Patrick v. State, A-11465

• Decision Date: 20 February 1952
• Docket Number: No. A-11465,A-11465
• Citation: 95 Okla.Crim. 141,241 P.2d 418
• Parties: PATRICK v. STATE.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 418

241 P.2d 418

95 Okla.Crim. 141

PATRICK v. STATE.

No. A-11465.

Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma.

Feb. 20, 1952.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. An order sustaining a motion to quash or set aside an indictment or information is not a bar to a further prosecution for the same offense. 22 O.S.1951 § 501.

2. There is a vast distinction in the effect on case of the sustaining of a demurrer to an indictment or information and the effect of sustaining a motion to quash an indictment or information. If the demurrer is sustained, the judgment is final and is a bar to another prosecution for the same offense, unless the court, being of opinion that the objection on which the demurrer is sustained may be avoided in a new indictment or information, directs the case to be resubmitted to the same or another grand jury, or that a new information be filed.

3. Where motion to quash an indictment is sustained, the county attorney may later commence a new prosecution for the same offense without an order of the District Court directing that such be done.

4. It is improper for the prosecuting attorney to state his personal opinion as to defendant's guilt, or state facts not proved by evidence.

5. Where alleged improper argument is set up as a basis for a new trial, the argument will be construed in connection with the record, and, unless said alleged statements were such that they aroused the passion and prejudice of the jury to the extent that they would be swayed from arriving at a fair and just sentence, the objection to such argument will be overruled.

6. The evidence was sufficient to sustain conviction for crime of larceny from the person.

E. William Brown, Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.

Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., Owen J. Watts, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

JONES, Judge.

The defendant, J. Paul Patrick, was charged by an information filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County with the crime of larceny from the person; was tried; convicted, with the punishment left to the court; thereafter the court sentenced the defendant to serve two years in the state penitentiary; and he has appealed.

Three propositions are presented in the brief of the defendant. First, the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict. Second, the court erred in overruling defendant's motion to quash, his demurrer and his plea in abatement. Third, the county attorney was guilty of prejudicial misconduct in his argument to the jury.

The defendant was charged along with Cruse Galindo and Ida Mae Paredes with taking $580.00 by stealth and fraud from one Wayne E. Waller.

The proof of the state showed that Wayne E. Waller was a farmer living at Piedmont, near Oklahoma City. He had sold cattle at the stockyards in Oklahoma City and on August 8, 1949 he cashed the check which he received for his cattle in the amount of $569.00. After making some purchases of groceries at Bethany, he placed about thirty dollars in currency in his right front pants pocket and placed the rest of the money in his billfold in his back pants pocket. He came to Oklahoma City and went to the El Centro Bar and drank several bottles of beer. It was there that he met Cruse Galindo, who came to where Waller was sitting at a table and sat down and talked with him. Later Galindo brought Ida Mae Paredes, a codefendant, over to the table where Waller was drinking and they all drank whiskey together. Later, at the suggestion of Galindo, the three of them went to Pat's Night Club, operated by the defendant Patrick. Waller paid the cover charge at the night club for the three of them. Waller purchased some more whiskey at the club and they all drank. The defendant Patrick brought two pints of whiskey to the table and Waller paid him six dollars a pint for the whiskey. Patrick sat down at the booth with them and all four of them drank some of the whiskey. Waller became drunken. About midnight Galindo, Ida Mae Paredes, Patrick, and Waller got in Patrick's car and drove to the Hutton Courts on Highway 66, northwest of Oklahoma City. Waller was intoxicated but he remembered that the four of them went into a cabin, took a drink of whiskey, there was a commotion in which they shoved him against the wall and Galindo, Paredes, and Patrick ran out of the cabin, got in the car of Patrick and left. After they had gone Waller missed his billfold. He then went to the man in charge of the tourist courts and told him what had happened. Waller then secured a cab which drove him to his home near Piedmont. Waller and his wife then returned to Pat's Night Club and accosted defendant Patrick and accused him of stealing his billfold, but Patrick denied knowing anything about it. Waller testified that he had his billfold on his person when he left Pat's Night Club to go to the Hutton Courts because he could feel it in his hip pocket and that he missed it after the defendants had taken him to the Hutton Courts. Waller further stated that he had no association with any other parties on that evening except the three defendants, Patrick, Galindo and Paredes.

