Title: State v. Stephenson

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

191 Kan. 424 (1963)
381 P.2d 335
STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,
v.
LARRY JACK STEPHENSON, Appellant.
No. 43,381

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed May 11, 1963.
Robert R. Arnold, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Richard V. Foote, also of Wichita, was with him on the brief for the appellant.
Guy L. Goodwin, Deputy County Attorney, argued the cause, and William M. Ferguson, Attorney General, Robert E. Hoffman, Assistant Attorney General, and Keith Sanborn, County Attorney, were with him on the brief for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SCHROEDER, J.:
This is an appeal in a criminal case from a conviction and sentence of robbery in the first degree and felonious assault.
The controlling question is whether the admission of evidence concerning other offenses, in the nature of confessions and convictions, prevented the appellant from having a fair and impartial trial.
The evidence disclosed that at approximately 9:15 p.m. on the evening of October 24, 1961, Sharon Burns, age 15, was walking on the north side of Douglas Avenue in Wichita, Kansas, approaching the intersection of Water Street from the east, when a man who gave his name as Larry Richards or Richardson drove his automobile alongside of her at the curb and asked her if she wanted a *426 ride. She did not answer and continued to walk in a westerly direction. She crossed the intersection of Water Street to the bus stop where she wanted to catch the 9:32 bus to take her home from a Junior Achievement meeting which she attended. The man asked her again if she wanted a ride and she refused. After repeated efforts to get her into the car, he stopped the vehicle and approached her on the sidewalk. She backed away from him and told him to go on. She refused to give him her name and was about to cry when she saw an object in his hand which she described as being white and shaped like a bottle. She started screaming, saying "don't, don't," but he struck her and she fell to her knees and dropped her purse. She testified:
Two boys in another automobile then came to her assistance and called the police.
Sharon was subsequently taken to the hospital where four stitches were taken in her scalp. While at the hospital she identified the appellant's picture from a group presented to her. Later that evening she identified the appellant in a lineup at the Wichita police department. Prior to the appellant's appearance in the lineup she identified his voice from outside the room where she was waiting.
The information charged the appellant with robbery in the first degree in one count, and felonious assault in another count. He was tried before a jury and found guilty on both counts of the information as charged.
During the voir dire examination of the jurors, the attorney for the state made reference to the fact that the appellant had been convicted of other crimes. Objection was made to these references and the appellant unsuccessfully moved the court for a mistrial. No record was taken of the voir dire examination, and in view of our decision herein no further consideration will be given to this point relied upon by appellant for reversal.
Counsel for the state in his opening statement informed the jury the appellant had committed offenses other than the ones for which *427 he was charged in the case at issue. Such reference was properly challenged and is also presented as a ground for reversal on appeal.
During the state's case in chief O.A. Ballinger, deputy county attorney, was permitted to testify over objections of the appellant. Ballinger testified that he was employed in the county attorney's office of Sedgwick County on the 3rd day of February, 1958, and knew the appellant in this action on that occasion as Larry Jack Stephenson; that he was present in the Court of Common Pleas when the appellant was before the court, and had a recollection of the occurrences that took place at that time; that the appellant pleaded guilty to petty larceny in a case on which he had been working for approximately three to four weeks. He was permitted to testify to matters within his knowledge which occurred over a period of approximately thirty minutes just prior to the appellant entering the foregoing plea to petty larceny. He said the original act involved the taking of a purse from a lady in Wichita; that the original charge was a felony involving an incident where the appellant met a woman that he did not know, and he took the purse from the woman after having talked to her just a very short time; that the appellant's attorney at that time was willing to plead the appellant guilty to a charge of petty larceny because the amount of money in the purse which was taken was not sufficient to make it grand larceny under the grand larceny section; and that a plea to petty larceny was accepted because the complaining witness did not want to testify.
Floyd L. Williamson, employed by the Wichita police department, was permitted to testify over the appellant's objection concerning conversations with the appellant in regard to robberies. He testified:
"Q. And what was that conversation?
"Q. Did you make a report on what he had told you?
"A. Yes, I did.
[Objection overruled.]
"Q. Did he tell you anything about these roll jobs?
"Q. Did he tell you what he did?
"Q. Did he tell you where this took place?
"A. Where? On 21st Street.
"Q. Did he tell you where they took place?
"A. Possibly at that time, but I don't remember it.
"The Court: I will sustain it.
"A. Yes, he did.
"Q. And can you tell us what that was?
"Mr. Arnold: Now, objected to as a conclusion.
"The Court: He may state what he said.
"Q. Do you recall how many he told you about?
"A. I believe all told there were 74 cases.
"Q. These all involved thefts?
"A. Yes.
"A. Yes.
*429 "Q. He told you where the property was?
"A. Yes, he took me to it.
"Q. And you went out and recovered it?
"A. Yes.
"Q. You said there were how many?
"A. I believe it was 74."
On cross-examination Mr. Arnold testified that the appellant was never prosecuted on the seventy-four auto accessory thefts. He also testified the appellant's police record was "Very minute"  he believed two offenses.
