195 P. 583 | Or. | 1921
The appeal presents two questions for decision. It is contended: (1) That the.testimony of the accomplice, Moore, who appeared as a witness for the state, was not sufficiently corroborated; and (2) that reversible error resulted. from the refusal of the trial court to compel the district attorney to deliver to the defendant a “confession” made by Moore.
“A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice, unless he be corroborated by such other evidence as tends to connect the defendant with
Under the rule of the common law the testimony of the accomplice, although not corroborated, may be sufficient to warrant a conviction if it satisfies the jury beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt, of the defendant. Our statute, like the statutes in many other states, is in effect a legislative declaration that it is dangerous to permit convictions upon the uncorroborated testimony of the accomplice, and for that reason the statute in substance provides that juries shall not convict any accused person upon the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, even though they unqualifiedly believe the testimony of the accomplice.
The statute uses precise language. It is not necessary that there shall be corroborating evidence concerning every material fact as to which the accomplice testified, and it is not necessary that the whole ease shall be proved outside the testimony of the accomplice; for, if the statute contained such a requirement, accomplice testimony could never avail anything except as cumulative evidence. Our statute in plain words permits a conviction “upon the testimony of an accomplice”; with the limitation, however, upon such permission, that the accomplice shall be corroborated “by such other evidence as tends to connect” the defendant with the commission of the crime. The language of the statute is “other-evidence”; and, hence, the corroborative evidence must be independent of the testimony of the accomplice. The corroborating evidence must connect, or tend to connect, the defendant with the commission of the crime charged; and, furthermore, the tendency of
Evidence which relates exclusively to the commission of the crime or to the circumstances of the commission is not sufficient. The requirement of the statute is not satisfied by producing evidence showing that a crime was committed by some person or persons; but there must be evidence, independently of the accomplice testimony, tending to show that the defendant was connected with the commission of the crime.
Saturday afternoon, June 12th, Brake rented a Ford automobile from W. R. Couchman, who conducted a garage in Portland. Brake and Moore drove this automobile to Oregon City, leaving Portland about 2 p. m., and returning to Portland about 5 p. m. Moore was not present at the very moment when Brake rented the automobile; but Brake left Moore about a block away from the garage and went alone to the garage, rented the car, and then returned with it, and picked up Moore at the place where he had been left.
Harry Dubinsky purchased, on May 26, 1920, a new Studebaker “big six touring car,” and he used it as a “for hire” car. His “stand” was at the corner, of Sixth and Washington Streets, in Portland. The car had been run but a comparatively short distance prior to June 13th. Dubinsky’s body was
The account of the crime, and the events .which preceded as well as those which followed it, as told by Moore, will be made clearer if at this point we say that there was testimony given by Moore from which the jury could have found that Moore and Brake had talked of stealing an Oldsmobile car bearing the license number 50,4?9, which they had frequently seen parked “near the Willamette Hotel” during the period of their employment at the mill in Oregon City, and that they “were going to take the car back east.” If the jury believed the testimony of Moore, they were warranted in finding that on either Thursday, June 10th, or Friday, June 11th, Brake had stolen a license plate from some other vehicle in St. Johns, and that when Moore and Brake made the Saturday afternoon trip to Oregon City in the Ford ear they did so for the purpose of making preparations for stealing the Oldsmobile car; for on that afternoon Brake took with him the stolen license plate, and “went up the steps * * on Fifth Street,” in Oregon City, and left the plate there. There was also evidence from which the state could have argued that, when Moore and Brake left Portland with Dubinsky on Sunday morning, June 13th, they did so with the intention of stealing the Oldsmobile car, but that after arriving in Oregon City they changed
