State v. Slater

153 N.W.2d 702, 261 Iowa 554, 1967 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 880
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 17, 1967
Docket52659
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 153 N.W.2d 702 (State v. Slater) 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. Slater, 153 N.W.2d 702, 261 Iowa 554, 1967 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 880 (iowa 1967).

Opinion

Moore, J.

Defendant, Jack G. Slater, was charged by a county attorney’s information with the. crime of uttering a forged instrument in violation of section 718.2, Code, 1966, and following conviction was sentenced not to exceed ten years imprisonment in the. state penitentiary.

On this appeal defendant asserts the trial court erred in (1) failing to remove Exhibit 4 from the consideration of the jury and (2) giving instruction 10.

Donald Forret, a check-out counter cashier at the Indianola Hy Yee Food Store, testified defendant endorsed in his presence and cashed a check in the sum of $41.60 at the store on October 11, 1966. The check, Exhibit 1, was made payable to “Jack Slater” on a printed form bearing, the.name of “Bates Miles” and purported to be signed by Miles.

The store manager testified defendant had been in the store *556 on October 11, 1966, and that the check was endorsed and put through regular channels but was later returned for want of proper signature. It remained unpaid.

Bates Miles of Des Moines testified he did not make out or sign the form check bearing his name which had been prepared for him by the Capital City State Bank of Des Moines. He stated he had not authorized anyone to write the cheek, he had not employed defendant, did not owe him any money and that he did not know Exhibit 1 had been written until so notified by the bank. Miles had shared an apartment from August 14 to 22, 1966, with John Slater, a relative of defendant.

Duane Barton, a questioned document examiner for the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified he had compared known specimen of the writing of defendant and a James Roland, alias James LaFrance, with the endorsement and the writing on the face of Exhibit 1. He opined Roland had written the check and defendant the endorsement.

A Capital City Bank teller testified payment of Exhibit 1 was refused because the signature was not genuine. The Warren County sheriff related he had arrested defendant in Portland, Oregon, December 12, 1966, on a warrant for the charge being tried.

Defendant, following denial of his motion for a directed verdict, testified he had been reared in the Des Moines area but for several months in 1966 was a construction worker in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he became acquainted with a man known to him as James LaFrance who also worked on construction. Defendant stated that in late September 1966, he, his family and LaFrance decided to go to Portland, Oregon, to seek work. Defendant and his family traveled in one automobile and LaFrance traveled alone in another. They arrived in Des Mointes on or about October 10 to visit defendant’s mother-in-law. The group at first stayed at the farm of defendant’s father.

Defendant related that while driving around Des Moines with LaFrance he saw his uncle, John Slater, at which time he introduced LaFrance and the three men went to the uncle’s apartment. Defendant and his family stayed at the uncle’s *557 apartment the night before they and LaFranee left Des Moines on October 13 or 14.

On October 11 LaFranee borrowed defendant’s automobile and approximately three hours later returned and told defendant he had “found a job doing upholstery” but could not cash the check as “he was from Louisiana and he didn’t have any identification or anything- of local.” Defendant further testified LaFranee asked him if he would cash it if he obtained another check made payable to defendant. Defendant answered in the affirmative. LaFranee then left.

Within a half hour, according to defendant, LaFranee returned with the check, now Exhibit 1, which defendant stated he endorsed and cashed at the Indianola Hy Yee store. He received groceries and cash. The face of Exhibit 1 bears the notation “Const. Labor”. Defendant’s position was that he did not utter the check with intent to defraud as required by the statute, section 718.2.

Defendant further testified that during the few days they were in the Des Moines area LaFranee had other checks purportedly signed by Bates Miles and defendant cashed two in Des Moines and two or three in Indianola. One day defendant cashed two checks. All were in the same form as Exhibit 1.

On cross-examination defendant identified Exhibit 3 as a check in the same form as Exhibit 1 and admitted he cashed it, in the sum of $45.20 at the Indianola Hy Yee store on October 10. Exhibit 1 was cashed October 11.

Cross-examination of defendant includes:

“Q. I hand you what the court reporter has marked Exhibit 4, and ask you to state what that is, if you know? A. A check.
“Q. What is the date of that? A. October 10th.
“Q. That is another check on October 10? A. Yes.
“Q. Who is that made payable to? A. Jim LaFranee.
“Q. Whose signature is purported to appear on that check? A. Bates Miles.
“Q. The same check as Exhibit 3 and Exhibit 1, the same type of printed cheek, isn’t it? A. Yes.
“Q. You indicated that Jim LaFranee said to you he couldn’t get a check cashed? A. Yes, sir: that’s right.
“Q. Is that right. That is dated October 10? A. Yes.
*558 “Q. That same day you arrived back from Louisiana? A. Yes, sir; somewhere right in there.”

Exhibits 3 and 4 were then offered by the State and received without any objection made thereto and cross-examination continued. It included defendant’s admission he had no money due him for any work performed as indicated,on the checks.

Defendant’s redirect examination includes:

“Q. On cross-examination you were asked about a check that has been marked Exhibit 4, payable to Jim LaFrance and apparently endorsed by Jim LaFrance. Do you know anything about that check? A. No, sir: I don’t.
“Q. Have you ever seen it before today? A. No.
“Q. The only cheeks of which you had knowledge were Exhibits 1 and 3: is that correct?. A. Yes.”

On rebuttal Bates Miles testified he had not seen LaFrance or defendant during October 1966, he had not made out or signed Exhibits 3 and 4 and neither defendant nor LaFrance had ever performed any labor for him.

On cross-examination Miles stated the bank had furnished him two or three books of printed checks some of which he lost while staying with John Slater.'

Upon completion of the evidence defendant’s motion for a directed verdict was renewed and again denied. Thereafter defendant’s counsel moved Exhibit 4 be withdrawn from the consideration of- the jury and stated he had negligently failed to examine it when offered. This motion was denied by the trial court and forms the basis for defendant’s first assigned error.

' I. Assuming arguendo defendant had some valid objection to Exhibit 4, his attempt to assert an objection came too late.

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Bluebook (online)
153 N.W.2d 702, 261 Iowa 554, 1967 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 880, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-slater-iowa-1967.