Riggle v. State

• Decision Date: 31 October 1978
• Docket Number: Nos. F-77-422 and F-77-423,s. F-77-422 and F-77-423
• Citation: 585 P.2d 1382
• Parties: Velma RIGGLE and Terry Cotten, Appellants, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 1382

585 P.2d 1382

Velma RIGGLE and Terry Cotten, Appellants, v. The STATE of Oklahoma, Appellee.

Nos. F-77-422 and F-77-423.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma.

Oct. 31, 1978.

An appeal from the District Court, Atoka County; Lavern Fishel, judge.

Velma Riggle and Terry Cotten, appellants, were convicted of the offense of Murder in the Second Degree; were sentenced to a term of from ten (10) years to life imprisonment, and appeal. AFFIRMED.

Gary E. Payne, Atoka, for appellant Riggle.

James T. Branam, Branam & Dennis, Coalgate, for appellant Cotten.

Larry Derryberry, Atty. Gen., Ross N. Lillard, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

OPINION

CORNISH, Judge:

The appellants, Velma Riggle and Terry Cotten, hereinafter referred to as defendants, where charged with Murder in the First Degree, in the District Court, Atoka County, Case No. CRF-7622. The information was subsequently amended to reflect a charge of Murder in the Second Degree, in violation of 21 O.S.Supp.1975, § 701.2. The defendants were jointly tried before a jury, found guilty, and sentenced pursuant to 21 O.S.Supp.1975, § 701.4, to serve from ten (10) years to life imprisonment in the State penitentiary. Defendants have perfected timely appeals which have been consolidated for this Court's consideration.

At approximately 6:00 p. m. on May 29, 1976, Arthur Wayne Yost discovered the body of the decedent, Anna Lou Wilkins, on his property, near a sandy gravel road and called the authorities. "Drag marks" led from the body to what appeared to be a puddle of blood in the middle of the road. Nearby in the bar ditch, were strewn a woman's purse and its contents, including a pocket knife open at about a 45 degree angle. After an investigation at the scene, the Atoka County Sheriff requested the body be sent to the Atoka County Medical Examiner for an autopsy.

Defendants were arrested at approximately 11:00 a. m. on May 30, 1976, in Antlers, Oklahoma. They were taken to the Pushmataha County Sheriff's Office where they were periodically questioned by four law enforcement officers. Defendant Riggle was read the Miranda warnings twice during this period. At 4:40 p. m., she signed a consent to search form authorizing the officers to search the apartment she shared with one Betty Beech. Testimony of Ms. Beech reflected that on that same date, she gave the officers verbal consent to search the one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, she and defendant Riggle shared.

During the search of the apartment, officers confiscated certain items of clothing found soaking in the bathtub. Record testimony reflects this clothing was worn by defendants Riggle and Cotten on the night of May 28.

At trial, Dr. Don L. Rippee, who examined the body of the deceased on May 29, described multiple stab wounds, cuts and abrasions sustained by the victim. He testified the death could have resulted either from a stab wound located on the left anterior chest wall that penetrated the chest cavity, or from a large laceration over the left orbital region which went through the skull and penetrated the brain substance. He also said that any kind of a sharp instrument, such as a knife, could have caused the stab-type wounds, and that abrasions of the right flank region, a fractured femur, and the head trauma could have been caused by being run over with an automobile.

The events leading to the crime are as hereinafter related. At 6:00 p. m. on May 28, 1976, Betty Beech went to the aforementioned apartment. Shortly thereafter, defendant Cotten and his brother Roger Cotten arrived. They went to a convenience store where they encountered Anna Lou Wilkins, the decedent. She returned with them to the apartment, where they drank beer and smoked marihuana cigarettes. Later, defendant Riggle, who had previously dated defendant Cotten, joined them at the apartment. Around 10:00 p. m., defendant Cotten left with the decedent, and the two went to a tavern in Lane, Oklahoma. Roger Cotten, defendant Riggle, and Betty Beech also left the apartment and arrived at the tavern in Lane at about 10:30 p. m. After defendant Cotten shot some pool, he and defendant Riggle went outside and sat in the car. When Ms. Beech went out to talk to them, they told her they were going to leave. Subsequently, the decedent asked Ms. Beech about defendant Cotten's whereabouts and was informed he was outside in the car with defendant Riggle. Ms. Beech went outside again about 15 minutes later but both defendants and the decedent had apparently left.

