State v. Fleetwood

• Decision Date: 19 December 1968
• Docket Number: No. 39875,39875
• Citation: 75 Wn.2d 80,448 P.2d 502
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Jasper Leroy FLEETWOOD, Appellant.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

Page 80

75 Wn.2d 80

448 P.2d 502

STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Jasper Leroy FLEETWOOD, Appellant.

No. 39875.

Supreme Court of Washington, Department 2.

Dec. 19, 1968.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 21, 1969.

Garver & Garver, Robert W. Garver, Camas, for appellant.

L. Edward Brown, Prosecuting Atty., Montesano, Paul B. Fournier, Deputy Pros. Atty., for respondent.

HILL, Judge.

This might well be known as the 'Great Grays Harbor Colloquium.' Of the 485 pages in the statement of facts, approximately 200 are devoted to colloquy.

The question presented to the jury was whether the defendant, Jasper Leroy Fleetwood, was in Olympia and adjacent environs (Thurston County) on the afternoon of August 11, 1966, trying to buy a pest extermination business, or whether he was 28 miles away in Elma (Grays Harbor County) assaulting and robbing Beulah Taylor, an 87-year-old woman.

The state, in support of the latter hypothesis, presented two witnesses who identified him positively as having been in Grays Harbor County on that day: Mrs. Thelma Driggs, a public school teacher, who testified that the defendant was in her summer home at Copalis Beach in Grays Harbor County (some 45 miles west and north of Elma) on August 11, 1966. She further testified that he told her he was an F.B.I. agent; and that he also told her that the man with him was a Mr. Bowman, who was an entomologist, and that they were investigating the claimed defective work of an insect exterminator who had done work for her. She fixed the time they were there as 'before 12:00, around 12:00 (noon).' She had made a note of the license number of the car in which the two men were traveling, i.e., EBD 858 (Oregon). A car bearing the same license number was at Mr. Fleetwood's home near Woodburn, Oregon when he was arrested. His contention is that someone unknown to him had taken his car from where he had parked it in Tumwater, Washington.

Mrs. Beulah B. Taylor, a widow, the victim of the robbery and assault in Elma, likewise positively identified the defendant. She testified that when he approached her outside of her home, he represented himself as an F.B.I. agent, and stated that the people who had done some termite extermination work for her several weeks before had overcharged her and that he would get some of the money back for her. (The similarity of the story told to Mrs. Driggs will be noted.) After he gained admission into the house, he assaulted and robbed her, taking four $20 bills, a $10 bill, and forcing her to write and give to him a personal check for $250 payable to bearer. She was uncertain as to the time he arrived, but said she was pretty sure it was as late as 1:00 p.m. when he came. (Inferentially, it could have been considerably later. She testified that after the defendant left, she went to a neighbor (Mrs. Westenburg) for help. A doctor was called, and he testified that his house call was at 4:20 p.m.; a laceration behind Mrs. Taylor's left ear was still bleeding at the time of his examination.)

The defense testimony, as to the defendant's presence in the Olympia-Washington area on August 11, 1966, comes from 5 men who journeyed in 3 different cars from the state of Oregon to the 'Oregon Trail' (a restaurant and cocktail lounge) in Tumwater, adjacent to Olympia, on the morning of August 11, 1966. The trip was made because of their interest in the defendant's possible purchase of an exterminator business in Olympia.

The presence of defendant's automobile at Copalis Beach was explained by saying that someone took it without his permission at some time prior to 11:20 or 11:30 a.m. and then returned it by 5:30 p.m. that evening. There is no evidence that any complaint was ever made to the authorities that defendant's car had been taken.

Fleetwood placed himself at 8 different locations in the Olympia area on that day-- twice at the home of a Mr. Greer from whom he expected to purchase the exterminator business (Mr. Greer was not home, but there was testimony that the defendant talked each time with Mrs. Greer); four times at the Oregon Trail, once each at The Spar and The Broiler (restaurant-cocktail lounges); and once at Olympia Brewing Company. The Oregon Trail was the rendezvous from which the visiting Oregonians operated. Significantly, neither Mrs. Greer nor any one connected with any of the four establishments mentioned was called to testify that they had seen or talked to the defendant on that date. (A representative of the Olympia Brewing Company testified that one of the party had signed as part of a large group making a tour of the brewery, but the defendant was not identified as a member of that group except by members of the claque from Oregon.)

The defendant denied his presence at Copalis Beach or Elma, and further denied knowing any one by the name of Bowman.

On rebuttal, a deputy sheriff from Marion County, Oregon, testified that at the time he arrested the defendant on August 13,...