State v. Ollison
| Decision Date | 24 February 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 37802,37802 |
| Court | Washington Supreme Court |
| Parties | The STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. David Lee OLLISON and Sandy Wallace, Jr., Appellants. |
Lee, Krilich & Anderson, Joseph Q. Betzcndorfer, Jr., Tacoma, for appellants.
John G. McCutcheon, Prosecuting Atty., Tacoma, Eugene Olson, Gary E. Cronk, Deputy Pros. Attys., for respondent.
A jury found appellants guilty of larceny by trick, device and false and fraudulent representations and pretenses. Mrs. Edna B. Greene, who testified that the defendants had taken $1,000 from her by substituting a roll of paper for her $1,000 in currency, supplied the main evidence supporting the verdict.
Mrs. Greene said that appellants, seemingly strangers to each other, had approached her on the downtown streets of Tacoma on December 10, 1963, seeking both a place to stay and a safe place to keep some money one of them showed her. She told them she could help them and suggested that the credit union where she kept her own savings might be a good depository for the money. They approved the idea generally, she said, but expressed doubts that the money, once deposited, could readily be withdrawn and persuaded her to make a withdrawal from her credit union account to demonstrate that it could be done.
She told the jury that the three drove to her credit union office where she withdrew $1,000 in the form of a check. Appellants, apparently ignorant of business methods, expressed doubts that the check could be exchanged for cash. To prove otherwise, she drove them to a bank, cashed the check, and, folding the $1,000 in currency into her credit union account book, placed the book and money in her purse. With the purse on the seat beside her, she drove away from the bank, setting the scene for the trick.
Appellants, seemingly convinced that money placed in a credit union in Mrs. Greene's name could be quickly withdrawn and that a check delivered by the credit union could be converted into money, stated their election to commingle their funds with hers for deposit in her credit union. Conspicuously placing a roll of bills in her purse as they drove toward the city center, they asked to be let out of the car a minute or so later. When Mrs. Greene examined her purse a few minutes later, she said she found her money gone and a roll of newspaper clippings and toilet paper in its stead.
From a judgment and sentence of imprisonment entered on the verdict, appellants bring this appeal.
Appellants assign error to the court's refusal to grant their alternative motions for a new trial or in arrest of judgment based on the insufficiency of the evidence. We think the court ruled properly on this matter. Mrs. Greene's identification of one defendant was positive and, while earlier expressing some doubt as to the other defendant, when she saw him in the courthouse before the trial she said that she knew then and there was no more doubt in her mind. Introduction of the rolled paper and a brown paper bag identified by Mrs. Greene as having been placed in her purse by appellants supplied believable evidence that she had not lost or misplaced her $1,000.
A challenge to or motion directed against the sufficiency of the evidence admits the truth or the evidence and all inferences that can reasonably be drawn from the evidence, and requires that the evidence be interpreted most strongly against the challenger or movant and in the light most favorable to the opposing party. State v. Lutes, 38 Wash.2d 475, 230 P.2d 786 (1951). There was ample evidence to support the verdict against both defendants.
Appellants assign error to the court's refusal to grant them a preliminary hearing after the prosecuting attorney had filed an information in the superior court. They had been brought to Pierce County pursuant to a warrant of extradition issued by the Governor. On March 30, 1964, the prosecuting attorney of Pierce County had them taken before a justice of the peace in the Pierce County courthouse where their constitutional rights and immunities were explained to them by that court. At appellants' request, the justice of the peace court set April 13, 1964, as the time for a preliminary hearing. Prior to that date, on April 8, 1964, the prosecuting attorney...
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In re Davis
...Hutchinson, 135 Wash.2d 863, 887, 959 P.2d 1061 (1998); State v. Hartzog, 96 Wash.2d 383, 398, 635 P.2d 694 (1981); State v. Ollison, 68 Wash.2d 65, 69, 411 P.2d 419 (1966); State v. Sawyer, 60 Wash.2d 83, 86, 371 P.2d 932 (1962); Williams, 18 Wash. at 51, 50 P. 112. Hartzog, 96 Wash.2d at ......
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...v. Allen, 397 U.S. 337, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970); State v. Hartzog, 96 Wash.2d 383, 635 P.2d 694 (1981); State v. Ollison, 68 Wash.2d 65, 411 P.2d 419 (1966); State v. Sawyer, 60 Wash.2d 83, 371 P.2d 932 (1962); State v. Williams, 18 Wash. 47, 50 P. 580 (1897); State v. Tolley, ......
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