If Moore told the truth the facts were as follows: About 1 o’clock Sunday morning, June 13th, Moore and Brake went to Dubinsky, who was then with his car at his “stand” at the corner at Sixth and Washington Streets, and arranged with him to take them to Oregon City, and they immediately left Portland, going south on Sixth Street. Brake “told the driver he was coming up [to Oregon City] to collect a debt.” When they arrived in Oregon City they parked the car on the south side of Fifth Street and not far from Main Street. Brake then went up the “same steps he went before when” on Saturday afternoon he went up the steps with the license plate. Moore and Dubinsky “went over to a restaurant * * just across on the comer * * across Main Street,” and got “something to eat.” After being in the restaurant about thirty minutes, Moore and Dubinsky came out on the street, and there met and talked with Edward Surfus, a night policeman of Oregon City. After talking with Surfus “some,” Moore and Dubinsky went back to the car, and when they arrived there Brake “was sitting in the back seat.” Dubinsky and Moore then got in the car; Dubinsky took his seat at the wheel and Moore sat in the front seat beside Dubinsky. Just as the car left; or while it was being turned around on Fifth Street “and getting ready to leave Oregon City,” Brake said to
Before reaching Portland, Moore and Brake stopped and removed the two license plates from the car, and then on the rear end of the car they attached the plate which Brake had stolen the preceding Thursday or Friday, thus leaving the front end of the car without any license plate. After parking the car and wiping off some of the blood, Moore and Brake together went to the Davis house. Moore removed his shirt, washed the blood off the cuffs and put on a clean shirt. There was a little blood on one of the legs of his trousers, and he “washed that off.” After remaining in the Davis house for about an hour Moore left pursuant to an understanding with Brake that Moore would go to Oregon City and inspect the bridge to see whether any signs of blood had been left upon the bridge, and that after inspecting the bridge Moore would return to Portland and meet Brake, who agreed to be with the Dubinsky car at the end of the Broadway bridge in Portland at about 10 o’clock a. m. It was about 5:30 a. m. when Moore left the Davis house. He took a street-car to Portland, and from thence he went to Oregon City in an electric car. Moore returned to Portland, and he and Brake met at-about the time and the place agreed upon, Brake having the Dubinsky car with him. Moore made a report to Brake of his trip of inspection, and Brake said “it was all right.” Moore explains that they did not immediately “drive east” when they got the Dubinsky car, because Brake said “he wasn’t afraid to
We now direct attention to the evidence relied upon by the state to corroborate Moore, the accomplice. W. R. Couchman testified that he rented a Ford car to Brake on Saturday afternoon June 12th, and, that, when Brake rented the car, he said that he wanted to
M. W. Koontz had a car and used it “ in the for hire business.” Koontz had his stand at the southeast corner of Sixth and Washington Streets; he says that on Sunday morning, about ten minutes before one o’clock, he saw Dubinsky “pull away”, and drive south on Sixth Street with a party in the car, but that he could not tell how many were in the car with Dubinsky, nor whether there was more than one, although he was able to say “they were in the back seat whoever they were.”
Edward Surfus, the night policeman of Oregon City, stated that at about 2:10 o’clock Sunday morning, June 13th, he saw Moore and Dubinsky on Main Street in Oregon City. The three, Surfus, Moore, and Dubinsky, walked down Main Street “toward Fifth Street,” and, in the language of Surfus, “we stopped there a second or two, and Moore said to Dubinsky: ‘He ought to be there by this time.’ I don’t know who ‘he’ meant. We were about six feet from the curb, and Moore stepped to the curb and he said: ‘He is there,’ and just then someone at the car gave the horn a honk, and he said: ‘Come on,’ and he and Dubinsky walked off." Surfus saw Moore and Dubinsky get into the car. Surfus says that the Dubinsky car passed him going towards Portland with Dubinsky at the wheel and Moore “sitting in the seat with Dubinsky.” Surfus also stated that there was “another fellow” who wore a soft felt hat in the back; “he was not in the back seat, but he had his hands on the seat leaning forward.” Thus far there is no corroborative evidence tending to connect Brake with the commission of the crime; for the most that the evidence shows is that Dubinsky left Pprtland at the time
It will be recalled that another person besides Moore and Brake roomed at the Davis house and worked at the Western Cooperage Company. There is a bathroom near the Moore and Brake room in the Davis house. Davis says that he was awakened by the striking of the clock, and that on Sunday, June 13th, at 3:15 a. m. as usual, this other person returned to his room from his work at the Western Cooperage Company, and that “in the course of half an hour or so” two persons came in and went directly to the bathroom, where they remained “longer than common.” Although he cannot fix the time definitely, Davis says that after the two persons came into the house together and went to the bathroom, as already related, one of them left the house, and it “ran through my mind, what the devil is he going out for?” Davis did not see the two persons, and for that reason cannot say positively that they were Moore and Brake, although he thought at the time and assumed that the two persons were Moore and Brake. When the man who returned at about 3:15 a. m. from his work came into the house, every roomer was accounted for except Moore and Brake.
