State v. Cross

357 S.W.2d 125, 1962 Mo. LEXIS 689
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 14, 1962
Docket49106
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 357 S.W.2d 125 (State v. Cross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cross, 357 S.W.2d 125, 1962 Mo. LEXIS 689 (Mo. 1962).

Opinion

HYDE, Judge.

. Defendant was charged with burglary, . second" degree, and stealing. (See Secs. 560.070 and .560.156,. statutory citations are to RSMo and V.A.M.S.) The jury found defendant guilty on both 'charges and assessed punishment at two years’ imprison- . ment on each.- Defendant has appealed from judgment and sentence in accordance with the verdict.

• The State says defendant was allowed 20 days to- file motion for new trial and did not file it within that time. However, the motion was filed within 30 days and since the court considered and ruled on the motion it must have construed its order as • meaning that the'20 days it allowed ■jya.s in addition to fhe 10 days authorized by-Rule ‘27.20, -V.A.M.R. Therefore, we will consider the assignments in the motion for new trial which comply with that Rule.

Assignments 1 and 2 concern the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, claiming the court should have sustained defendant’s motions for acquittal at the close of the State’s evidence and at the close of all the evidence. Of course, defendant waived the first by putting on evidence and a statement of the facts shown demonstrates the second is without merit. Defendant was charged with breaking into and entering the V-.P.W.-Hall in Desloge, taking four cases of beer and several cartons of cigarettes. It was admitted that the Hall was broken into and-the beer and cigarettes taken. A trustee of the.organization testified he found a window broken and the front door unlocked when he came there on the morning of May 24, 1960. He also ■said"the beer was kept in- a cooler'behind the bar; and that • there were four locks broken, one at each end of the cooler and two on doors. :

Four young men were charged with this offense; two of them had been tried and convicted before defendant’s trial, one still serving sentence at Aigoa. At defendant’s trial these, two testified they had broken in, stolen the beer and cigarettes and that defendant was not with them. However, these two admitted in their testimony, that when first arrested, they told the officers that defendant and his companion ' (who worked together at a filling station) were the ones who did it and they were released; and that after being arrested again, they told the officers that all four did it. Two of the sheriff’s deputies testified that defendant admitted his participation to them and that he then signed a statement written in his words by a girl in the prosecuting attorney’s office. She said: “He wanted to make a statement of what he had done and he told me that he had broke into the V.F.W. -Hall .and taken beer and cigarettes. There was five cases of beer and I think four Cartons of cigarettes. And then he went on to say that they broke into the fire escape and got in and then he let the others in.” The officers said defendant made his admissions and written statement without any threats or promises, saying “they got the beer and the cigarettes and they thought they might as well go ahead and get it over with.” At the trial, defendant denied haying any part in the burglary or stealing and had evidence to support his defense of alibi. As to the confession, defendant testified one of the deputies told him: “[I]f I’d admit it, he’d help me get off on parole and if I didn’t, if I fought it, I’d get two to five years.” We must hold that the court properly over- ' ruled the motion for acquittal at the close of all the evidence.

Assignment 3 alleged error “in ¡allowing witnesses to be endorsed on the information at the last moment.” Sec. 545.-240'; Sec. 545.320, and Rule 24:17 mean that •names of known witnesses must be endorsed *127 on the information when it is filed, although the court may order additional names to be added on proper notice and showing. However, in this case, there was no claim of surprise and no written application for continuance filed. (See Rule 25.08; State v. Burlison, 315 Mo. 232, 285 S.W. 712, 716; State v. Comer, 296 Mo. 1, 247 S.W. 179, 181; State v. Ash, Mo.Sup., 286 S.W.2d 808, 811.) Notice showing the names of the witnesses had been given about three days before the trial and the only witnesses used were the deputy sheriffs, the girl in the prosecuting attorney’s office and the trustee of the V.F.W. Hall. Since there had been previous trials of two of the three men charged with defendant, there was probably no surprise in the use of these witnesses. Nevertheless, we must disapprove the practice of endorsing no witnesses on the information when it is filed.

Assignment 4 alleged error in giving the instruction on confession (No. 7) which it is claimed was a comment on the evidence and did not properly state the law. Instruction 7 is as follows: “You are instructed that with reference to the paper offered in evidence purporting to be a confession of the defendant of the commission of the crime charged against him in the information, the court instructs the jury that it is a rule of law founded in reason that a confession of a defendant, when voluntarily made, is evidence against him, because common experience proves that a man will not without motive for so doing, confess facts to his disadvantage, unless they are true. The court further instructs the jury that before any confession can be received as evidence in a criminal case, it must be shown that it was voluntarily made, and if the confession drawn from the defendant was by the use of the flattery of hope, or by the torture of fear, or by such promises held out to the defendant that (as) rendered his said confession involuntary, then the jury should reject such confession.”

The first sentence in this instruction is substantially the same as the first sentence in the instruction set out in State v. Stebbins, 188 Mo. 387, 396, 87 S.W. 460; see also Raymond, Missouri Instructions, Secs. 3491, 3494. The last part of this first sentence is an argumentative comment on the evidence (defendant’s confession). Since this confession, the truth of which was denied by defendant, was the only direct evidence of his participation in the crime, it would surely be prejudicial to tell the jury it is “a rule of law” that his confession was evidence against him without requiring the jury to find it was true; especially when this instruction went on to say it was evidence against him “because common experience proves” he would not confess such facts “unless they are true.” We consider these statements very similar in effect to those condemned in State v. Dollarhide, 333 Mo. 1087, 63 S.W.2d 998; State v. Johnson, 333 Mo. 1008, 63 S.W.2d 1000; and State v. Phillips, Mo.Sup., 299 S.W.2d 431, 435, and cases therein cited.

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Bluebook (online)
357 S.W.2d 125, 1962 Mo. LEXIS 689, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cross-mo-1962.