Slinkard v. State

103 S.W.2d 50, 193 Ark. 765, 1937 Ark. LEXIS 78
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 8, 1937
Docket4-4021
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 103 S.W.2d 50 (Slinkard v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slinkard v. State, 103 S.W.2d 50, 193 Ark. 765, 1937 Ark. LEXIS 78 (Ark. 1937).

Opinion

Butler, J.

The appellant was tried and convicted in the Benton circuit court of the offense, of receiving-stolen property and his punishment -fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a period of one year. From the judgment of conviction he prosecutes this appeal and contends, first, that the trial court erred in overruling his demurrer to the indictment which he had duly interposed in apt time. Omitting* the caption, the indictment is as follows:

“The Grand Jury of Benton county, in the name and by the authority of the state of Arkansas accuse L. A. Slinkard of the crime of receiving stolen property committed as folloivs, to-wit:
“The said L. A. Slinkard in the said county of Benton and state of Arkansas on the 29th day of April, 1936, did unlawfully, wilfully, and feloniously have and keep and receive into his possession two hogs, property of Lonzo Hegwood, knowing at the time that then and there said hogs had lately before been stolen, taken, and carried away with the unlawful, wilful, and felonious intent to deprive the true owner of his property aforesaid, against the peace and dignity of the state of Arkansas.”

Section 2493 of Crawford & Moses’ Digest provides: “Whoever shall receive or buy any stolen goods, money or chattels, knoAving them to be stolen, Avith intent to deprive the true OAAmer thereof, shall, upon conviction, be punished as is, or may be, by laAV prescribed for the larceny of such goods or chattels in cases of larceny.”

The defect claimed to exist in the indictment is that it fails to allege that the goods Avere received by the defendant “with the intent to deprive the true owner thereof,” and to sustain this contention Ave are referred to the cases of State v. Bills, 118 Ark. 44, 176 S. W. 114; Kent v. State, 143 Ark. 439, 220 S. W. 814, and Cochran v. State, 169 Ark. 503, 275 S. W. 895. The opinion in the Bills case recites the indictment AAdiich in effect charges that the defendant did unlawfully, feloniously and knoAVingly receive certain meat, the property of a railway company, “all of which property had prior to the said time been stolen, and the said person named in the caption hereof, at the time of receiving and taking said personal property into his possession, Avell knew that the same had been stolen, against the peace and dignity of the State of Arkansas.” The court noted that the offense charged was a purely statutory, one, an essential element of the offense being that the stolen property was received “with the intent to deprive the owner thereof,” and, as the indictment under review wholly failed to charge this element, that it was fatally defective and should have been so held on demurrer.

In Kent v. State, supra, the indictment considered was one- for embezzlement. It was contended that the indictment was insufficient for the reason that it did not allege that the property was embezzled “with intent to embezzle or convert to his own use.” The court held that the indictment was sufficient for the reason that the word “embezzle” used in the indictment conveyed the idea of the intent to convert to his own use.

In Cochran v. State, supra, the opinion did not set out the indictment, but the court stated that the indictment copied in the transcript failed to contain an allegation that the goods were received by the defendant “with the intent to deprive the true owner thereof.” Following the rule announced in State v. Bills, supra, the court held the indictment fatally defective.

The indictment we now consider, however, is not similar to the indictments held to be bad in the Bills and Cochran cases. It does contain the allegation that the defendant “received info his possession two hogs, property of Lonzo Hegwood, knowing at the time that then and there said hogs had lately before been stolen, taken, and carried away with the unlawful, wilful, and felonious intent to deprive the true owner of his property aforesaid, * * The appellant contends that the allegation relative to the intent refers to the original larceny and not to the defendant’s receiving the property.

Section 3014 of Crawford & Moses ’ Digest provides in effect that no indictment is insufficient, nor the proceedings thereunder affected, by any defect “which does not tend to prejudice the substantial rights of defendant on the merits.” We are of the opinion that the indictment involved in the case at bar, while perhaps inaptly drafted, is sufficient, and that appellant’s interpretation of the indictment is not the only one to which it is susceptible. The expression contained in the indictment “* * * with intent to deprive the true owner of his property” refers both to the felonious taking and the felonious receiving - and while it is not couched in the exaet language of the statute it does carry with it the exact meaning. Certainly, it was sufficient to apprise the defendant of the nature of the crime so that he might adduce evidence as to the honesty of his purpose in receiving the stolen hogs, and this he did. The trial court instructed the jury on that phase of the case in the following language: “I charge you that if you find that the defendant purchased the hogs in question in good faith, having no knowledge that said hogs had been stolen, even though” they had been stolen, then you should acquit the defendant.”

The appellant contends for a second ground for reversal that the trial court abused its discretion in overruling his motion for a continuance. It was alleged in this motion that the ease was set for trial in defendant’s absence of which fact he was ignorant until the afternoon of September 21 (Monday) and on the following morning (September 22, Tuesday) he caused subpoenas to, be issued for his witnesses and placed same in the hands of the sheriff, which were returned unserved as to Charles Aufderheide, Harvey Varnell and Dick Borger; that Aufderheide and Varnell had, left for California three weeks prior to defendant’s knowledge that the case was set for trial and that Aufderheide and Varnell were material witnesses on hehalf of defendant.

The indictment was returned by the grand jury on the first day of June, an adjourned day of the March term of court,- preceding' the trial on September 22, 1936. There is no contention made that from the date of the indictment to that of the trial the defendant was in jail and the- inference to be gathered is that he was not. On the presentation of the motion no evidence was, offered by the defendant tending to show any diligence on his part in an effort to obtain the presence, of his witnesses. The-trial court stated to the attorney that the case was first set. for trial in June and that, on September 21, it was reset for the following' day, September 22, “in the presence of your client.” The court denied the motion on the ground that proper diligence had not been shown. We think there was no abuse of the court’s discretion which would amount to a denial of justice. The matter of allowing a continuance rests within the sound discretion of the court, and the burden is upon the defendant seeking a continuance because of absent witnesses to show that he used diligence to secure their attendance at the trial. The cases cited by appellee are ample authority to support the action of the trial court. Adams v. State, 176 Ark. 916, 5 S. W. (2d) 946; Edwards v. State, 180 Ark. 363, 21 S. W. (2d) 850; Birmingham v. State, 192 Ark. 1095, 96 S. W. (2d) 773.

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Bluebook (online)
103 S.W.2d 50, 193 Ark. 765, 1937 Ark. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slinkard-v-state-ark-1937.