Ida Mae Paredes, a codefendant, testified for the state. She swore that on the night in question Cruse Galindo invited her to have some drinks at the El Centro Bar and she sat down at a booth with the prosecuting witness Waller, and Galindo, and a girl by the name of Priscilla Cosar. Waller purchased some whiskey and beer and they all drank it. About thirty or forty minutes later the four of them went to Pat's Night Club in a cab. There they drank some whiskey, and Galindo got up from the booth and talked to Mr. Patrick. Later Waller purchased some whiskey from the defendant Patrick and all of them, including Patrick, drank the whiskey. Waller took the money from his billfold to pay for the whiskey. Later Waller bought a second bottle of whiskey from Patrick and became quite intoxicated. Later defendant Patrick stopped her as she was coming from the rest room and told her to get Waller's billfold and that she, Galindo and Patrick would split the money three ways, and she agreed. Later while she was dancing with Waller she got Waller to hand her his billfold so she could count his money. She saw there were three or four hundred dollars in the billfold. They were sitting in the booth and Waller laid his head over in her lap while she was counting the money. Patrick reached down and grabbed the billfold and walked to the back of the night club with it. Waller had become very drunk. Later Galindo gave the billfold back to her and it had nine, one dollar bills in it. She, Patrick, and Galindo then took Waller to a tourist cabin. They were in Patrick's car. She threw Waller's billfold on a chair and the three ran out and got in the car and left. Later that night Waller came back to the night club and Patrick told her and Galindo to get out as Waller was going to start some trouble. She further testified that Priscilla Cosar left Pat's Night Club shortly after they arrived there and was not with them any more that evening. On cross-examination she admitted serving a term in the penitentiary for forgery and of a large number of convictions for being drunk and for vagrancy by reason of being a prostitute. She further testified the Galindo gave her only twenty dollars of the money that was taken from the billfold.

Charles Hutton, manager of the Hutton Courts at 3036 Northwest 39th Street in Oklahoma City, testified that he was on duty at the courts on the night of August 8, 1949. The defendant Patrick came in during the night and rented a room and paid him three dollars. Hutton then walked out and took the license number off of the automobile and it was Number 1-9985. About fifteen minutes after Patrick registered, he and some others left. Shortly afterwards Waller came to him and asked him to call a cab, which he did. He then checked the room which he had rented to Patrick and found that a stove had been kicked back against the wall and a gas connection broken. He found a billfold in the chair, which had Waller's identification in it and also his driver's license. He later delivered the billfold to Sherman Brown, deputy sheriff. Waller was drunk when he saw him. It was then stipulated that license number 1-9985 was the Oklahoma license number issued for the car of Mrs. Hazel Patrick, the wife of defendant, for the year 1949.

Sherman Brown, deputy sheriff, testified concerning his investigation but his evidence was only cumulative to what had been testified to by the other witnesses concerning the registration by Patrick at the Hutton Courts and that the license number of the car which was driven to the Hutton Courts was for an automobile belonging to the wife of defendant Patrick.

The only witness testifying for the defendant was his wife, who swore that Waller, Galindo, Paredes, and another girl, came to the night club where she was working with her husband. Waller had two pints of whiskey on him. Waller became pretty drunk. Later she saw Galindo and Ida Mae Paredes dragging Waller out of the night club. Her husband, the defendant Patrick, did not leave the place of business that evening at all. Later Ida Mae Paredes and Galindo came back to the night club by themselves. About half an hour later Waller returned and asked her if the people were there that had taken him out, and told her that they had robbed him. She told Waller to call the officers, and she called her husband and related what had occurred, and her husband told Waller to call the law. She then saw Waller go talk to Galindo and Paredes and they left the night club together. She heard Ida Mae Paredes say, 'I don't have your money', and further said, 'If you will go back to the courts where we left you, you will find your billfold where I threw it up against the wall'. About two hours later Waller came back with his wife. She again told him that they should call the officers, but they did not do it. The next night Waller returned again looking...