State v. Abbott

Defendant was convicted after jury trial of burglary. ORS 164.225. The sole issue on appeal is defendant’s claim of prejudicial misconduct by the prosecuting attorney. Defendant contends that it was reversible error for the trial judge to refuse a mistrial after the prosecutor called defendant’s accomplice, James Morgan, as a witness for the state, knowing that the witness would probably refuse to testify.

Defendant and Morgan, the witness in question, were involved in a burglary in which a small safe and its contents were taken from a residence in the Valley Junction area in October 1974.

The…