State v. Logan

941 S.W.2d 728, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 383, 1997 WL 104516
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 11, 1997
DocketNos. 67776, 70281
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 941 S.W.2d 728 (State v. Logan) 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. Logan, 941 S.W.2d 728, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 383, 1997 WL 104516 (Mo. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

KAKOHL, Judge.

Defendant John Logan was charged and found guilty by a jury of stealing, § 570.030 RSMo 1986.1 The charged crime was enhanced from a class A misdemeanor to a class C felony pursuant to § 570.040 after the state alleged and proved two prior stealing convictions. Logan also had three prior felony convictions and was thus sentenced as a prior and persistent offender to a ten (10) year term pursuant to § 558.016. He appeals on two related points. First, he argues the indictment charging him with felony stealing was “fatally defective” because it charged him with violating § 570.030 and not § 570.040. Section 570.030.1 defines the crime of stealing. Section 570.040 enhances a third stealing conviction to a class C felony. Second, Logan argues the state failed to prove any of the elements of felony stealing under § 570.030.3 because it failed to offer proof of .3(1), value of stolen property being $150 or more; or, .3(2), Logan physically took the property from the person of the victim; or .3(3), Logan took a specific type of property enumerated in the statute.2 We hold Logan was correctly charged under § 570.030 and sentenced under § 570.040.

On May 16, 1994, David Wade saw two men, defendant Logan and another, sitting next to a parked car in the city of St. Louis. From his apartment across the street, Wade heard the sound of glass breaking. He looked out his window and saw one of the two men remove a red tool box from inside the parked car. The men went down the street to local bar. Wade called the police from his apartment, then went to the bar.

As Wade approached the bar, the two men he had seen taking the tool box came out of the bar. Wade stopped them and said he had seen them take the tool box from the car. He asked them to give it to him so he could return it to its owner. Logan responded he was selling the tool box and would sell it to Wade, but could not give it to him. During this conversation, a police car approached the bar. Logan and his companion fled. They were later apprehended by the police. The police took Logan along with the tool box back to the vicinity of the parked car, where the owner of the car, Mark Shum-pert, identified the tool box as being his. [730]*730Wade identified Logan as one of the men he saw taking the tool box.

A grand jury indicted Logan as a prior and persistent offender and with stealing while having two prior convictions of stealing, a class C felony. Count three (3) of the indictment read:

The Grand Jurors of the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, charge that the defendant and another, in violation of Section 570.030, RSMo, committed the class C felony of stealing, punishable upon conviction under Sections 558.011.1(3) and 560.011, RSMo, in that on the 16th day of May, 1994, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, the defendant and another appropriated a car stereo, tool box and tools which said property was owned by MARK SHEPPARD,3 and defendant and another appropriated such property without the consent of MARK SHEPPARD and with the purpose to deprive MARK SHEPPARD thereof.
On April 20, 1982, in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, the defendant was convicted of the offense of stealing, and
On January 11, 1985, in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, the defendant was convicted of the offense of stealing.

The state presented evidence to support a finding of Logan’s two prior stealing convictions, and three prior felony convictions. The trial court found beyond a reasonable doubt that Logan had two prior stealing convictions, and was a prior and persistent offender. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the charge of stealing. The trial court sentenced Logan to ten years imprisonment as a prior and persistent offender for stealing, a felony.

Logan filed a Rule 29.15 motion for post conviction relief alleging the trial court was without jurisdiction to impose judgment and sentence on him because the indictment was “fatally defective” and also asserting that the state had failed to prove an essential element of the crime charged under § 570.030. Logan also claimed that the time limits of Rule 29.15 were unconstitutional.4 The motion court denied Logan’s Rule 29.15 motion without an evidentiary hearing. The issues on appeal from denial of post conviction relief are a duplication of the direct appeal issues.

Logan’s first point is that the indictment charged him with violating § 570.030 and made no reference to § 570.040, the statute on which he was ultimately convicted. He relies on Rule 23.01(b)(4) which states that an indictment shall “[c]ite the section of the statutes alleged to have been violated and the section of the statutes which fixes the penalty or punishment therefor.” He relies on State v. Hogan, 748 S.W.2d 766, 770 (Mo.App.1988), where we held that an indictment must contain all the essential elements of the offense as set out in the statute and clearly apprise the defendant of the facts constituting the offense to the charge. He concludes the failure to include § 570.040 rendered the indictment fatally defective and the trial court was without jurisdiction to enter judgment and sentence against him.

In State v. Parkhurst, 845 S.W.2d 31, 34-35 (Mo. banc 1992), our Supreme Court held a defendant cannot assert a trial court lacks jurisdiction due to an insufficient indictment. See also, State v. Briscoe, 847 S.W.2d 792, 794 (Mo. banc 1993) (noting that an insufficient indictment does not affect jurisdiction); State v. Moorehead, 875 S.W.2d 915, 919 (Mo.App.E.D.1994) (a claim of lack of jurisdiction due to an insufficient indictment is ho longer cognizable). These eases are decisive.

An indictment is not necessarily insufficient merely because statutory references are omitted or the wrong statutes cited. State v. LaPlant, 673 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Mo. banc 1984). Logan did not raise the issue of the indictment being “defective” during the trial, but raised the issue for the first time on appeal. Our Supreme Court concluded on facts similar to Logan’s:

[731]*731When the issue [of a deficient indictment] is raised for the first time after verdict, the indictment or information will be deemed insufficient only if it is so defective that (1) it does not by any reasonable construction charge the offense of which the defendant was convicted or (2) the substantial rights of the defendant to prepare a defense and plead former jeopardy in the event of acquittal are prejudiced. In either event, a defendant will not be entitled to relief based on a post-verdict claim that the information or indictment is insufficient unless the defendant demonstrates actual prejudice.

Parkhurst, 845 S.W.2d at 35. We find Logan was convicted of the charged offense, stealing, in violation of § 570.030, as charged and tried without objection.

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Related

State v. Passley
389 S.W.3d 180 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
941 S.W.2d 728, 1997 Mo. App. LEXIS 383, 1997 WL 104516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-logan-moctapp-1997.