People v. Weisman

129 N.E. 689, 296 Ill. 156
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 23, 1920
DocketNo. 13440
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 129 N.E. 689 (People v. Weisman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois 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. Weisman, 129 N.E. 689, 296 Ill. 156 (Ill. 1920).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Duncan

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in error, George Weisman, sued out this writ of error to reverse the judgment of the circuit court of .St. Clair county convicting him of burglary and larceny and sentencing him to an indefinite term in the Southern Illinois penitentiary. He was tried under an indictment charging him and George Davis with having burglarized the bank building of the First National Bank of Marissa, Illinois, a corporation, on September 4, 1919, and with having then and there stolen, taken and carried away $2000 of lawful money of the United States and divers United States bonds and war savings stamps, of the goods and chattels of said First National Bank of Marissa, Illinois, then and there found in said bank building. The jury found both defendants guilty as charged in the indictment and found the ages of plaintiff in error and Davis, respectively, 21 and 28 years. The court sustained a motion on behalf of Davis and granted him a new trial but overruled a motion for new trial on behalf of plaintiff in error and sentenced him upon the verdict.

The undisputed facts are the following: About seven o’clock in the morning of September 4, 1919, William G. Quade, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Marissa, was called to the bank. He found that the rear windows of the bank building had been broken during the night and the building entered. The lock on the vault door indicated that it had been knocked off or blown off with some explosive, and a number of vault boxes were taken out and robbed of their contents and papers were scattered in confusion over the floor. About $250 in money had been taken, and also a large number of Liberty bonds had been taken from the safety boxes belonging to lessees thereof. No one was seen near or around the building or in the city of Marissa upon whom suspicion rested. Plaintiff in error was employed as night clerk at the Alamic Hotel, at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets, St. Louis, Missouri, which was owned by his uncle, Joseph T. Weisman. On the evening of September 4, 1919, about seven o’clock, plaintiff in error took eight fifty-dollar Liberty bonds to the office of the Friedman Loan and Mercantile Company at 1500 Market street, St. Louis, and sold them and signed his name and address in the book kept by the company for that purpose. He told Harry Marx, an employee of the company, who purchased the bonds, that the bonds did not belong to him but belonged to a guest at the hotel by the name of Brown. These eight bonds were identified by the numbers as bonds that were stolen from the First National Bank of Marissa. There is no question of the identity of these bonds as a part of the bonds stolen from the First National Bank the night before they were sold. About eight o’clock that same evening plaintiff in error went to another office of the Friedman Loan and Mercantile Company at 2001 Market street, St. Louis, and there offered to sell to Manuel Goodman, an employee of the company, eight other Liberty bonds, each of the denomination of $50. He told Goodman that these eight bonds belonged to his uncle, Joseph Weisman. Goodman tried to call Weisman over the telephone but failed to get him. He then asked the plaintiff in error if he had been to the office oj the Friedman Company at 1500 Market street. Goodman gave as a reason for asking him this question that the office of the company at 1500 Market street was nearer to the Alamic Hotel, where he knew plaintiff in error was employed as night clerk. Plaintiff in error told him that he had not been to the other office of the company. Goodman called up the other office and learned that plaintiff in error had been there and so told him. Plaintiff in error then asked Goodman to give him back the bonds, and Goodman did so and plaintiff in error took them and left. On the 17th or 18th of September following, Mark A. Shipley, special claim agent for the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York, and sergeant of detectives Kaiser of St. Louis, went together to the room of plaintiff in error about ten o’clock A. M. and after waking him asked him about selling the bonds. He denied to them that he had been to both offices of the Friedman Loan and Mercantile Company, and told them he had taken the eight bonds first above mentioned to the Friedman Company’s office at 1500 Market street and sold them for a guest at the hotel, for which he said he was paid the sum of five dollars. He gave to them a very indefinite description of the guest who he claimed engaged him to sell the bonds but could not give them his name. The officers testified that he appeared excited when he was being questioned by them.

Plaintiff in error took the witness stand in his own defense and testified that he was never in Marissa and denied any connection with the burglary and larceny, and testified that at the time he sold the bonds in question he did not know that the bank had been burglarized. He admitted that he had taken the other eight bonds to the Friedman Loan and Mercantile Company at 2001 Market street and there offered them for sale, and that he took them away with him when the clerk there seemed to be suspicious of them. He also testified, that he was paid $10 for selling the first eight bonds, and that a guest at the hotel by the name of Erlick, who was registered as being from East St. Louis under the date of September 3, 1919, had employed him to sell these bonds. He further testified that when he returned with the other eight bonds he gave them to Erlick, and that Erlick left the hotel and had never been seen by him since. He described Erlick as a darlc-complected man, weighing about 180 pounds, stout and smooth shaven. He denied telling the officers that he had been paid $5 for selling the bonds and testified that he told them he had been paid $10 therefor. He did not deny in his testimony that he told Goodman that the latter eight bonds belonged to his uncle, Joseph Weisman, and did not deny in his testimony that he told Marx, at 1500 Market street, St. Louis, that the first eight bonds belonged to a guest at the hotel by the name of Brown.

After consideration of the foregoing evidence our conclusion is that the jury were fully warranted in finding the plaintiff in error guilty and that we would not be justified in reversing this judgment upon the ground that his guilt is not established beyond a reasonable doubt, as contended by him. The jury and the court had the advantage of hearing and seeing the witnesses as they appeared and testified upon the witness stand, and there is no reasonable theory .appearing in the record why this court should substitute its judgment for that of the jury and of the court, and we are not disposed to do so. The possession of a part of the stolen bonds so recently after the burglary made a prima1 facie case of guilt against plaintiff in error, the possession of the bonds not being explained by any evidence in the record in a manner sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt of his guilt. The attempted explanation of his possession of the stolen bonds is very unsatisfactory. His statements were very conflicting and his conduct while trying to sell the bonds was of a very suspicious character. The case was really stronger for the State after his testimony than before. A prima facie case having been made by the State in the • first instance, the only logical verdict for the jury was one of guilty.

It is also insisted that the judgment should be reversed because of a variance between the name of the bank alleged in the indictment and that proved by the evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
129 N.E. 689, 296 Ill. 156, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-weisman-ill-1920.