State v. Aldrich

724 S.W.2d 688, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 3478
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 13, 1987
DocketNo. 51168
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 724 S.W.2d 688 (State v. Aldrich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Aldrich, 724 S.W.2d 688, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 3478 (Mo. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

REINHARD, Judge.

Defendant appeals after his jury conviction on two counts of passing bad checks, § 570.120, RSMo 1986. He was found by the court to be a prior and persistent offender and sentenced to two consecutive terms of five years’ imprisonment. We affirm.

Defendant was convicted for passing bad checks written on two checking accounts, the Central West End Group account at Mercantile Trust Company in St. Louis, and the New City Investment account at Woods Mill-Forty Bank in Chesterfield, Missouri. Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on both counts. We recite as briefly as possible the state’s evidence and that of the defendant which support the conviction.

Defendant was a one-third partner along with Alexander Zavradinos (Alex) and Dim-itrious Zavradinos in the Central West End Group. The partnership, which managed rental properties for others, maintained its office at 4535 Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis. Defendant was the partnership’s bookkeeper and was involved in the day-today management of the properties including daily paying of bills and, on occasion, represented himself as an agent of the partnership. He testified he was at the partnership office daily and that Alex also was there every day. Defendant and Alex resided in the same house.

On February 7, 1984, Alex opened the Central West End Group account at Mercantile with an initial deposit of $765.50. Although Alex was the only person authorized to sign checks on the account, defendant testified that he was “not ignorant ... at all” about the partnership’s checking account and that he would sometimes sign checks on the account for Alex pursuant to Alex’s authorization even though only Alex had signed the signature card at the bank. He stated, however, that Alex was responsible for the Central West End Group checking account.

On March 12,1984, Mercantile mailed the first of many overdraft notices to Central West End Group at their address of record, 4535 Lindell Boulevard. This notice indicated that a check in the amount of $6,500.00, written on the Central West End Group account, had been dishonored because of insufficient funds in the account. Had the check been paid on that date, the account would have been overdrawn $4,660.25. A second overdraft notice, indicating presentment and return of the $6,500.00 check, was sent to Central West End Group on March 16. Had the check been honored on March 16, the account would have been overdrawn by $5,109.53. Beginning March 21, 1984, overdraft notices on 41 other checks were sent to Central West End Group at the Lindell Boulevard address on six separate days in March and on eight days in April. Although de[691]*691fendant denies seeing the overdraft notices dated March 12, 16, 21, and 22, he admits being at the 4535 Lindell address daily, that mail was received every day, and that he saw “lots of overdraft notices.” Also on March 21, the account went into overdraft status because a $6,500.00 check written by defendant on the New City Investment account and payable to Central West End Group was returned unpaid to Mercantile.1 The negative balance was $1,244.00. From that date on, the account remained in overdraft status, even though a few subsequent deposits were made and checks continued to be presented for payment.

In early March 1984, defendant ordered goods for the New Star Market from Joseph Singler, district manager for Mass Merchandisers, Inc. Defendant indicated to Singler that he was the owner of the New Star Market. Defendant agreed to pay for the merchandise upon receipt of the goods. Singler personally delivered the goods on Thursday, March 15, 1984. Defendant did not pay for the goods upon delivery as he had previously agreed with Singler, explaining that the office paid bills only on Fridays. Singler stopped at New Star Market three times on Friday, March 16; at 4:30 p.m. defendant gave him a check in the amount of $2,698.42, payable to Mass Merchandisers and written on the Central West End Group account at Mercantile. Singler said Alex was in the store when he picked up the check. The check was dated March 17, 1984, and bore signatures for Alex and defendant. Defendant testified he was authorized by Alex to write the check and to sign Alex’s name above his own signature. Singler forwarded the check to his company’s home office in Harrison, Arkansas. The check was presented for payment on March 27 and on a later date and was dishonored each time because of insufficient funds in the account. The check has never been paid and the company has not been paid for the merchandise.

After the Central West End Group account went into overdraft status on March 21, 1984, the bank paid two checks, in the amounts of $5,158.63 and $4,407.50, which bank officer Craig Fowler testified he authorized pursuant to an agreement with Alex or defendant. An additional eight checks, all in amounts of $500.00 or less, were also paid by Mercantile after March 21.

On April 16, a “hold” was placed on the account and the overdraft balance of $6,736.74 was reported to the city circuit attorney. On May 9, 1984, the circuit attorney’s office sent separate “10-day letters” to Alex and defendant at their common address concerning the cheek to Mass Merchandisers, Inc. The letter stated that the check to Mass Merchandisers had been dishonored due to insufficient funds and that the circuit attorney would initiate a felony prosecution under RSMo 570.120 within 10 days of the mailing of the letter if the amount of the check was not paid to Mass Merchandisers. The check was never paid. Defendant admits receiving a copy of the 10-day letter and said he discussed it with Alex.

Defendant also was president of B.A.C. Investment d/b/a New City Investment. He testified B.A.C. went into bankruptcy in 1981 and defendant, as statutory trustee, was appointed receiver. Along with a Dr. Clark, he handled “all of the financial affairs of the corporation” from 1981 to 1983. In 1984 defendant was instructed by the bankruptcy court to “put together all financial information I had available tome....”

The New City Investment account was opened in January 1980 by defendant’s wife who was listed as the only person authorized to sign checks on the account. Defendant’s name appeared on a second signature card as “husband” but he was not authorized to sign checks. In October 1980, the New City Investment checking account was closed by a debit memo which reduced the balance from $85.26 to zero. The debit memo was entered as a result of a garnishment on the account. The ac[692]*692count was closed throughout 1982, 1983, and 1984, and no deposits were made into the account during those years.

Defendant wrote a $6,500.00 check dated March 14, 1984, on the New City Investment account payable to the Central West End Group. The check was deposited at Mercantile, and $6,500.00 was credited to the partnership account on Monday, March 19. On March 20, the check was presented for payment to Woods Mill-Forty Bank and was promptly dishonored and returned to Mercantile. The Central West End Group account at Mercantile was debited $6,500.00 on March 21. This debit created the overdraft balance in the account at Mercantile. Defendant said he did not know the New City Investments account was closed. He said he had not looked at the status of the account for six or seven months prior to writing the check and he thought there was at one time at least $9,000.00 in the account. He said he had written many other checks on the account.

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Related

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41 S.W.3d 878 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2001)
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833 S.W.2d 431 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
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784 S.W.2d 806 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)
Cook v. State
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Bluebook (online)
724 S.W.2d 688, 1987 Mo. App. LEXIS 3478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-aldrich-moctapp-1987.