An alibi was claimed by Brake. He testified in his own behalf, and said that he left Portland on the street-car and got to his room “around 3:30” Sunday morning, and immediately went to bed; and when
Bertha Shodahl had been acquainted with Brake for about two months, and he called upon her frequently. Saturday afternoon, June 12th, he called at her house about 5 o’clock driving a Ford car, but after a short conversation he left, saying that he would call her up later. About 6 o’clock, “ora little later,” he called her up on the telephone, and at that time she asked him if “he was coming up that evening” and “he said he would be busy that evening.” Brake called the Shodahl house by telephone Sunday morning about 8 o’clock, but was unable to get Bertha. About 9 a. m. Sunday morning, June 13th, he appeared at her home with a new Studebaker car, and Brake and the girl rode around in the car for about an hour. When she stepped into the car she noticed the blood on the front seat, and she said: “I asked him: ‘What is that?’ and he said: ‘That is oil.’ I said: ‘It looks like blood.’ He said: ‘Well, at home I have spilled oil in my car and I know it looks like that,’ ”
While riding around he told her that he bought the car from a garageman, and had paid $2,700 for it; and he also explained to her that “the reason he could not see her that evening he had to wait for a telegram from his father sending him the money to buy the car.” She next saw Brake Sunday afternoon, and she rode
The evidence showed beyond any question whatever that the car which Brake drove; on Sunday, June 13th, was the Dubinsky car. Furthermore, Brake admitted, when testifying in his own behalf, that pursuant to agreement he met Moore with the car at the end of the Broadway bridge at about 10 o’clock Sunday morning. In the seat of the car was found a piece of pasteboard fashioned like a license plat, and on it had been printed with a lead pencil a number and lettering corresponding with the numbering and lettering of the stolen license plate which Moore and Brake had attached to the rear of the car. Brake admitted that he prepared this pasteboard plate Sunday morning after Moore left the Davis house. The waste which had been used to wipe the blood off the car was found in the parking between the curb and sidewalk near the place where Moore said the car had been parked; and at the same place was found one of Dubinsky’s business cards “sort of crumpled up.”
Brake claimed an alibi. He said that he last saw Moore at 9:30 Saturday evening; that he went to a
The alibi relied upon by Brake was weakened not only by the evidence already mentioned, but also by the testimony of the house defective, who was on duty at the Imperial Hotel from 9 p. m. Saturday until 4 a. m. Sunday. If Brake was in the hotel lobby as he claimed, then he was there from about 1 a. m. until after 2 a. m. Sunday. The house detective testified that every morning at 1 o’clock every person, except guests, is compelled to leave the hotel, and that after that hour none except guests are permitted to remain in the lobby, and that it was his duty to enforce this regulation. The house detective also stated that in the month of June the clerk at the desk did not handle the cigars, but that the night bell-boy handled them “in the check-room.” There was a cigar-stand in the lobby such as is frequently found in hotels, but when this stand closes for the day, as it did before 1 a. m.,
Thus it is seen that there was corroborative evidence tending to show preparation by Brake; as, for example, the trip to Oregon City in the Ford car, and the excuse made to Bertha Shodahl, about 6 o’clock Saturday evening, to the effect that he would be busy that evening. There was evidence that Brake falsified in his attempt to establish an alibi; as, for example, the testimony of the house detective with reference to the cigars; and the testimony of Davis with reference to the condition of the bed. There was corroborative evidence of the most positive kind that somebody was with Moore and Dubinsky in Oregon City Sunday morning; and there was an abundance of circumstantial evidence which not only fairly and legitimately, but strongly, tended to show that that somebody was Brake. The evidence is indisputable that Brake was in possession of the Dubinsky car as early as 9 a. m. Sunday, June 13th. Brake did not deny, but on the contrary he admitted, when téstifying on his behalf, that he made to Bertha Shodahl the statements which she says he made to her about the car on Sunday. The law only requires that degree of corroborative testimony which fairly and legitimately tends to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime; but the evidence in the record rises to a-higher degree than that required by the statute. The contention that there is not sufficient evidence to meet the requirement of Section 1540, Or. L., cannot be sustained.
Moore made three “confessions”: The first on June 18th, the day of his arrest; the second on June
On June 21st Moore and Brake waived examination, and were bound over by a justice of the peace to await the action of the Clackamas County grand jury. An indictment against Moore and Brake was returned on July 27, 1920, and on July 28th Brake was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. On July 2d Brake filed a motion in the Circuit Court for an order directing the district attorney to furnish Brake’s attorney “with a copy of the confession known as the ‘second confession’ of George Moore.” The Circuit Court refused to make such an order. Brake was tried in Clackamas County in September, 1920.
It appears from the record that Moore was confined in the Multnomah County jail on June 21st, and that on that day, at his request, he was taken to the office of the district attorney of Multnomah County, and there, in the presence of three persons, including a stenographer, a deputy sheriff, and Earl C. Bernard, a deputy district attorney of Multnomah County, Moore made the second confession. It appears from the record also that this confession was made orally, and that stenographic notes of what Moore said were made by the stenographer; and, although the record does not directly so state, we think that it is fair to infer, and, hence, we shall assume that the stenographic notes were transcribed, and that the transcription was in the possession of the district attorney of Clackamas County, or his deputy, at the time of the
“Mr. Garland: "Well, now, if your honor please, I request again that we be given a copy of the original statement, to impeach this man.
