State v. Paglino

291 S.W.2d 850, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 736
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 11, 1956
Docket45129
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 291 S.W.2d 850 (State v. Paglino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Paglino, 291 S.W.2d 850, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 736 (Mo. 1956).

Opinion

BARRETT, Commissioner.

A jury has found Albert Paglino guilty of a homicide in the perpetration of arson and his punishment has been fixed at life imprisonment. Sections 559.010, 559.030 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S.

The essence of the crime of arson is an incendiary and therefore wilful burning of property and the burden is upon the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt *852 that the fire was caused by a criminal agency and the identity of , the person charged as responsible for the fire; and upon the state’s failure to prove these -essentials the defendant is entitled as, of course to an acquittal as a matter of law. State v. Morney, 196 Mo. 43, 93 S.W. 1117; Curtis, Law of Arson, Sec. 486, p. 526; 6 C.J.S., Arson, §§ 3(a) (2), 29, pp. 72.1, 749; 4 Am Jur., Secs. 42, p. 104, 44, p. 105, 55, p. 109. Except for having been so plainly established, the known, unquestionable facts are bizarpe and fantastic almost beyond belief. Upon this appeal the essentially meritorious question is whether, viewed favorably-to the jury’s verdict, State v. Berkowitz, 325 Mo. 519, 526, 29 S.W.2d 150, 153, the plainly established facts and the circumstantial evidence, 1 Wigmore, Evidence, Secs. 26, p. 402, 149, p. 583; 20 Am.Jur., Secs. 270, p. 258, 273, p. 260, are of such probative force as to support the inference and finding of the necessary essentials of the incendiary burning of the property and the defendant’s responsibility for the fire.

The appellant, Paglino, did not testify and no witness was called or testified in his behalf, hence all the evidence adduced came from the state’s witnesses. About midnight, April 5, 1954, the defendant, Albert Paglino, appeared at Mr. Stark’s' St. Louis Tourist Court, a motel on U. S. Highway 66 (8950 Watson Road) and registered, using his correct name, as a guest. He filled out the registration card, including the make and license number of his 1950 Nash automobile. After registering, Paglino followed Mr. Stark to cabin number five. Mr. Stark turned on the light and showed him the cabin which had not been occupied by anyone for two days and there was no one in the cabin at that time. Cabin number five’s double, cabin number four, wás occupied by a man and a woman' registered as Mr. and Mrs. Boyd “from Oklahoma.” Paglino returned to the office where his car had been parked and drove it down in front of cabin number five. Mr. Stark did not examine the car closely but when he walked past it leaving and returning to the office he saw no one in the automobile other than Paglino. Incidentally, Mr. Stark never saw Paglino again until he was brought to the motel on the afternoon of April 15th -by members of the sheriff’s force.

Mr. Stark returned to the office' and about 12:45 o’clock turned off the master control switch for the butane gas . in the cabins and went to bed. He heard no noises or disturbances and iri a short time went to sleep. About an hour later, 1:45 o’clock, a man driving down Watson Road saw that the motel was on fire. He drove his car up to the office, awakened Mr. Stark and told him to call the fire department. As the man walked towards cabin number five where the fire was located he met a man and woman coming out of one of the cabins. (Again incidentally, Mr. and Mrs. Boyd, the occupants of cabin number four, are not mentioned again in this record.) The fire department arrived in about ten minutes, 'the back half of cabin number five, and particularly in the southeast corner, was in flames but within five minutes the fire was extinguished.

After the fire had been extinguished the charred, indistinguishable remains of a man were found on the floor between the bed and the door., Since Paglino had been assigned and presumably entered cabin number five and was not present during or after the fire, it was assumed that he was the dead man found on the floor. Consequently, on April 9, 1954, Paglino’s family, his father and his brother, caused a funeral to be conducted and the. charred remains to be buried in Resurrection Cemetery.

That night a nurse, a close friend of Albert’s former wife, Betty, who had attended the funeral that morning, was having a drink with a girl friend in Ziegenhein’s ' Biltmoor' Lounge on South Kingshighway and was indeed startled when about midnight Albert Paglino walked into the tavern and entered a telephone booth near the bar. As Albert entered the booth she said to one of the tavern owners,. “Ed, my God, we buried that man- this morning.” It may as well be noted at this point, parenthetically, that this was the first time since'midnight on April 5th that anyone had seen or heard of Albert and, except for the subse *853 quently noted bizarre narrative by his best friend McCormick, there is no explanation or accounting for his whereabouts between midnight April 5th and midnight April 9th when he walked into the tavern. When Albert came out of the phone booth the owner “went up to him and introduced myself as being Ed Bishop and I tried to get him into -a conversation and I asked him ■ to sit down and have á beer. He sat down and I gave him one glass of beer and he hadn’t taken but very little of that, and I- am talking to him and I asked him his name and he :gave me the name of Lewis. * * * and I asked him where he lived and ⅛ said, ‘Around Dresden and Eichelberger,’— I was trying to hold'him until possibly the police would come in — I asked him where he worked and he told me Bettendorf’s Meat Market and I said, ‘Where . else ?■’ And he said, ‘Clark’s,’ and he told me he was to meet a fellow here that works at Clarks, and I said, ‘Does he manage the place,’ and he said, .‘Yes.’. And I. said,, they are possibly open because I have stopped in to get gasoline on my way home.” . No one* called the police, however, and in ten or fifteen minutes Albert left the tavern and the nurse said that he made no. effort to hide or to run away.,

James A. McCormick, a filling station attendant at Clark’s Super Gas, 1139 North Kingshighway, was Paglino’s- associate if not closest friend. McCormick and his wife and Paglino and his "wife were frequent social guests in 'one another’s homes. Paglino and McCormick worked together at Clark’s when Paglino was employed there in October and November 1952 under the assumed name of Albert Lewis. McCormick was a pallbearer at the funeral on Friday morning, April 9, 1954. About midnight on the day of' the funeral Paglino called McCormick on the telephone (undoubtedly the call made from the. tavern) and after identifying himself said, “ ‘Well, this is A1 again and I need help.’ He said, ‘I got a fictitious story,’ I don’t recall what words he used, but he said, ‘I’m in bad trouble and I need help and I don’t know if anyone will believe me.’ ” In ten or fifteen minutes Paglino appeared at the service station. As he walked up McCormick said, “ ‘I thank God I see you alive again:’ ’’' • Paglino replied, “ ‘I’m proud to be here, but' I still have a fantastic story to tell yoú- and I don’t know if it will hold,’ and he said he had a good story and he was going to stick to it.”' McCormick closed -the filling station ■ and drove to the Warwick Hotel'in downtown St. Louis where Paglino had' registered on 'April 4, 1954, at' 11:05 o’clock as Albert Lewis. They entéred the hotel, Paglino got his clothes'and checked out. Parenthetically again; the hotel clerk identified the registration card and the fact thats the guest checked ■ out at 3:25 a. m.

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291 S.W.2d 850, 1956 Mo. LEXIS 736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-paglino-mo-1956.