The state introduced in evidence a file, case no. A-80148, entitled State of Kansas v. Larry Jack Stephenson, in the district court of Sedgwick County, Kansas, the journal entry of which indicates that the appellant on the 19th day of January, 1960, pleaded guilty to the offense of grand larceny and was sentenced accordingly. This was admitted over objection.
The defendant's evidence consisted of the testimony of his grandmother, Mrs. Anna Ross, with whom the appellant had lived since birth. On cross examination Mrs. Ross was asked whether the appellant was in the Reformatory for a year prior to October, 1961. Over objection the court required her to answer, "If she knows."
The appellant did not take the witness stand and never testified.
The principal contention of the appellant is that the introduction into evidence of confessions and convictions of other crimes committed by the appellant denied him a fair and impartial trial. This point is well taken.
The basic rules governing situations of this type were stated in State v. Myrick, 181 Kan. 1056, 317 P.2d 485, as follows:
A previous landmark case on this subject is State v. Frizzell, 132 Kan. 261, 295 Pac. 658, where the court said the exceptions are founded upon as much wisdom and justice as the rule itself, and the rule should be strictly enforced and should not be departed from except under conditions which clearly justify such departure.
In the case at bar the county attorney prior to trial was served notice that the appellant intended to enter a plea of alibi at the trial of the case. It was therefore apparent the principal issue of fact in the case would be the matter of the identity of the person committing the offenses. Evidence of other similar offenses was made more urgently necessary in order to rebut the defense of alibi. (State v. Frizzell, supra.)
Conviction is not a prerequisite to the admission of other similar offenses in evidence, if the requirements for its admission are otherwise fulfilled. Evidence merely showing the commission of other similar offenses seems to be sufficient. This is particularly true in cases involving sexual offenses. (State v. Stitz, 111 Kan. 275, 206 Pac. 910; and State v. Whiting, 173 Kan. 711, 252 P.2d 884.) Evidence of other similar transactions where the accused was charged with embezzlement was held proper for the purpose of showing intent in State v. Robinson, 125 Kan. 365, *431 263 Pac. 1081. Another case in point is State v. Harper, 137 Kan. 695, 22 P.2d 454.
The appellant in the instant case was charged with offenses committed against the person of another  robbery and assault. Under the circumstances presented by the facts in this case, evidence of other similar offenses would be admissible to prove identity of the person committing the offense, to prove scienter or guilty knowledge, to prove intent, to show inclination or motive, to prove plan, scheme or system of operation, and to rebut the special defense. Such similar offenses would include "purse snatching" and "roll jobs" previously committed by the appellant. Remoteness in time affects the weight to be given such evidence, rather than its admissibility. (State v. Fannan, 167 Kan. 723, 727, 207 P.2d 1176.)
On another point the appellant contends the state has not made out a prima facie case. He argues the most the state's evidence proved in this case was simple assault because the assailant had left Sharon without picking up the purse, and then returned to pick it up, thus showing no intent to rob at the time the act was committed. This was a question for the jury to determine, and certainly evidence of other similar offenses committed by the appellant would assist the jury in determining the question of intent. (See, State v. Fannan, supra.)
The appellant makes no objection to the instructions given by the court and we must assume, insofar as the record discloses, the jury was properly instructed concerning the limited purpose for which evidence of other similar offenses was admissible.
The record, however, presents a more serious question  that relating to admissions or confessions made by the appellant as to other offenses.
In State v. Myrick, supra, it was said:
While the point was not directly before the court in State v. Winchester, 166 Kan. 512, 203 P.2d 229, the court had this to say:
We hold upon the facts here presented where one is charged with a criminal offense, a statement in the nature of an admission or confession, to be admissible in evidence, must relate to the offense or offenses for which the accused is on trial. Here the testimony of admissions and confessions made by the appellant related to independent offenses. These admissions and confessions were made long prior to the commission of the offenses for which the appellant was on trial. Furthermore, the seventy-four auto accessory thefts to which fleeting reference was made by the police officer are not sufficiently similar to the offenses for which the appellant was on trial to be admissible under any of the exceptions to the rule. (See, State v. Aldrich, 174 Kan. 335, 255 P.2d 1027; and State v. Fannan, supra.)
We are not confronted with circumstances where the statement of the defendant included a reference to prior offenses, as well as to the offense charged. In that situation where there can be no separation of the relevant from the irrelevant, it has been held the jury may consider the entire statement under proper instructions. (State v. Cowen, 56 Kan. 470, 43 Pac. 687; and see, State v. Winchester, supra; and State v. Myrick, supra.)
Under the foregoing rules it follows that the appellant in the instant case has been denied a fair and impartial trial by the erroneous admission of evidence of other offenses.
A fortiori, reference to other offenses committed by the accused, if not admissible in evidence, would be improper in the opening statement. However, if evidence of similar offenses is admissible, it would be proper to make reference to such evidence in the opening *433 statement. (See, State v. Frizzell, supra; and State v. Robinson, supra.)
In view of the foregoing other points raised by the appellant become immaterial.
The judgment of the lower court is reversed with directions to grant the appellant a new trial.