referred to as the defendant) was jointly indicted with one Felix J. Saxon and Eugene Walker in the superior court of Pottawatomie county for the crime of forgery in the first degree. The indictment was returned August 23, 1909, and the case was continued from time to time until February 10, 1911, when it came to trial as to the defendant Milton; a severance having been requested and granted. The trial was concluded on February 15, 1911 and resulted in a verdict of guilty; and on February 20th the trial court pronounced and entered the judgment in accordance with the verdict, sentencing the defendant, R. D. Milton, to imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary for a term of seven years. From the judgment, the defendant appealed by filing in this court, on August 19, 1911, a petition in error with case-made.
A brief statement of the facts which the testimony tended to prove is as follows:
"The time covered by the proof as to the facts of the immediate offense, from the beginning to the end, was the period of August 6 and 7, 1909. The scenes of the acts that led up to the offense were in the towns of Wewoka and Seminole, in Seminole county, and the surrounding country, and the town of Earlsboro and the city of Shawnee, and surrounding neighborhood in Pottawatomie county; the offense being consummated in the city of Shawnee, in Pottawatomie county. The chief actors were the defendants, R. D. Milton, Eugene Walker, and Felix J. Saxon, an unknown negro woman, and E. D. Reasor, then county judge of Pottawatomie county; the latter taking the acknowledgment, and Saxon and Reasor being "used" by Milton, and being innocent of criminal intent.
Saxon was a young man, working at the time as stenographer to the county court of Seminole county. Milton was an older man, engaged at the time in dickering in allotments of Seminole and Creek Indians and negroes in the town of Wewoka. Dinah Walker was an old negro woman, living 10 or 12 miles from the town of Seminole, and 5 or 6 miles from the town of Earlsboro, and 16 or 17 miles from the city of Shawnee, in Seminole county. Eugene Walker was the second husband of Dinah Walker, and had previously served a term in the penitentiary, and was serving in the penitentiary at the time of the trial.
On August 5, 1909, the defendant, Milton, approached young Saxon and told him that he (Saxon) had been in Wewoka for some time and had not bought any land; that he (Milton) wanted to see him (Saxon) make some money, and would help him get a start; that Dinah Walker had a lot of deceased Indian land, and they could buy some of it cheap; that if Saxon had a little money he could get in on the deal; and that Saxon should get in and "get his feet wet."
The land described in the indictment had been allotted by the United States to three deceased children of Dinah Walker; and she had inherited the allotments upon the death of her children. There were three allotments of 120 acres each, or a total of 360 acres of land, lying in Seminole county.
On August 5, 1909, Saxon agreed that he would go into a deal; and it was understood between Milton and Saxon that they would go up to see Dinah Walker on the following day, August 6th. On August 6, 1909, Milton and Saxon took an early morning train at Wewoka and went to the town of Seminole, and obtained a team and drove to the home of Dinah Walker, going by the home of one Sam Norton, who lived about a mile from Seminole. While in Seminole, Milton was heard to make the remark, "This is a hell of a poor team to start a man out to steal a piece of land with." They stopped at the home of Norton, and conversed with him. A part of the conversation was had in the presence of Saxon, and a part of it was not. In the part that Saxon heard, Saxon and Milton told Norton they were going out to see about buying some deceased land from Dinah Walker, and asked him if he did not want to get in on the deal. Norton agreed to pay as much as $600, Saxon and Milton to put in their time, and Norton, Saxon, and Milton to share equally in the land.
Milton and Saxon left Norton, and drove to the home of Dinah Walker, where Milton went in and found only a sick girl, and was informed by the sick girl that her mother, Dinah Walker, was at a neighbor's house, and that Eugene Walker was at or near Earlsboro. Milton and Saxon then drove, not to find Dinah Walker, but to Earlsboro to look for Eugene Walker. They ate dinner in Earlsboro, and learned that Eugene Walker was at a hay press about three miles from Earlsboro, toward the home of Dinah Walker. They started for the hay press, and a mile or two out met Walker in the road, horseback, coming toward Earlsboro. Milton hailed Walker, and had Saxon get out of the buggy and go up the road out of hearing, so that he could talk to Walker in private. Walker dismounted to talk with Milton. Milton had with him a pint of whisky, in a pop bottle, that he had gotten at Seminole or Earlsboro. The negro drank of the whisky, and came to the point. Here Milton and Walker agreed that Milton and Saxon should drive back to Seminole; that Walker should go to Earlsboro and procure a negro woman to impersonate Dinah Walker; that they (Milton, Saxon, Walker, and the dummy woman) would meet at 8 o'clock that night in the road, near the house of a negro by the name of Si Jones, about a mile from Dinah Walker's home, and have the dummy impersonate Dinah Walker and execute and acknowledge a deed to the deceased allotments of Dinah Walker before Milton, who at the time was a notary public in Seminole county, Milton at the time telling Walker that Judge Campbell, of the federal court, had just rendered a decision against the land grafters, but that it was not then yet generally known; that they would also put in the deed a misdescription, so that Dinah Walker would not lose her land, and they could get the $600 consideration from the grantee, and that he (Eugene Walker) would make $600 before midnight. There it was also agreed between Milton and Walker that, in the event Walker could not obtain a dummy in Earlsboro, he (Walker) would hire and bring along a double team, so that they could drive to Shawnee and get a woman to make the deed.
When Saxon returned to the buggy, Milton and Walker were discussing bootleg whisky; and Saxon was informed that Eugene Walker had agreed to get his wife to sell her land, for which they were to pay him $50, and that they were to meet that night at 8 o'clock at the house of Si Jones to make the deed, when Walker would have his wife present, and that they would not go to the home of the Walkers, as there was a son-in-law of Dinah Walker there who would knock the deal. Milton and Saxon drove back to Seminole and got supper, and Walker rode to Earlsboro, to look for the dummy woman.
Walker, after trying two women at Earlsboro, failed to find a dummy, and hired the livery team for the drive to Shawnee; and the parties, Milton, Saxon, and Walker, met again at 8 o'clock that night on the road near Si Jones' place, and about a mile from the house of Dinah Walker. They told Saxon that Dinah Walker had gone to Shawnee to take her sick child to the hospital, and that they would have to go there to make the deal. Milton left Saxon in their buggy, and got out and got into Walker's buggy, and they all drove to a nearby negro house, and got him to drive the buggy of Milton and Saxon back to Seminole, as Saxon had promised to have it back at the stable by midnight; and the three men then got in Walker's buggy and drove to Shawnee, a distance between 15 and 17 miles, getting to Shawnee a little after midnight. Nothing was said about the deal in the hearing of Saxon on the trip, though Walker says Saxon slept a while on the road, and he and Milton talked a little.
On South Union avenue, in Shawnee, was a livery barn, a hamburger stand, and a negro rooming house in close proximity. They drove to the livery barn and tied their team in front of it, and again Saxon is separated from the other two. Saxon crossed the street to the hamburger joint and ordered a hamburger. He stayed there long enough to have it cooked, and ate half of it, before being joined by Milton and Walker. Meanwhile Milton and the negro, Walker, are arranging the scenes for the last act of the play. They went to the nearby negro rooming house. The house was full of negro men sleeping on cots and over the floor, and here they found one negro woman, besides the landlady. They told the negro woman what they wanted, assured her it was all right, and promised her $30 to help them. At first they failed; but after a great deal of parleying they succeeded in getting her to agree to sign the deed as Dinah Walker. They went back to the...
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