State v. Kennedy

195 Iowa 1059
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 13, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 195 Iowa 1059 (State v. Kennedy) 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. Kennedy, 195 Iowa 1059 (iowa 1923).

Opinion

Arthur, J.-

I. Defendant was jointly indicted with William Hildebrand and Jacob Lane. The indictment charged that defendant and Hildebrand and Lane,, on or about the 7th day of November,. 1921, in Woodbury County, Iowa, did unlawfully and feloniously bréale and enter the store building at 310 Pierce Street, in Sioux City, with the unlawful and felonious purpose and intent to commit larceny. Defendant, Kennedy, alone was on trial in this case.

On the 7th day of November, 1921, between the hours of 6 and 10 o’clock in the afternoon, the store building located at No. 310 Pierce Street, in Sioux City, owned by August Williges, in which he manufactured and kept. for sale furs and merchandise, was broken into, and about $17,000 or $18,000 worth of furs were taken therefrom. It was the claim of the State that defendant, Albert Kennedy, in company with Jacob Lane and William Hildebrand, went to the store, and that defendant entered the store and proceeded to the back part thereof, and engaged Henry* Williges, the son of the owner of the fur store, and employed therein, in conversation concerning the purchase of a box for the assigned purpose of packing a coat for shipment; that, while Kennedy engaged Henry Williges in conversation, Hildebrand stood in the doorway, holding the door open, and back of him was Lane, standing in the vestibule just outside the door; that. Kennedy and Hildebrand were noticed particularly by Henry Williges and Alice Zehren, another clerk in the store; that, on the trial, Plenry Williges and Alice Zehren were able to and did positively identify Kennedy as the man who had been at the Williges store on November 7, 1921; that, [1061]*1061about 11 P. M. on the night of November 7th, it was discovered that the store had been entered, and furs taken therefrom; that an examination of the premises disclosed that the lock on the front door, at which Hildebrand had been standing in the afternoon, while Kennedy engaged the clerk, Henry Williges, in conversation, had been tampered with'; that the screw that controls one of the lock bolts had been removed, and the lock rendered useless for locking purposes, or rather, so changed that the door could be easily unlocked from the outside.

The evidence showed that, in the afternoon of November 8, 1921, at about 2 o’clock, a man who gave the name of Harold Hemmingway, but who was afterwards identified as Hildebrand, approached Mrs. Clara P. Green, who lived at No. 27 St. Paul Apartments, Idelhart Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, and rented from her a front apartment, representing that his wife would occupy the apartment with him, and that they were respectable people, and that they were living in Minneapolis at the time, and that he traveled for a silk company; that, between 4 and 5 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day, Hildebrand, having gone out for the alleged purpose of consulting his wife about moving into the apartment, returned, and represented to Mrs. Green that his wife was sick, but that they would come that evening and bccupy the apartment; that, about this time, a large closed car drew up across the street from the apartment, the occupants of the ear blowing the horn in an attempt to attract the attention of Hildebrand; that, about 20 minutes past 9 that same evening, the same car drew up to the apartment, three men .alighted therefrom, carrying sacks, and came down the private driveway to the back entrance of the building, and upstairs to Apartment 9, which Hildebrand had rented that afternoon; that, shortly thereafter, a short woman got out of the car, and went up the front way, and two or three minutes later, another short woman got out and went up the front way, and then Hildebrand got out of the same car, and went up the front way, and the car drove away; that Hildebrand was after-wards, a day or two before the trial, identified by Mrs. Clara P. Green, who rented the apartment to Hildebrand, as the man who rented the apartment; that, about 20 minutes after these people had entered the apartments, Mrs. Clara P. Green went up [1062]*1062the front stairs and rapped several times on the door of the apartment, and received no answer; that thereupon, she went back to her own apartment on the first floor and got the pass key and went up and unlocked the first door, which opens into the dining room of the apartment which she had rented to Hildebrand, and there was no light in the dining room or in the parlor of the apartment; that, down the hall, about 10 feet from the entrance of the apartment, there is a bedroom, and under the bedroom door Mrs. Green saw a light, and by slamming the dining-room door, drew the attention of the occupants of the bedroom, and a man came out into the dining room and wanted to know what she wanted, and what she was there for; that, in the meantime, Mrs. Green had switched on the lights in the dining room, and she replied that she wanted to see the man who had rented the apartment; that Hildebrand was called, and came out, and sat down on a chair at the dining-room table; that Mrs. Green informed him that she thought he was a lucky man not to be taking a ride in the patrol, and Hildebrand replied, ‘ ‘ I know it, Mrs. Green; ’ ’ that Mrs. Green ordered Hildebrand and those with him from the apartment, and while they were discussing the matter, another man came out into the dining room, who, Mrs. Green states, was, in her best judgment and opinion, the defendant, Kennedy; that, as Kennedy came from the bedroom, Mrs. Green noticed furs piled on the bedroom floor; that these parties all, shortly afterwards, left the apartment, on the order of Mrs. Green; that, when Mrs. Green went into the bedroom and opened the closet door therein, to see if anything of a suspicious character had been left, the corner of the rug was raised up by the door, as she opened it, and she discovered three tags' that had been used by some merchant as cost and selling price tags for merchandise, and a silk trade-mark that had the name of August Williges, Sioux City, Iowa, on it, and three razor blades; that afterwards, these tags and the trade-mark were identified by Henry Williges as having come from their store, the writing thereon being in his handwriting, and the cost and selling price being their secret cost prices.

The defense interposed by Kennedy was an alibi. The defendant on his own behalf testified that he was not in Sioux [1063]*1063City on the 7th day of November, 1921, the day of the alleged robbery, but that he was, on that day and for several days previous to and after that date, in the city of St. Paul. Defendant produced six or more witnesses, whose evidence was taken by depositions, who testified that defendant, Albert Kennedy, was in St. Paul on the day of the burglary, November 7, 1921.

Hildebrand had been tried before the trial of Kennedy, and the trial of Lane had been set to succeed the trial of Kennedy. After the commencement of the trial of Kennedy, the said codefendants, Hildebrand and Lane, were confined in the county jail, located in the courthouse in which this case was being tried. During the trial of this case, which commenced on February 22d, and after the jury had been impaneled and sworn, and opening statement to the jury had been made, and during the night of February 23d, or early in the morning of February 24th, Hildebrand and Lane and four other prisoners escaped from the county jail in which they were confined. The next morning, there was great excitement over the jail delivery, and extra newspapers were printed and circulated in and about the courthouse, containing write-ups and articles about said jail delivery. On the morning of said jail delivery, George G.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 Iowa 1059, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kennedy-iowa-1923.