Roger Cotten and Betty Beech left the tavern shortly before midnight, ultimately arriving at the Cotten's residence. Both defendants were there when they arrived, and defendant Cotten told Roger that he "killed that bitch," and showed them his bloody jeans to prove it. Ms. Beech testified that while Roger and defendant Cotten were out "getting rid" of the decedent's truck, defendant Riggle related to Ms. Beech what had happened.

Testimony of Ms. Beech indicates that after leaving the bar, defendant Cotten, defendant Riggle and the decedent drove out in the country. There, defendant Cotten stopped the car, urinated, went around to the passenger side of the car, opened the door and told the decedent to get out. The decedent asked if he were going to dump her there. Defendant Cotten stabbed her and a struggle ensued. After defendant Cotten overcame her resistance, he got back into the car and began to drive away. However, he stopped the car and asked defendant Riggle to help him drag the decedent's body off the road. They returned to where the victim had been left, and defendant Cotten directed defendant Riggle to run over the body. She followed his instructions, first driving over the body and then backing over it. Defendant Riggle then helped defendant Cotten drag the body off the road.

When both defendants returned, they discussed splitting the $26.00 defendant Cotten had taken from the deceased. Defendant Riggle and Ms. Beech then accompanied defendant Cotten to a restaurant. After eating, they bought more beer and returned to the house, where the girls proceeded to sleep with their respective escorts. The next morning they returned to the apartment of Ms. Beech and defendant Riggle, where defendant Riggle placed the bloody clothes in the bathtub to soak.

Janice Davis, forensic chemist for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, conducted several scientific tests for the prosecution in this case. She testified that she conducted both a benzidine and phenolphthalein test on the pocket knife found at the scene. These examinations were presumptive tests for blood and were negative with respect to the knife. She also ran such tests on the items which were confiscated during the search of defendant Riggle's apartment. These revealed the presence of blood on the jeans worn by defendant Cotten on May 28, on a rag and on a rug found in the bathroom. On these items other tests, involving the use of an antiserum specific for human blood, were conducted and the results were positive.

Ms. Davis also conducted tests with a new device that utilizes x-ray florescence to analyze trace amounts of inorganic substances. That instrument was used to analyze three soil samples which had been taken from the crime scene, two samples taken from defendant Cotten's boots, and two samples from a pair of ladies' boots found at the scene. The results revealed that the soil samples taken from one of defendant Cotten's boots and from the scene had a common origin. Ms. Davis explained that in order for two samples to have a common origin, one sample must have been lying immediately next to, or on top of, the other sample.

The State rested when testimony adducing the above set forth facts was completed.

Thereafter, the defense called Ms. Joy Graves, who had been arrested for driving while intoxicated and placed in a jail cell with defendant Riggle. Ms. Graves related that Ms. Beech had visited defendant Riggle while she was incarcerated and that on this occasion she apologized for "telling those lies."

The State then called Ms. Beech as a rebuttal witness. Ms. Beech testified that on the occasion in question she had told defendant Riggle that she had gotten some of the details of the incident wrong in her initial statement and that things might have been different had she not given a statement. However, she also stated that she had at no time deliberately falsified her statement and that she had, at trial, truthfully testified to the best of her recollection.

As their first assignment of error, defendants claim that the black and white photographs admitted into evidence at trial served only to inflame the passions of the jury and should have been excluded. In Oxendine v. State, Okl.Cr., 335 P.2d 940 (1958), this Court adopted the test first formulated by the California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Carter, 48 Cal.2d 737, 312 P.2d 665 (1957), wherein the Court stated:

" 'If the principal effect of demonstrative evidence such as photographs is to arouse the passion of the jury and inflame them against the defendant because of the horror of the crime, the evidence must of course, be excluded. * * * On the other hand, if the evidence has probative value with respect to a fact in issue that outweighs the danger of prejudice to the defendant, the evidence is admissible even if it is gruesome and may incidently arouse the passions of the jury.' "

In the instant case, the probative value of the photographs outweighed any passion that may have been incidentally aroused in the jury. These pictures were not introduced in a quantity greater than that required to accurately depict the relative position of the body when found and the various traumas inflicted upon it. They additionally served to corroborate the testimony of several of the prosecution's witnesses, whose testimony would have otherwise been less credible.

In cases where the photographs in question depict a scene which is...