State v. Stevens

199 P. 256, 60 Mont. 390, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 104
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1921
DocketNo. 4,773
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 199 P. 256 (State v. Stevens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Stevens, 199 P. 256, 60 Mont. 390, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 104 (Mo. 1921).

Opinions

MR. JUSTICE REYNOLDS

delivered the opinion of the court.

Defendant was charged with grand larceny, tried and convicted, and judgment followed. Motion for new trial was made and overruled. Defendant has appealed from the judgment and order overruling the motion. Motion was made in this court to dismiss the appeals because of delay of appellant in serving and filing transcript and brief.

Defendant was employed by the Union Bank & Trust Company of Helena, and was under the immediate supervision of R. O. Kaufman, one of its officers. The bank arranged for a shipment of $40,000 in currency from Butte, which reached Helena on the fifth of November, 1919. Defendant, although [397]*397not authorized to do so, called at the postoffiee for the package and received it. His conduct while returning to the bank attracted the attention of one Mrs. Agnes Watkins, who saw him, with a package in his hand, enter a building on Park Avenue known as the Old Kleinschmidt building. Later he was seen by her to emerge from the building without the package, and proceed rapidly in the direction of the bank. Later defendant was found lying face downward in a small shed or alleyway, bound and gagged, and with the appearance of having been seriously injured. He was taken to the hospital, where he first told a story of having been robbed. However, there were features in connection with the story which caused it to be disbelieved, and thereafter defendant made several different statements as to the affair which evidently were false. The questions involved on these appeals relate to the admissibility of evidence, alleged errors in giving and refusing instructions, newly discovered evidence, and misconduct of counsel for the state.

[1] The contention is not made that defendant was innocent of the crime charged, but that technically he did not receive a fair trial in the respects mentioned. While an accused person, even though guilty, is entitled to a fair trial, yet this court will not grant a new trial where the record conclusively establishes the guilt of the defendant, even though there was error, unless it clearly appears that the error of which complaint is made actually prejudiced the defendant in his right to a fair trial.

[2] It is alleged that the court ei*red in admitting in evidence the testimony of witness Patrick Keyes, wherein he stated that at a short time prior to the larceny defendant stated that he “thought it was unfair for some people to have hundreds of thousands or a million dollars, and a poor person not have any; he thought the money should be distributed equally with everybody, and the most of the people that had lots of money, they got it by robbing the poor people,” in that connection referring particularly to Mr. McKinnon, president [398]*398of the Union Bank & Trust Company. Objection was made to this testimony on the ground that it only tends to show the philosophy of the defendant, which has no probative value, and that it was not connected, either direetly or indirectly, with the issues involved. It may be conceded that this evidence is somewhat remote, but we cannot hold that it was entirely immaterial. Such evidence tends to show the mental attitude of the defendant toward private rights in property, and, while not direct evidence that he did or would commit such a crime, yet it has a bearing in showing a prejudice against people who have acquired property, particularly the president of the bank from which bank the money was taken, which, in turn, would tend to make it easier to excuse one’s self in an attempt to take such property from another who, he believes, has illegitimately secured it.

[3, 4] The state offered in evidence testimony of Lester Lightbody, deputy sheriff, as to certain statements against interest made by defendant, to which defendant objected and saved his exception. The first statement was included within the following testimony: “At this time, when the name of Marias or some similar name was given, the defendant was asked — I think Mr. Barnes said, ‘Charley, them ain’t the names of them fellows; you know the names of them,’ and he said, ‘Is it Ford and Blodgett?’ And Stevens says, ‘Yes.’ He said they was to meet him at the Palmer House that night and divide the money. Ford and Blodgett was arrested that morning about five minutes after Stevens told us this. Stevens was then taken to the county jail, and Ford and Blodgett were arrested at the Palmer House. I was present in the jail later when Ford and Blodgett and Stevens were there.”

The second statement was included in the following testimony: “He told me he was sorry that he got Ford and Blodgett in any trouble; that they were innocent of any wrongdoing. He said they had nothing to do with it. At this time he said Ralph Kaufman had something to do with it, and that he turned the money over to Kaufman. The story [399]*399he told me as to how the whole thing happened was that he was to go and get the money and was to go back to the bank with it, and that if nobody there had seen him come in he was to go down to the basement with the money. As to where they made this arrangement, he said that Mr. Kaufman came up to his desk and made the arrangement at his desk; that he said he had been very good in helping him along, and intended to keep on helping him, and then he told him he wanted Stevens to go and get this money and fetch it to him. He did not say that Earl Fallon had any connection with this story. He did not tell me anything about Fallon at this time at all, not on that day at all; it was the next day he told me about Fallon. As to what he said when he came back to the bank and just how they arranged that, he said he went down to the basement and turned the money over to Mr. Kaufman. He told me how much he was to receive for his part in it; he was to receive $500. He did not say who was to get the rest. With reference to the explanation he made to me relative to any footmarks or finger-prints on State’s Exhibit- 15, the paper, I told him it looked peculiar to me when a paper would be found in that building when it could be burned up in the basement, and what was his idea in going back with the paper; he said that it wasn’t his idea; that Kaufman wanted him to take the paper back there. As to the way he said any print got on the paper, he told me Mr. Kaufman had him step on the paper in the basement, and had him put his hand in the dust and put the finger-prints on the paper, and that Mr. Kaufman had him take the paper back to the Kleinschmidt building. He did not explain to me at that time how he came to be tied up. I had a further conversation with him about Fallon; I had several conversations with him about Fallon, but he never said anything connecting Fallon with it at all, with the exception of once when he said he didn’t see why ‘they didn’t get Fallon and put Mm in jail, as well as putting me in jail.’ He was asked at that time as to why Fallon should be put in jail, and he refused to answer. TMs defendant told me the money was [400]*400in the bank; he said he turned it over to Mr. Kaufman. He told me the reason he told the story about the robbery and of the automobile being in the alley was because that was the first story that he and Kaufman had made up. He told me that when he seen the officers did not believe the story Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
199 P. 256, 60 Mont. 390, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stevens-mont-1921.