State v. Loucks

253 N.W. 838, 218 Iowa 714
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 3, 1934
DocketNo. 41897.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 253 N.W. 838 (State v. Loucks) 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. Loucks, 253 N.W. 838, 218 Iowa 714 (iowa 1934).

Opinion

Stevens, J.

'The indictment in this case is in two counts. In the first count, appellant is charged with the crime of breaking and entering a building in the.nighttime and in count 2 with the larceny of certain goods and property stored therein. Both counts of the indictment were submitted to the jury and a conviction had thereon. The judgment of the court provided that the sentences should run concurrently. The building entered was a warehouse situated in Larrabee, Iowa, and the goods and property taken therefrom consisted of twenty sacks of Black Hawk hog feed or tankage and sixteen sacks of oil meal alleged to be of the aggregate value of $64.

Appellant was aided and abetted in the commission of the crimes charged by Roy McManus and Melvin J. Waddell. The *716 two participants in the commission of the crime with the defendant were called and testified upon the trial as witnesses for the state. The record of their testimony shows in detáil the facts of the breaking and entering and the larceny of the property above indicated. The warehouse was in an inclosure which was entered by McManus and Waddell by breaking a padlock on a gate of the inclosure. Entrance into the warehouse was through a sliding door in the building which was not locked. Appellant was not present at the time the inclosure and the warehouse were first entered. He arrived on the scene a few minutes later and participated in the larceny and the concealment of the property in a grove some distance from the warehouse. Ample evidence was introduced from which the jury could find that the breaking and entering and the larceny was in pursuance of a prior agreement and arrangement between appellant and the other parties named. The offenses were committed on the night of May 8, 1931, or the early morning of the succeeding day. Appellant and McManus were arrested in Oklahoma a few days later on a warrant charging them with the commission of the offenses set up in the indictment and returned to Cherokee. Numerous propositions are presented by appellant for reversal. Many of them are without sufficient merit to justify particular reference or discussion in this opinion.

I. Neither Roy McManus nor Melvin J. Waddell was called as witnesses before the grand jury, and, of course, their names were not indorsed on the indictment. Notice of the introduction of their testimony was served upon the defendant. Introduction of the notice in evidencé and the testimony of the aforesaid witnesses was objected to by appellant upon the ground, among others, that the notice was insufficient in that it failed to state with sufficient detail the matters which the state would seek to prove by the said witnesses to enable the appellant to prepare for trial. In connection with the objection to the introduction of the testimony of the two alleged accomplices, appellant filed a motion for a bill of particulars and to require the state to set out the testimony to which it claimed the witnesses would testify in detail, specifying certain particulars in the motion. The. objections to the testimony and the motion for a bill of particulars were both overruled. The ruling of the court was obviously correct. No doubt, the notice might have been somewhat more specific in the statement of the proposed testimony. It, however, complied substantially with the *717 requirements of section 13851 of the Code, and this was sufficient. State v. Butler, 157 Iowa 163, 138 N. W. 383; State v. Harding, 204 Iowa 1135, 216 N. W. 642; State v. Mullenix, 212 Iowa 1043, 237 N. W. 483.

We deem it unnecessary to set out the contents of the notice. The name, place of residence, and occupation of the witnesses was stated and the particular transaction and incidents as to which the witnesses would be examined were stated with sufficient clearness to inform appellant of the nature and' scope of the proposed testimony, and to enable him to prepare for trial. As the witnesses .were accomplices in the commission of the crime, appellant was already apprised of what they, in fact, knew. The allegations of the indictment were full and complete.

II. As previously stated, appellant and McManus were apprehended and arrested in Oklahoma eight or nine days after the commission of the crime. The court gave an instruction on the subject of flight. The instruction was in form and substance sufficient and involved the usual elements. All of the evidence relating to the apprehension and arrest of appellant was objected to by counsel upon the grounds that the answers to some of the interrogatories were mere conclusions and that no proper foundation had been laid for the introduction of testimony tending to establish flight. No direct or specific testimony showing that the defendant actually knew that he was suspected of the commission of the crimes charged or that he was about to be arrested was introduced. There is evidence, however, indicating such knowledge on the part of the appellant as to matters relating to the crime as would materially tend to at least arouse apprehension in his mind as to the probability of arrest. The disappearance was immediately after the commission of the crime. The explanation offered thereof in appellant’s behalf was partial only and quite unsatisfactory. He in no way sought to account for his presence in Oklahoma. Direct proof of the fact of knowledge of his possible arrest is not necessary. We said in State v. O’Meara, 190 Iowa 613, 177 N. W. 563, that proof of such knowledge is not essential, where the commission of the offense is recent. The record contains evidence from which Lhe jury might have properly inferred that appellant knew that the hiding place of the stolen property had been discovered and that it was known that he was in the immediate vicinity of the place of concealment early on the morning of May 9th. The proof was *718 abundant to justify the submission of the issue of flight to the jury. State v. Bige, 195 Iowa 1342, 193 N. W. 17; State v. Harding, 204 Iowa 1135, 216 N. W. 642.

In so far as the testimony of the witnesses relating to the apprehension of appellant in Oklahoma and to conversations with him were mere conclusions, little need be said. Some of the answers of the witnesses were in the nature of conclusions but the answers were followed up with proof of the details. Appellant could have suffered no prejudice on account of the answers of the witnesses to some of the questions being in the nature of conclusions.

III. Objection was also interposed to the details of the crime b,y the witnesses McManus and Waddell upon the ground that there was a total lack of the corroboration essential to the state’s case and that the appellant may not be convicted upon uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. The contention as to absence of corroboration is without merit. Corroboration, such as is required in cases of the character before us may be wholly circumstantial. Appellant, with the two companions named, was seen in the immediate vicinity of the grove, in which the stolen property was concealed early the morning of May 9th. By the testimony of other witnesses, his car was sufficiently identified as one of- the cars in which the stolen goods were transported to the place of concealment. The evidence • of corroboration was ample. State v. Farris, 189 Iowa 505, 178 N. W. 361; State v. Patten, 191 Iowa 639, 182 N. W. 788; State v. Hetland, 141 Iowa 524, 119 N. W. 961, 18 Ann. Cas. 899; State v. Bittner, 209 Iowa 109, 227 N. W. 601; State v. Johnson, 211 Iowa 874, 234 N. W.

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

Related

Hatter v. Warden, Iowa Men's Reformatory
734 F. Supp. 1505 (N.D. Iowa, 1990)
State v. Hatter
381 N.W.2d 370 (Court of Appeals of Iowa, 1985)
State v. Barton
140 N.W.2d 886 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1966)
State v. Keul
5 N.W.2d 849 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1942)
State v. Proost
281 N.W. 167 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1938)
State v. Johnson
269 N.W. 354 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
253 N.W. 838, 218 Iowa 714, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-loucks-iowa-1934.