State v. Gillingham

220 P.2d 333, 36 Wash. 2d 655, 1950 Wash. LEXIS 337
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 1950
Docket31057
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 220 P.2d 333 (State v. Gillingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington 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. Gillingham, 220 P.2d 333, 36 Wash. 2d 655, 1950 Wash. LEXIS 337 (Wash. 1950).

Opinions

Hill, J.

The principal question here presented is whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the conviction of H. B. Gillingham and his three sons, Charles, Byron and John, on two counts of grand larceny, i. e., neat cattle stealing. Following is a summary of the evidence which must' have been believed by the jury.

Lawrence Crofoot turned 74 head of neat cattle out to pasture in the spring of 1948. The range he used for that purpose was in Okanogan county, in close proximity to the range used by the Gillinghams for a similar purpose. In the fall, Crofoot was able to round up only 65 of his animals, and begán a search for the missing nine. The Gillinghams were at that time engaged in hauling a considerable number of their neat cattle from the Okanogan ranch to a feed lot in Pasco; and on November 9, 1948, Crofoot and his hired man found one of his heifers in the Gillingham loading corral, with the Gillingham brand on it in addition to his own. Crofoot let the heifer out of the loading corral and put her into a larger holding pen or pasture, and went to Okanogan to report the situation to the sheriff.

The next day Crofoot met the sheriff, a deputy, and other ranchers at the Gillingham ranch. In the Gillingham holding pens or pasture they found three Hereford heifers which Crofoot identified as his, two of which bore both the Crofoot and Gillingham brands and the third only the Crofoot brand. They sheared the hair from around the brands on the ani[657]*657mals that had both brands, and photographed them. At the sheriff’s suggestion, Crofoot drove the three animals home.

The next day Crofoot, together with the sheriffs of Okanogan and Grant counties, went to a ranch at Wilson creek, in Grant county, which was owned by H. B. Gillingham (who was there at the time) but which was operated by Byron. There they discovered a roan steer which Crofoot identified as his and which bore both the Crofoot and Gillingham brands. (We gather that the Gillinghams shipped this steer back to Okanogan county and delivered it to Crofoot.)

John and Charles Gillingham and a hired man had carried on extensive branding operations on the Okanogan ranch during the first few days of July, 1948. Several witnesses testified that the condition of the hide indicated that the Crofoot brand had been placed on the three animals a considerable time before the Gillingham brand was placed on them and that the Gillingham brand had been placed on them some four to six months prior to -the date of examination (November 10 and 11, 1948). They also testified that at the time of the examination the Crofoot brand was still visible on the heifers at a considerable distance, even before they were sheared.

There was, of course, evidence which, if the jury had believed it, warranted an acquittal of all defendants on all counts. We have set out only the evidence on which the conviction must rest.

Each of the four animals was made the subject of a separate count, the first three counts dealing with the heifers found on the Okanogan ranch on November 10th and the fourth with the roan steer found on the Grant county ranch on November 11th. The information charged in each count that the four defendants

“. . . did . . . wilfully and unlawfully take, steal, lead and drive away and appropriate to their own use, one head of neat cattle . . . from that open range and pasture in Okanogan county, . . . which animal was then and there of the value of more than $25.00, the property of [658]*658Lawrence Crofoot, with intent to deprive and defraud the, said Lawrence Crofoot thereof. . . . ”

The allegations as to value were treated as surplusage, value not being material where neat cattle are taken from a range or pasture, and the jury was instructed that, to find a defendant guilty under count I, it must find: (1) that he did wilfully and unlawfully take, lead and drive away from an open range and pasture one head of neat cattle bearing the Crofoot brand (described in detail), the said animal being the property of Crofoot; and (2) that the taking was with the intent to steal the animal and deprive Crofoot of his property therein.

The jury was instructed that, to find a defendant guilty under count II, it must find (1) and (2), supra, and, in addition, that the animal described in count II was a different animal from the one described in count I and was taken at a time different from the time of the taking of the animal described in count I.

The instructions as to counts III and IV each required the jury to find (1) and (2), supra, and that the animal was a different one and the time of taking different from that in any preceding count.

All of the defendants were found guilty as to counts I and IV and acquitted as to counts’ II and III. (The latter count had been dismissed as to Byron.)

If, for a moment, we assume the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction on count I, it is obvious that the taking from the range or pasture must rest upon an inference from the facts that the Gillingham brand was placed on the Crofoot animal when the Crofoot brand was clearly visible and that the animal was found in the possession of the defendants. There is absolutely no evidence from which the jury could have found or inferred that the animals referred to in counts II, III and IV were taken from the range or pasture at different times from that at which the animal referred to in count I was taken. The conviction of all defendants on count IV must therefore be set aside because of [659]*659the failure to prove an essential element of the crime charged.

We come now to a consideration of the evidence to establish the guilt of the individual defendants. H. B. Gillingham owned both the Okanogan and Grant county ranches, but lived in Spokane. Charles was in charge of the ranch in Okanogan county and Byron of the one in Grant county. Charles and John participated in the roundups and in all of the 1948 branding operations on the Okanogan county ranch. The principal branding operations were conducted during the first four days of July that year. The evidence was that by November, 1948, the Gillingham brand had been on the two heifers and the roan steer for from four to six months.

While the defendants contended that some one else might have placed the Gillingham brand on these animals, it seems to us that there was sufficient evidence to warrant the jury in finding that, knowing that the animals already bore the Crofoot brand, John and Charles branded the two heifers and the steer, or had knowledge of their branding, and that they had the intent to deprive the owner of them. Charles and John also were in charge of selecting the animals for shipment to Pasco in November, 1948.

Although H. B. Gillingham was the one who would profit from the stealing of the cattle, we find no evidence that he had authorized or participated in the branding of them. That he was at the Grant county ranch when Crofoot and the two sheriffs arrived and identified the roan as one of the Crofoot animals, was apparently a coincidence. There was no evidence that he knew that the animal bore the Crofoot brand. The brand on that animal was indistinct and not easily seen.

At the time of the motion to dismiss as to H. B. Gillingham, the trial court expressed the view that, in the absence of any other evidence, it must be assumed that the Gillingham brand was placed on the Crofoot animals at the instance of the owner of the brand, H. B. Gillingham.

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Related

State v. Wright
444 P.2d 676 (Washington Supreme Court, 1968)
Donaldson v. Greenwood
242 P.2d 1038 (Washington Supreme Court, 1952)
State v. Gillingham
220 P.2d 333 (Washington Supreme Court, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
220 P.2d 333, 36 Wash. 2d 655, 1950 Wash. LEXIS 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gillingham-wash-1950.