People v. Campbell

139 N.W. 24, 173 Mich. 381, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 1023
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1912
DocketDocket No. 131
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 139 N.W. 24 (People v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Campbell, 139 N.W. 24, 173 Mich. 381, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 1023 (Mich. 1912).

Opinion

McAlvay, J.

Respondent was prosecuted and convicted before the circuit court of Oakland county upon an information charging that he feloniously and maliciously threatened to dynamite the dwelling house of Mary D. Ward, with intent to extort money from her, and the information also sets forth two prior convictions and sentences of respondent, one for larceny for which he was sentenced for ten years, and one for burglary for which he was sentenced for five years, in both instances to be confined in the State prison at Jackson at hard labor, both convictions having been had in the circuit court for the county of Oakland. Respondent has removed the case to this court after sentence for review upon a writ of error.

No evidence in the case on the trial was offered or presented on the part of respondent. The material facts relied upon by the people and to establish which evidence was offered and submitted are that respondent and another, acting together, wrote three certain letters to Mrs. Ward, the character of which will be seen from the following copy of the first letter:

“Aug, 22, 1910. Mrs. H. M. Ward. Pontiac, Mich.
“You are requested on Sept. 1st to have ten thousand dollars ($10,000) on Sept, the first you will receive a letter where to deliver the money and furthermore be shure and have the money without any further delay, and this money will hafto be forthcoming or your house will be dynamited. We mean business. This is no fooling.”

These letters were written in Pontiac, inclosed in envelopes, and sent through the mail. Two were posted in Detroit by the confederate named Osborne and one in [383]*383Pontiac. They were all received by Mrs. Ward. The second letter gives instructions where the money was to be left, and the amount required in bills and the amount in gold, and contained the same threat as the first. The third letter refers to the fact that Mrs. Ward had gone out as directed, but failed to go to the place designated, and contains directions ordering her how and where to go, and concludes with the words:

“This is no fooling. We mean business or trouble.”

Mrs. Ward advised with her attorney, the proper officers were notified, and a watch was set upon these parties, who were seen together at the time Mrs. Ward came to the Hodges House with her car. After the receipt of the third letter, a deputy sheriff and other officers went to the place designated, and deposited dummy money. At that time some shots were fired, and later respondent and Osborne were captured.

Osborne, who was under prosecution for complicity in this offense, a young man 19 years old, had lived in Pontiac for five years, and was in the employ of an automobile factory. He was produced as a witness, and testified in detail as to the circumstances of writing and sending the letters. He said Campbell told him he had a scheme whereby to get money, and later gave him the details; that he posted two of the letters in Detroit and the last one in Pontiac; that Campbell dictated two of the letters, and he wrote them down. He testified at length to all the facts up to and including what occurred on the night before their arrest, when both of them went to the place where Mrs. Ward had been ordered to place the money.

Other witneses testified to material facts, including the deputy sheriff, who also testified to a voluntary statement made to him by respondent in answer to questións that he was in the orchard when he fired the shots, and Osborne was further away. There was abundant evidence presented to the jury to warrant the verdict of guilty of the offense charged against respondent.

[384]*384The errors assigned and relied upon by respondent are:

First. That no offense is charged in the information. This question was raised at the close of the people’s case by a motion of respondent to quash the information and process in the case, because no offense under the laws of this State was set up in the information, which was denied. The information reads that:

“ Bennie E. Campbell * * * on or about the 22d day of August, 1910, at the city of Pontiac in said Oakland county, by a written communication sent to one Mary D. Ward, and directed to her the said Mary D. Ward by the name and description of ‘Mrs. H. W. Ward, R. F. D. No. 3, Pontiac, Michigan, feloniously and maliciously did threaten to dynamite the dwelling house of her, the said Mary D. Ward, with intent thereby then and there to compel the said Mary D. Ward, against her will, to deliver and give to the said Bennie E. Campbell and one Frank Osborne the sum of ten thousand dollars in money and which said written communication is as follows: [The letter of August 22d, 1910, already given, is then set forth.] ”

The statute defining the offense charged in the information, being section 11488, 3 Comp. Laws (5 How. Stat. [2d Ed.] § 14511), reads:

“If any person shall either orally or by a written or printed communication maliciously threaten * * * any injury to the person or property of another with intent thereby to extort money, or any pecuniary advantage whatever, * * * he shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison or in the county jail not more than two years or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, in the discretion of the court.”

The argument is that the information fails to charge, in the words of the statute just quoted, that the respondent “threatened to injure the person or property of Mrs. Ward,” insisting that the words in the information, “did threaten to dynamite the dwelling house of her the said Mary D. Ward,” did not sufficiently charge this offense. This objection is purely technical, and in our opinion the information in that respect is sufficient. In any view the [385]*385information is sufficient under the statute, which provides:

“No indictment shall be quashed or deemed invalid, nor shall the trial, judgment or other proceedings thereon, be affected * * * by reason of any other defect or imperfection in matters of form which shall not tend to the prejudice of the defendant.” Section 11908, 3 Comp. Laws,

Second. Objection was made during the trial on the part of the respondent to the introduction of journal entries and records of the court of the former convictions and sentences of respondent charged in the information, as incompetent and prejudicial. These former convictions were set up in the information as provided by section 11785, 8 Comp. Laws (5 How. Stat. [2d Ed.] § 14977), which provides:

“ When any person shall be convicted of any offense, and shall be duly sentenced therefor to confinement in the State prison of this State, for one year or more, and it shall be alleged in the indictment on which said conviction is had, and admitted or proved on the trial, that the convict has before been sentenced to a like punishment by any court in this State, or in any other of the United States, for a period not less than one year, he shall be sentenced to be punished by imprisonment in the State prison not more than seven years, in addition to the punishment prescribed by law for the offense of which he shall then be convicted.”

And section 11786, 3 Comp. Laws (5 How. Stat. [2d Ed.] § 14978), which provides:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 N.W. 24, 173 Mich. 381, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 1023, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-campbell-mich-1912.