State v. Patterson

98 Mo. 283
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 15, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 98 Mo. 283 (State v. Patterson) 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. Patterson, 98 Mo. 283 (Mo. 1889).

Opinion

Sherwood, J.

— The defendant was indicted under the provisions of Revised Statutes, 1879, section 1309, for stealing thirty-five dollars, the money of one Slianklin, in a dwelling house. Being tried, he was convicted, and sentence having been passed ujion him, he appeals to this court.

According to the testimony of the prosecuting witness, the money stolen consisted of a twenty-dollar gold piece, a ten-dollar gold piece and four or five dollars in silver. It is also shown, by the testimony that both defendant and Shanklin drank very heavily on the night of the seventeenth of February, 1888, and that Shanklin was very much intoxicated, so much so that he had to be helped up-stairs, fell on the floor, had to have assistance to pull his boots off, and was only able, after a struggle of several hours, to pull off his pants, which he left in the middle of the floor, and having the money before mentioned in his pockets, which he says he felt as he was going up to his ro.om that night, when about twelve o’clock they returned to the hotel where they were stopping and in which room two other lodgers also slept, the room thus occupied containing three beds.

The next morning, Shanklin got up early, as he says, before daylight, but he was evidently dazed from [285]*285his night debauch, examined his pants and said, “I have been robbed.” “Just then,” he says, “I saw a silver dollar lying on the floor. I picked it up and said : ‘They didn’t get it all though. Here’s a dollar.’” Patterson said : “ Is it a dollar ? Let me see.” Witness then states he handed the dollar back to defendant over his shoulder, who took it and said he would go down and get a drink, hurriedly left the room with the dollar, and witness having finished dressing, went over to the police station, which it seems was close at hand, informed a couple of policemen of what had occurred, pointed out defendant as the guilty party, who was thereupon arrested. In the interim between the time he left the room where he sleut and the time of his arrest, defendant went down to a saloon, called for a drink of whisky and gave a twenty-dollar gold piece to the bar-keeper, saying he had nothing smaller, and was in a hurry, receiving in change $19.85. This, with twenty-five cents he said Shanklin had given him, made $20.10. With this sum he then went over to the hotel (Shanklin meanwhile having gone after an officer), threw a silver dollar on the counter, and asked the proprietor to give it to Shanklin, saying, “I don’t want his money ; I’ll break his d — d head if he says I stole his money.”

Upon being arrested, defendant was informed that Shanklin claimed that he had some thirty-five dollars stolen from him. At first defendant denied having the money, but upon being searched, and $19.10 found upon his person, he said: “I got his money,” stating at the same time that he himself had been robbed of twenty dollars some days before, and took this to play even.

There was considerable testimony showing that it was daylight when the coin picked up from the floor was taken, and there was the testimony of two witnesses, the defendant and another, showing that such coin was a twenty-dollar gold piece, and not a silver dollar, and [286]*286defendant, when on the stand, stated that he paid for the drink of whiskey, which he took that morning with the twenty-dollar gold piece, because he wanted to take Shanklin back change for a dollar, so that he would not suspect him, as he knew that Shanklin thought he only got a dollar from him. Defendant further stated that the twenty-dollar gold piece was all the money he took from Shanklin.

This, in substance, was the testimony, and at its close, the court gave, at the instance of the state, the following instructions:

“1. The court declares the law to be that, if the jury find and believe, from the evidence, that at any time within three years next before the fourth day of April, 1888, at the county of Pettis and state of Missouri, the defendant stole, took and carried away thirty dollars or more of the money of the witness Shanklin, with intent to convert it to his own use, then the jury should convict the defendant of grand larceny, without regard to where the larceny was committed. And so convicting, they will assess his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary at not more than five nor less than two years, if the larceny was committed out of a dwelling house, and at not less than two nor more than seven years, if committed in a dwelling house.

“2. Even, although the jury find and believe, from the evidence, that defendant only stole a twenty-dollar gold piece from Shanklin ; yet, if they further find that the stealing was done in a dwelling house, as defined in another instruction, they should find the defendant guilty of grand larceny, and so finding, assess his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary at not less than two nor more than seven years.

“8. The court instructs the jury that a dwelling house is a house, or other edifice, which shall have been usually occupied by persons lodging therein, and if they find, from the evidence, that the hotel or restaurant of 0. Preidenberger was, at the time of the alleged [287]*287larceny, a house usually occupied as aforesaid, then it is a dwelling house in the eye of the law.

“4. The court instructs the jury that, under the statutes of this state, the defendant is a witness in his own behalf, and his testimony should be considered with that of the other witnesses in arriving at a verdict; but the fact that the defendant is on trial and has an interest in the result, may be considered by the jury in determining the weight to be given the defendant’s testimony, and as affecting his credibility. Whatever the defendant says against himself should be believed because said against himself, but whatever he says in his own behalf the jury are not bound to believe, but may believe or disbelieve, according as it is corroborated, or not corroborated, by the other proofs in the case.

“5. If the jury should find and believe, from the evidence, that Shanklin parted with the immediate possession of a coin he supposed was a dollar, willingly, yet that said coin was in fact a twenty-dollar gold piece and defendant knew that fact and formed the felonious intent to steal it, and to deprive the said Shanklin of the said coin, and did in fact steal and convert it to his own use ; that said stealing and conversion of' said gold coin was committed in a dwelling house, as defined in another instruction, then the jury will find him guilty and assess his punishment as elsewhere directed for larceny committed in a dwelling house.

“6. If, after considering all the evidence in the case, the jury have a reasonable doubt of defendant’s guilt, they should acquit him, but such a doubt, to warrant an acquittal, should be a substantial doubt of his guilt, based on all the evidence in the case, and not a mere possibility of his innocence.”

The defendant thereupon asked the court to give the following instruction:

“1. The jury are instructed that, to constitute larceny from a dwelling house, the property stolen must, at the time of the commission of the offense, be [288]*288within and under the protection of the dwelling house, and not in the personal care and keeping, or on the person of any one in the house; and that, if they believe, from the evidence, that the defendant stole and carried away a sum of money less than thirty dollars, from the person of G. T.

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Bluebook (online)
98 Mo. 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-patterson-mo-1889.