“Court: You can’t have any better statement than he has made now. He says at that time he told them an entirely different story, and that Brake was not with him.
“Mr. Garland: It is an extended statement, and my contention is I have a right to show how he claimed the crime was committed at that time.
“Mr. Garland: I don’t know. This is for the purpose of impeachment.
• ‘ ‘ Court: Ask him how it was.
“Mr. Garland: I don’t know what it was to impeach him.
‘ ‘ Court: You don’t need to lay any foundation where he admits it all himself.
“Mr. Garland: Well, if your Honor please, I would like, in addition to that demand, the statement for the purpose of showing that this defendant has a defense— to show that someone else has committed the crime. Now, in that statement we will show that Moore insisted he committed it, and how it was done.
“Court: Moore is willing to tell you that right now.
“Mr. Garland: Yes; hut I don’t know whether he will give me all the facts so we can emphasize it.
“Court: That is a fishing expedition. You can find out by asking him now what he told them. He admits he told an entirely different story from what he told here now.”
Moore explained that the second confession was not true, for in that confession he asserted that he committed the crime alone and that-Brake was not implicated. It is of course apparent that the second confession contradicted his sworn testimony that Brake was a participant.
What .was this paper referred to as the “second confession”? It consisted either of stenographic notes or a transcript of those notes. We shall assume that the “second confession,” which the defendant sought to procure, was a transcript of the notes made by the stenographer. It does not appear that Moore directed the notes to Be made, or that he approved, or that he signed them. Nor does it appear that Moore directed that the notes be transcribed, or that he approved the transcript, or signed it, or even knew before being called as a witness that a transcript of the
The instant case is likewise to be distinguished from other cases relied upon by the defendant, in which different courts have held that an accused was entitled to impeach a witness by showing contradictory statements made to a district attorney. It may be assumed for the purposes of this discussion that when Moore admitted on the witness-stand that his second confession was false, the statements made by him on June 21st ceased to be privileged, even though it be further assumed that they were originally privileged: People v. Davis, 52 Mich. 569 (18 N. W. 362); Cole v. Andrews, 74 Minn. 93 (76 N. W. 962); Marks v. Beyfus, 25 Q. B. Div. 494. The trial court did not refuse to permit the defendant to call as a witness any of the three persons who heard the second confession. The court did not prevent the defendant from proving the contradictory statements of the witness. All the court did was to refuse to compel the district attorney to deliver something which was not evidence, but was in effect private memoranda only. There was no attempt by the trial court to confine the cross-examiner within narrow limits; but, on the contrary, the
In no possible situation could evidence of Moore’s contradictory statements, whether that evidence consisted of the oral testimony of the three persons who were present or consisted of the writing, have been used as substantive evidence concerning the merits of the action. Impeachment of Moore was the only purpose for which the defendant could have used the contradictory statements made by Moore. We may assume for the purposes of this case that the contradictory statements were not privileged, and that, therefore, the defendant was entitled as a matter of right to avail himself of whatever constituted competent evidence of those contradictory statements. The right to use the contradictory statements existed only because they constituted evidence in behalf of defendant; but the right to use these statements was limited to the right to employ competent evidence of them. The defendant was obliged to prove the contradictory statements by the oral testimony of the witnesses who heard .the statements. The writing was not evidence of the statements. When the defendant asked for an inspection of the second confession he asked for that which was not evidence. The writing, in the circumstances shown here, amounted to nothing more than personal and private memoranda made for the
Our conclusion is that the trial court properly refused to compel the district attorney to permit the defendant’s attorney to inspect the second confession; and this conclusion, in the circumstances presented here, is supported by nearly every, if not every, adjudicated case reported in the books: State v. Yee Guck, ante, p. 231 (195 Pac. 363); State v. Rhoads, 81 Ohio St. 397 (91 N. E. 186, 18 Ann. Cas. 415, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 558); Sentry v. State, 67 Wis. 65 (30 N. W. 226); People v. Glaze, 139 Cal. 154 (72 Pac. 965); Spicer v. State, 188 Ala. 34 (65 South. 972); State ex rel. v. Steele, 117 Minn. 384 (135 N. W. 1128, Ann. Cas. 1913D, 343); Havenor v. State, 125 Wis. 444 (104 N. W. 116, 4 Ann. Cas. 1052). The basis of our conclusion is that, assuming that tbe contradictory statements were not privileged, tbe defendant could not have proved them by introducing tbe writing, because it was not shown to have been such a document as was evidence of tbe statements, but be was obliged to prove tbe statements by tbe oral testimony of tbe witnesses who beard them, and he made no attempt to prove them in that manner.
The defendant was ably defended, and be bad a fair trial. The judgment is affirmed. Affirmed.