State v. Hochmuth

127 N.W.2d 658, 256 Iowa 442, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 817
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 8, 1964
Docket51229
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 127 N.W.2d 658 (State v. Hochmuth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hochmuth, 127 N.W.2d 658, 256 Iowa 442, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 817 (iowa 1964).

Opinion

Gareield, C. J.

— Defendant has appealed from conviction of receiving stolen goods of a value in excess of $20, in violation of section 712.1, Code, 1962. His sole complaint is that the jury was erroneously instructed to convict if it found defendant “bought, received, or aided in concealing” the goods, whereas the information alleged the crime was committed merely by receiving the goods. Thus it is said the instructions required a finding of guilt upon a state of facts not charged in the information. We think the assigned error must be sustained.

The county attorney’s information under which defendant was tried “accuses [defendant] of the crime of Receiving Stolen Goods Having a Value In Excess of $20, committed as follows: The said [defendant], on or about the 7th day of February, 1963, in the County of Scott, and State of Iowa, did receive jewelry having a value in excess of $20, knowing the same to *444 have been stolen, in violation of Section 712.1, Code of Iowa (1962) * *

Section 712.1 is one of three sections in chapter 712. The chapter is headed “Receiving Stolen Goods.” The section, so far as applicable, provides: “If any person bny, receive, or aid in concealing any stolen * * * goods, * * * the stealing of which is larceny, * # # knowing the same to have been so obtained, he shall, when the value of the property so bought, received, or concealed by him exceeds * * * twenty dollars, be imprisoned # * % V

The preliminary draft of instructions to the jury was furnished counsel before argument to the jury began and, before reading them to the jury, instructions in their final form were also submitted to counsel.

Instruction 5 told the jury it would be its duty to find defendant guilty if the State had established he “bought, received or aided in concealing” the alleged stolen goods, knowing them to have been stolen. Three other instructions (6, 7 and 15) use the language just quoted or its equivalent and by clear implication require a conviction upon a finding of buying or aiding in concealing, as well as of receiving, the alleged stolen goods. Instruction 15 states, “If you find defendant guilty of buying, receiving or aiding in concealing stolen property, as charged in the information * * *” (emphasis added). As stated, the information does not charge buying or aiding in concealing.

Before the instructions were read to the jury and again in his motion for new trial before judgment defendant objected to the instructions on the ground they erroneously required a verdict of guilt upon a finding of buying or aiding in concealing the alleged stolen goods when the information charged the crime was committed merely by receiving the goods.

Code section 787.3, paragraphs 5 and 7, permits objections to instructions in a criminal ease to be raised in the motion for new trial. Objections need not be made before the instructions are read to the jury, as in a civil case. State v. Faught, 254 Iowa 1124, 1131, 120 N.W.2d 426, 430, and citations. In any event, opportunity was afforded the trial court to correct *445 these instructions on the point complained of before they were read to the jury.

We do not agree with one ground of defendant’s objections — that section 712.1 defines three separate and distinct crimes: 1) buying, 2) receiving, and 3) aiding in concealing stolen goods. We think the statute defines one crime which may he committed in any of three ways, stated in the statute disjunctively. State v. Feuerhaken, 96 Iowa 299, 301, 65 N.W. 299; Hamilton v. State, 129 Fla. 219, 176 So. 89, 112 A. L. R. 1013, 1016; State v. Pirkey, 22 S. D. 550, 118 N.W. 1042, 1044, 18 Ann. Cas. 192. See also State v. Lewis, 96 Iowa 286, 294, 295, 65 N.W. 295; 45 Am. Jur., Receiving Stolen Property, section 13.

As the State suggests, it was unnecessary that the information allege the means by which the offense of receiving stolen goods was committed. Code sections 773.4, 773.10. The information would have sufficiently followed the permissible form set out in section 773.34 for the offense charged if the means of committing it had not been stated. Further, the information would not have been invalid or insufficient if the means of committing the offense had been “charged in the disjunctive or alternative” as section 712.1, supra, provides it may be committed. Sections 773.24, 773.35.

However, the State chose to specify in the information the manner in which the crime was committed — viz., that defendant “did receive” the alleged stolen jewelry. As previously explained, it was not charged either conjunctively, as most authorities hold is the proper method, or disjunctively as our section 773.24 permits, the offense was committed by buying, receiving and/or aiding in concealing the jewelry. Having specified the means by which the crime was committed, we hold defendant could not properly be convicted upon a finding it was committed by means not alleged — -viz., buying or aiding in concealing.

State v. Haesemeyer, 248 Iowa 154, 159, 160, 79 N.W.2d 755, 758, supports our holding. Defendant there was charged with violation of Code section 528.6 which provides for prohibitions against loans to officers or employees of a bank. The *446 indictment alleged the offense was committed by defendant’s using or borrowing a sum in excess of ten percent of the bank’s capital and surplus. Upon the State’s appeal from an acquittal, it contended the jury should also have been instructed as to another prohibition in section 528.6 — against use of the bank’s funds or deposits for a purpose other than its regular business transactions. We held that having alleged the means by which the crime was committed, the State must prove guilt substantially as alleged and there was no error in refusing to instruct on the point urged. This from the opinion applies here:

“It may be the State was not required to allege the means by wliich the offense was committed. Code section 773.10. But having done so, it had the burden to prove defendant’s guilt substantially as alleged, [citations]

“42 C. J. S., Indictments and Iiiformations, section 262, states: ‘Where an offense may be committed in various ways, the evidence must establish it to have been committed in the mode charged in the indictment’.”

All Justices approved the part of the Haesemeyer opinion referred to.

State v. Schuling, 216 Iowa 1425, 1428, 250 N.W. 588, 589, cited in support of the Haesemeyer decision, also applies here. Defendant was there indicted for the crime of nuisance in using' a building for unlawfully manufacturing, selling and keeping for sale intoxicating liquors. The evidence was that the building was used for setting up a still for the manufacture of intoxicating liquors, also a violation of the nuisance statute. We held' this evidence did not sustain the allegations of the indictment.' We repeat this from'the opinion:

“* * * The crime may be charged by its name. In that event the defendant is entitled to a bill of particulars. If he asked for no bill of particulars, the state could undoubtedly convict him upon proof of any acts constituting the offense named.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Smithson
594 N.W.2d 1 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1999)
State v. Pexa
574 N.W.2d 344 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1998)
State v. Eagle Hawk
411 N.W.2d 120 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Kirby
391 N.W.2d 243 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1986)
State v. Wales
325 N.W.2d 87 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1982)
Kyle v. State
322 N.W.2d 299 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1982)
State Ex Rel. Westfall v. Campbell
637 S.W.2d 94 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)
State v. Mead
318 N.W.2d 440 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1982)
Williams v. Nix
528 F. Supp. 664 (S.D. Iowa, 1981)
State v. Duncan
312 N.W.2d 519 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1981)
State v. Smith
309 N.W.2d 454 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1981)
State v. Willet
305 N.W.2d 454 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1981)
State v. Allen
293 N.W.2d 16 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1980)
State v. Black
282 N.W.2d 733 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1979)
State v. Wedelstedt
263 N.W.2d 894 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1978)
State v. Barker
262 N.W.2d 538 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1978)
State v. Bakker
262 N.W.2d 538 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1978)
State v. McGinnis
243 N.W.2d 583 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)
State v. Nelson
234 N.W.2d 368 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1975)
State v. Aldrich
231 N.W.2d 890 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.W.2d 658, 256 Iowa 442, 1964 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hochmuth-iowa-1964.