State v. Beltowski

98 N.W.2d 252, 256 Minn. 220, 1959 Minn. LEXIS 641
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 17, 1959
Docket37,634
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 98 N.W.2d 252 (State v. Beltowski) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Beltowski, 98 N.W.2d 252, 256 Minn. 220, 1959 Minn. LEXIS 641 (Mich. 1959).

Opinion

Nelson, Justice.

The defendant was found guilty of the crime of burglary in the third degree before the Hennepin County District Court and a jury. He was thereafter arraigned on three prior convictions to' which he pleaded guilty.

The district court, pursuant to defendant’s motion for an unabridged trial transcript, ordered in lieu thereof that a synopsis of the trial proceedings and the testimony given at the trial of defendant, prepared by the court reporter at the trial, consisting of 251 typewritten pages, be filed with the clerk of the District Court of Hennepin County so as to be made available to this court and a duplicate copy made available to defendant by delivery to him at the Minnesota State Prison.

*221 While defendant’s failure to conform to the laws and rules of this court in not presenting the 251-page synopsis in the form of a settled case could subject his appeal to a motion for dismissal, the state has suggested that since defendant has obtained the partial transcript and has made some use thereof in presenting his briefs, it would be inclined, if permission is granted by this court, to waive relator’s failure to so present it in order that the points raised in his brief may be decided on the merits. Of course no question can be raised as to' the sufficiency of the evidence without a settled case or bill of exceptions. Defendant, however, appears in his own behalf on this appeal, and if must be assumed that his failure to have the case settled is due to his lack of knowledge of court procedure. We have therefore proceeded as suggested by the state to examine the transcript as submitted.

Some of the pertinent facts disclosed by the transcript are these: On November 21, 1957, sometime after 10:20 p. m., Dalton’s Dairy Store, located at 4310 Bryant Avenue South, Minneapolis, was burglarized. At about 10:20 on the same evening John Dalton, operator of the store, locked and bolted the doors leading into the building. On the following day Mr. Dalton arrived at his place of business about 10 o’clock in the forenoon and found the front door to his place of business pulled shut and locked. It was all “jimmied up” and the key would not work. He was unable to enter by way of the door. It looked as though it had been pried open by some object similar to a pinch-bar (such was found in defendant’s car) and marks appeared on the edge of the door and on the doorjamb, indicating that it had been forced open. Mr. Dalton secured help from a man in an adjoining hardware shop to get the door open, and upon entering the store, he soon discovered that certain property was missing. Whoever had committed the burglary had purloined 51 cartons of cigarettes, one box of candy (Brach’s chocolates), and a cigar box containing $200 in bills placed in an envelope to be deposited in connection with issuing express money orders and the equivalent of $10 in money and stamps. Six cases of beer and four 6-packs of beer had been taken. The record indicates that Mr. Dalton had visited his dentist, a Dr. Carney, for dental work on November 12, 1957. A receipt for payment of his dental bill had been placed in the cigar box containing the money and stamps.

*222 Mr. Dalton identified the cigar box among the items found in defendant’s car and found that the dental receipt had not been removed. Incidentally, the cigarettes which had been taken from the Dalton store contained the number of the state seal placed on cigarettes sold by Dalton; namely, 23992. This was the number upon the cigarette cartons found in defendant’s car. Mr. Dalton identified the box in which they had been removed. The box of Brach’s chocolates, together with some of the beer and cigarettes had been taken by defendant to his mother-in-law’s home and consumed there. The box from which some of the cigarettes had been removed contained 16 cartons of various brands. The beer packs and cases which had been stolen represented different kinds — Gluek’s, Grain Belt, and Hamm’s.

Michael Hlady, a detective who appeared as a witness for the state, testified that he met John Beltowski on November 22, 1957, between 8 a. m. and 4 p. m.; that he encountered the defendant in the back of what is known as 1515 Washington Avenue North, standing by a 1950 Plymouth sedan automobile. Defendant said he was John Bell when asked for his name. Detective Hlady placed defendant under arrest, took him to the squad car, and placed him in the back seat. He thereupon went to the defendant’s car and started a search. He not only found the articles that have been referred to, but eight .38 caliber shells in the glove compartment, a pair of gloves and a loaded gun inside the gloves on top of the heater, the cigár box in which the Dalton money, stamps, and dental receipt had been kept under the front seat, and a pinchbar, which had most likely been used to pry open the door of the Dalton store. The testimony of the state shows that there was a more or less complete supply of burglar’s tools in defendant’s automobile in addition to the purloined items of which the defendant denied any knowledge. These stolen items were all identified and offered in evidence at the trial. There is ample proof that the defendant and his wife had packed and were in the process of leaving town when, accosted by the detectives around 1 p. m. on the day following the burglary.

Mrs. Aurora Hanson, mother-in-law of defendant, testified on behalf of the state. She said that she lived with her son Bruce and her husband at 1515 Washington Avenue North; that Diane, the wife of *223 defendant, was also her daughter. She testified that the defendant and his wife came to their house shortly before noon on Wednesday, November 22, that she was told that they were packing and about to* leave town. It was then that they brought her the Brach’s chocolates, some of the purloined beer, and also a carton of the cigarettes. She testified that the defendant had told her that one of the suitcases which they had found in the car had been used at one time to* carry burglar’s tools. Either defendant or his wife had introduced one Harry West to Mrs. Hanson. West had been seen with the defendant on both the 21st and 22nd of November 1957. The record discloses that he had been a fellow prisoner of the defendant in Stillwater prison and that defendant hinted around after the burglary to the detectives that possibly some of the items that they found in defendant’s car had been placed therein by Harry West. West was brought to the courtroom by the state during defendant’s trial. While not called as a witness by the state, he was kept there for the purpose of being available should the defendant wish to call him as a witness in his behalf. West was not called as a witness. Strangely, the defendant did not even call his wife to testify in his behalf. Evidently the defendant must have feared that they knew too much about the actual facts surrounding the burglary to risk placing them on the witness stand.

The transcript shows that another detective by the name of Ever-son had been present with detective Hlady. Everson testified that the defendant refused to explain his possession of the stolen property and contemptuously answered him in the following manner according to the conversation as related by Everson:

“Q. Relate the conversation as you recall it?
“A. Well, Mr.

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Related

State v. Beltowski
160 N.W.2d 705 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1968)
State Ex Rel. Beltowski v. Tahash
123 N.W.2d 207 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1963)
State v. Anderson
113 N.W.2d 4 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
98 N.W.2d 252, 256 Minn. 220, 1959 Minn. LEXIS 641, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-beltowski-minn-1959.