State v. Bubnash

382 P.2d 830, 142 Mont. 377, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 87
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 27, 1963
Docket10261
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 382 P.2d 830 (State v. Bubnash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bubnash, 382 P.2d 830, 142 Mont. 377, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 87 (Mo. 1963).

Opinions

MB. JUSTICE ADAIB

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of first degree burglary.

By information filed December 16, 1960, in the district court for Cascade County, Montana, Cecil Bubnash, was charged with the crime of burglary in the first degree committed in the nighttime on December 15, 1960, by breaking into and entering that certain building known as Crown Jewelry, located at No. 415 Central Avenue, in Great Falls, Montana, with intent to commit larceny therein. A prior conviction of felony, to-wit, burglary in the first degree committed in Cascade County, Montana, upon which judgment upon conviction pronounced and rendered on May 25, 1955, was also charged.

At his arraignment on January 11, 1961, the defendant Bubnash entered the plea of “Not Guilty” to both the charge of burglary in the first degree alleged to have been committed on December 15, 1960, and “Not Guilty” to the charge of a [379]*379prior conviction, of a felony wherein judgment upon said conviction was alleged to have been pronounced and rendered on May 25, 1955.

On February 20, 1961, the instant cause came regularly on for trial in the District Court for Cascade County, sitting with a jury and, at the commencement of such trial, the defendant Bubnash withdrew his earlier plea of “Not Guilty” to the charge of a prior conviction of a felony and thereupon admitted the prior conviction.

In its verdict in the instant cause, the jury, on February 24, 1961, found the defendant Bubnash guilty of the crime of burglary in the first degree as charged in the information and fixed his punishment at imprisonment in the state prison for a period of ten years. From the judgment entered on such verdict the defendant appeals.

At the conclusion of the State’s case in chief, the defendant’s counsel orally moved that the action be dismissed on the grounds “that the State has wholly failed to prove material allegations of the Information” and that the State has “not sufficiently carried the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of this defendant.”

In ruling upon defendant’s above motion to dismiss, the trial judge said: “I think there is sufficient evidence in this case so far to carry the case to the jury. Your motion will be overruled.”

Specifications No. 1 and 2. The refusal of the trial court to dismiss the charge of burglary in the first degree at the end of the State’s case in chief is assigned by defendant as his first specification of error.

Next, and for his second specification of error, the defendant asserts that the evidence, viewed as a whole, is not sufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment.

We find no merit in either of the above specifications.

The record before us on this appeal discloses that on its case in chief and as proof to establish and sustain the charges [380]*380made in the information, the State of Montana produced the oral testimony of fifteen apparently credible witnesses and also introduced for the inspection of the jury and the trial court some eighteen marked exhibits.

The evidence. At the trial the State’s witnesses testified as is stated below.

John G. Vail. The witness John Of. Vail testified: In the evening of December 14 and on the early morning of December 15 in the year 1960, he was employed as a musician at the Club Cimarron in Black Eagle, Montana.

At approximately 10:30 P. M. to 10:45 P. M. on the night of December 14, 1960, he, .the witness Vail, stepped off the bandstand at the Club Cimarron and took a sort of break or brief rest during which time he had a conversation in the Club with the defendant Cecil Bubnash whom Vail had known for approximately ten years.

Vail testified at that time “there was a club full of people * * * j g0t 0ff the bandstand. He [Bubnash] says: ‘Loan me your automobile. I’m going to run up to the Ranger’s Club for a few minutes * * *’ I gave him the keys to the car. * * * I went to the back room, and that was all there was to it.”

Vail testified that at the time he loaned his car to Cecil Bubnash there was a dent right at or in the tail light on the right side as you would face forward in the car which dent had been sustained sometime previous in Browning, Montana.

When asked to describe the automobile he had loaned to Bubnash on December 14, 1960, Vail testified: “Well, it was a ’59 Chevrolet, blue and white in color is about all I can tell you.”

When shown the State’s Exhibit No. 4, being a photograph taken by the State’s witness Andrew DeMier of the DeMier Studio in Great Falls, on December 15, 1960, of a 1959 Chevrolet automobile bearing 1960 Montana license plates No. 48-1017, and when asked if he could recognize such automobile [381]*381the witness Vail replied: “Well from the license number that is my automobile.”

The witness Yail also testified that at the time he loaned his automobile to Bubnash there was one hammer in the car that he knew of and that “there possibly could have been two.”

Yail also was interrogated and he made answer as follows:

“Q. When was the next time you saw the automobile Mr. Yail? A. Down at the Police Station.
“Q. Do you recall the date? A. Well, it was the next day after I loaned the automobile.
“Q. That Avould be the fifteenth then? A. Yes.”

Sergeant Thompson. The witness Charles Thompson testified : He was a sergeant of police in the City of Great Falls, Montana, and went on duty at the police station at 10:00 P.M. on December 14, 1960, remaining on duty there until 6:00 A. M. on the morning of December 15, 1960, during which time he was the dispatcher in charge and engaged in receiving telephone calls and in dispatching cars.

Sergeant Thompson testified that on the morning of December 15, 1960: “At about 1:29 A.M., the burglar alarm rang in the station on the box, the red light showed, and the alarm rang for the Crown Jewelry. * * * I then dispatched ■ three cars to the Crown Jewelry on Central Avenue, Lieutenant Ballard and Detective Wutzke and Officer Chapman. * * # At about that time the telephone rang and I answered the telephone. * * * A man giving the name of Dick Tabor reported that he had been in the lobby of the Johnson Hotel and heard glass crash, and then had run out. He observed a car leaving from the position about in front of the Crown Jewelry and he noticed that the window was broken at the Crown Jewelry. * * * I then dispatched all other cars to various outlying parts of the city, informed all cars that I had received a call, giving them a description of the car I received from Mr. Tabor. * * * He reported that it was a 1959 Chevrolet, four-door sedan. It had a white top and a blue bot[382]*382tom. * * * I received some inquiries from several of the officers about the automobile. They observed the ’59 Chevrolets that were blue and white or all blue and wondered if a mistake could have been made so I called Mr. Tabor at the Johnson and confirmed it was the make and color that he had given me. He was positive about it. I then relayed that information to the cars. I then called the owner and manager of Crown Jewelry and asked him to come down to the Jewelry store.

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State v. Bubnash
382 P.2d 830 (Montana Supreme Court, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
382 P.2d 830, 142 Mont. 377, 1963 Mont. LEXIS 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bubnash-mont-1963.