People of the Territory v. Farrell

40 P. 703, 11 Utah 414, 40 P.R. 703, 1895 Utah LEXIS 70
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJune 14, 1895
DocketNo. 524
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 40 P. 703 (People of the Territory v. Farrell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People of the Territory v. Farrell, 40 P. 703, 11 Utah 414, 40 P.R. 703, 1895 Utah LEXIS 70 (Utah 1895).

Opinion

Smith, J.:

The defendant was indicted and tried for stealing certain cattle of one John Carver. The defendant was found .guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the penitentiary. From this judgment he appeals.

Many errors are assigned. Several assignments of error .are made in the abstract that are not supported by any •exception in the transcript, and these, of course, cannot be considered by us. The following matters however are .fairly presented by the record, and are relied on here: (1) A witness named Clark was permitted to testify to the loss of certain cattle claimed to have been stolen on the same night that Carver’s catlle were stolen. Clark and Carver lived in the same vicinity. The defendant had been tried and acquitted upon the charge of stealing Clark’s [416]*416cattle. Under these circumstances be objected to the reception of any testimony relative to the loss or theft of Clark’s cattle. His objection was overruled, and he excepted. (2) The second error relied on is that tbe court-received the evidence of the witnesses Clark and Belknap-to the effect that, after the cattle had been stolen and killed, according to the theory of the prosecution, one-John Farrell, a brother of the defendant, and in the absence of defendant, made certain statements to these-witnesses, Clark and Belknap, and took them and showed -them certain hides of cattle recently butchered, among-which, John Farrell claimed, were the hides of the stolen cattle, and among which Clark found the hides of the-cattle that he himself had lost, and for the stealing of which the defendant had just been tried and acquitted. (3) The third error assigned is that the court permitted the witness Engold to testify to certain statements made by John Farrell, in the absence of defendant, on the night-the cattle were stolen. Several other errors are assigned, in the brief and abstract, and were urged in the oral argument, including some objections to the instructions given.. We have looked into the transcript and find no objection was made or exception taken at the trial. The assignment here appears to be an afterthought, and, as we have: before stated, will not be considered by us.

As to the first error assigned, which we have stated' above, the district attorney concedes that it is not competent, ordinarily, to prove a separate larceny than that-charged in the indictment, in order to secure a conviction, but claims in this case that the .objection of defendant to-Clark’s testimony was sustained, and no error was committed in the respect alleged. We have carefully looked into-the transcript and we find the following proceedings took place: The witness Clark was a witness called by the prosecution. After stating his place of residence, he was. [417]*417asked to testify as to the theft of certain cattle of his own, alleged to have been stolen on the same night that Carver’s cattle were stolen. This testimony was objected to for the reason that defendant had already been tried for stealing these cattle belonging to Clark and acquitted* The court, after a long colloquy with counsel, in which he intimated that the testimony might be received, but did not squarely rule on the objection, was interrupted by counsel for defendant with the following statement: “1 am perfectly willing that it [speaking of Clark’s - testimony] shall go in, with 'this understanding: that there shall be no inference drawn in any manner from the transaction, and this jury shall be informed that this man has been honorably acquitted of any charge of stealing these cattle.” Thereupon the evidence was received, and the jury at the time was instructed by the court as follows: “The jury are instructed that the testimony of this larceny, or supposed larceny, from Clark, is no evidence in this case, and the jury have no right to consider it as a distinct act of larceny.” We are of opinion that this action of the defendant fully waived any objection he had made to this testimony, and relieves us from any duty to determine whether the evidence was admissible or not.

The second error stated above, and which embraces two or three assignments in the transcript, is more serious. It involves the question whether or not, when two or more persons are indicted together, as the defendant and John Farrell were in this case, upon the separate trial of one, the prosecution may prove the acts and statements of the other, made after the crime has been fully and completely committed. Admitting, for the sake of argument, that there was sufficient evidence of a conspiracy or joint intention to commit a crime to go to the jury, still are the acts and statements of one conspirator admissible against [418]*418the other, when made in his absence, and after the criminal enterprise had completely terminated? The evidence, in brief, was that on Sunday night the cattle were stolen; that they were driven to Ogden, a distance of 14 miles. There was a conflict in the evidence as to whether defendant had anything at all to do with driving them, but certain it is that the last 10 or 12 miles of the distance he •did not. They were driven to John Farrell’s slaughterhouse. On Monday they were butchered by an employé of John Farrell, and the meat was sold by John Farrell. On Monday or Tuesday either John Farrell or an employé of his took the hides and hid them in the brush. On Wednesday the sheriff, -Belknap, and Clark, went to John Farrell in Ogden, and in the absence of defendant, and, after informing him that the cattle had been stolen, demanded to know where the hides were. John Farrell then took the witnesses up the river to where the hides were concealed, and produced them, and they were delivered to the sheriff. Some time afterwards, one Eugold, who was also charged to have been connected with the crime with defendant, took the sheriff and pointed out where certain earmarks and brands were concealed. It was shown that the brands had been cut out of the hides that John Farrell had produced to the sheriff. The defendant was not present and knew nothing of this circumstance. Without copying the record, we may say that the whole of the testimony was objected to. The trial court ruled that all that John Farrell and Engold did after the offense was complete might be received in evidence, but'failed to rule on the 'question whether what they said at the same time was competent. But, although repeated objections were made, the substance of even their statements was gotten before the jury. It is claimed by the attorney for the people that very much of this testimony came in without objec[419]*419tion from defendant, and that the questions objected to were not of themselves specially injurious, also that some ■of the testimony received over the objection was afterwards -stricken out.

We have carefully read the transcript in this case, and •take this occasion to remark that the abstracts filed are ■remarkable chiefly for inaccuracy, and that the transcript, if correct, discloses that the court failed to rule on at least half of the objections made, and we incline to think ■there must be omissions in it. But we must pass on it as we find it. The transcript discloses that the defendant .aptly objected to all testimony as to the words and acts ■of the parties who were charged to be confederates with him said and done after the alleged crime was complete. Notwithstanding all these objections, and many of them were sustained, still all of the testimony as to what these •confederates did after the crime was complete was finally received.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. De Angeles
269 P. 515 (Utah Supreme Court, 1928)
State v. Justesen
99 P. 456 (Utah Supreme Court, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 P. 703, 11 Utah 414, 40 P.R. 703, 1895 Utah LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-of-the-territory-v-farrell-utah-1895.