State v. Hogle

137 S.W. 21, 156 Mo. App. 367, 1911 Mo. App. LEXIS 322
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 8, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 137 S.W. 21 (State v. Hogle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hogle, 137 S.W. 21, 156 Mo. App. 367, 1911 Mo. App. LEXIS 322 (Mo. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

NIXON, P. J.

Appellant was convicted upon an information under section 1753, Revised Statutes 1909, charging “that Will Hlogle on the-day of May, 1909, at the county of Dent and state aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully permit certain gaming devices and gaming tables, to-wit: One crap table commonly so called, upon which dice are used, one poker table commonly so called, upon which are used poker chips, commonly so called, and cards commonly called playing cards, which said gaming tables and gaming devices were adapted, designed and devised for the purpose of playing games of chance for money and property, to be set up and used for the purpose of gaming, in a certain building there situate and under the control and occupied by him, the said Will Hogle, against the peace and dignity of the state.”

Upon trial in a justice’s court, defendant was found guilty and his punishment assessed at a fine of fifty dollars. After appeal taken, trial anew was had in the circuit court where the accused was again found guilty and his fine fixed at one hundred dollars. He has appealed.

I. Before the introduction of any evidence, defendant moved to quash the information “for the reason that it does not locate any building, nor where said gambling tables were kept.” Appellant’s contention is that the location of the “building” must appear on the face of the information. We had a similar question under review in the case of State v. Newman, 132 S. W. 753, where the indictment charged that the defendant “at the county of Butler, State of Missouri, on or about the 21st day of January, 1909, did then and there unlawfully set up and keep a common house of assignation.” Defendant moved to quash because the location of the house Avas not set out and described with sufficient particularity. Our language in that case effectually disposes of the contention in this: “The general rule is that it is sufficient, in an [372]*372indictment charging the commission of an offense created by statute, to follow the language of the statute; and this indicment fully complies with that requirement. In the case of State v. Raymond, 86 Mo. App. 537, an indictment, based on the same statute as that on which the indictment in the present case , rests, charged that thé defendant on a certain date, 'at the county of Bates and State of Missouri, did then and there unlawfully keep and maintain a bawdy house,’ etc., with no more particular description of the bawdy house.’ The court said: It has been held in this state that it is sufficient that the indictment charges the offense to have been committed in the county where the prosecution is commenced.” [See, also, State v. Ramsauer, 140 Mo. App. 401, 124 S. W. 67.]

Again, as we said in the case of State v. Seiberling, 143 Mo. App. 1. c. 321, 127 S. W. 106, the same nicety is not required in drawing indictments in cases of minor offenses as is required in charging common-law felonies. [State v. Fletcher, 18 Mo. 1. c. 427; State v. Nelson, 19 Mo. 1. c. 396.] We are of the opinion that the charge was sufficiently definite and certain to inform the defendant of the offense he was called upon to meet.

II. Appellant contends that the information contains four separate and distinct charges, "that the defendant unlawfully permitted one crap table upon which dice are used, and one poker table upon which cards are used, to be set up and used;” that the charge that the two tables have been set up contains two offenses, and the charge that the two tables have been used contains two offenses. At the close of the evidence, defendant moved that the state be required to elect whether it would prosecute the defendant for permitting a gaming device to be set up, or for permitting the gaming device to be used, which motion was denied.

The statute (sec. 4753, R. S. 1909) provides: "Every person who shall permit any gaming table, bank or device to set up or used for the purpose of gaming,” [373]*373etc. It was held in State v. Pittman, 76 Mo. 56, that where a criminal statute uses disjunctive language in defining an offense, the indictment may he drawn in the conjunctive. Thus, where the statute provides a punishment to every person who shall “set up or keep a common bawdy house,” a charge that the defendant “did unlawfully set up and keep a common bawdy house” was sustained. The substitution of the word “and” for the word “or” was immaterial, said the court. [State v. Bregard, 76 Mo. 322.] In the case of State v. Cannon, (Mo. Supp.) 134 S. W. 1. c. 514, Kennish, P. J., said: “Complaint is made that the court erred in overruling defendant’s motion to require the state to elect upon which of the several charges contained in each count of the information it would proceed to trial. Each count charged the setting up and keeping of one gaming table only, and the averment that the defendant enticed and permitted divers persons to bet and play thereon did not make the count double, and the motion to elect was properly overruled.” In State v. Fletcher, 18 Mo. 425, the contention was made that the offense consists in permitting the gaming device “to be set up or used,” and not in both setting up and using. In denying the soundness of this contention, the court said: “ . . . there is no objection to charging several different acts, either one of which is an offense under the statute which creates it, in one indictment, although the statute uses the disjunctive form in describing the offense.”

The trial court in the only instruction given for the state withdrew from the jury the charge as to permitting a poker table to be set up and used and instructed alone as to the crap table. By no reasoning, therefore, can it be maintained that prejudicial error ensued by reason of the form of the information.

Besides, there was no motion or request to require' the state to elect on which charge it would proceed, whether for permitting a crap table, or a poker table. No demurrer wás filed and the motion to quash speci[374]*374fied only the one ground that the information failed to describe the particular locality of the building. Objections of this character are not open for examination for the first time in this court. [State v. Blakely, 184 Mo. 1. c. 189, 83 S. W. 980, and cases cited.]

III. It is finally argued that the court erred in refusing to give defendant’s peremptory instruction which was offered at the close of the state’s evidence and again at the close of all the evidence. This is on the theory that the state failed to prove that the room in the building where the crap table was found was in the actual possession or control of the defendant, but was, appellant contends, in the actual possession and control of another to whom he had rented it. This contention if well founded, would require a reversal of the judgment. [State v. Ebert, 40 Mo. 186.] In the case just cited, defendant requested an instruction which told the jury that if they believed the premises in which the gaming device was set up was in the actual possession of another and that defendant did not have the actual possession thereof, they should find for the defendant. The court held that the instruction should have been given.

Keeping in mind the rules which guide appellate courts in analyzing a case where the appellant is urging that his demurrer to the evidence should have been sustained, let us look to the evidence in this record.

In May, 1909, the defendant conducted a hotel in the town of Salem, Dent county, Missouri, in a building in Avhich there were other tenants,—Terrell, McSpadden, Bennett, and Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
137 S.W. 21, 156 Mo. App. 367, 1911 Mo. App. LEXIS 322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hogle-moctapp-1911.