State v. Stockton

242 N.W. 344, 186 Minn. 33, 1932 Minn. LEXIS 832
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedApril 15, 1932
DocketNo. 28,718.
StatusPublished

This text of 242 N.W. 344 (State v. Stockton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Stockton, 242 N.W. 344, 186 Minn. 33, 1932 Minn. LEXIS 832 (Mich. 1932).

Opinion

*34 Dibell, J.

The defendant ivas convicted of robbery in the first degree committed on January 12, 1929, at Minneapolis. He appeals from the judgment.

The indictment alleges that on the day stated he robbed Joseph V. Proulx of $20. There is evidence tending to show that on the.night of January 12, 1929, the defendant and another, both armed, came into the store of Proulx. There were in the store Proulx, his wife, and one Healy, a customer. One of the two men, not the defendant, gave his attention to Proulx and Healy. The other looked after Mrs. Proulx. She identified the defendant with positiveness, although some period had passed since the robbery. Proulx and Healy were unable to identify him.

The defendant denies the commission of the crime. He denies that he ivas at the place of the robbery. He claims that he was at the time in a different portion of the city with a young Avoman attending a show. It Avas a Saturday night. The young Avoman to some extent supports his claim. Neither of them is sure about the date. There is nothing in their testimony compelling the jury to find that the defendant was not at the place of the robbery in accordance Avith the testimony of Mrs. Proulx. From the nature of things, the .only defense the defendant could have was his denial that he committed the robbery and substantive proof that he Avas elseAvhere. The whole question aauis one of identification for the jury. His claim, urged here earnestly, that he had lived in the community for a long time and Avas known, and would not likely commit a crime there, Avas for the jury for such consideration as it chose to give it.

The defendant has been competed of crime several times, and under our statute his convictions, if he Avere a AAdtness, could be shown as bearing on his credibility. On the cross-examination of the state’s Aiutnesses, before the defendant became a AAdtness, his former convictions were shown. His history Avas bad. In 1920 he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and Avas put on probation for six months. He Avas convicted in Cincinnati for the *35 violation of the Dyer act, and was sentenced to 15 months in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta and served 12 months. In April, 1926, he was convicted in Minneapolis of grand larceny for stealing property from a lake cottage, received a five-year sentence, and served two years. He was released on parole on May 19, 1928. He was arrested in April, 1929. He was kept in jail a few days and then returned to the state prison as a parole violator. He served about seven months. He was convicted of robbing a store on February 1.8, 1929, during the period of his parole and sentenced to the penitentiary. On appeal his conviction was reversed because of improper evidence received and improper remarks to the jury by the prosecutor for the state. State v. Stockton, 1S1 Minn. 566, 233 N. W. 307. The case was not retried. Instead he was indicted for the robbery of January 12, 1929, the one here involved.

The defendant claimed that he kept a diary in which his goings and comings were shoAvn. In the course of the state’s case and on cross-examination of one of its witnesses, an officer, this occurred :

“You Avere served with a subpoena by the defendant in this case ordering you to produce a diary belonging to the defendant which Avas in the hands of the police department shoAving his whereabouts on or about January 12, 1929, were you not? Were you served Avith that subpoena?
Mr. Skahen: “Did you get such a paper?
A. “I got a subpoena.
Q. “That subpoena ordered you to bring in a diary?
Mr. Skahen: “Objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, not proper cross-examination, or the best evidence.
“Objection sustained.
Q. “Have you that subpoena Avith you?
A. “No.
Q. “Have you brought in that diary?
Mr. Skahen: “That is objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial whether he brought it in or not. Improper cross-exam *36 ination. Don’t know that he has even got it. Let him prove that on his own case, Your Honor.
“Objection sustained.
“Exception by defendant.”

The witness had given no testimony relative to a memorandum. The questions put were not proper on cross-examination. If there was a memorandum it was to be put in evidence on the defendant’s case. The ruling was technically correct.

Another officer, Avho it was claimed took the diary from the defendant’s desk at the time that admittedly he took other things, called by the defendant, failed to remember taking a diary. He was frank and admits that if there Avas a diary he might have taken it. On his OAvn examination the defendant testified:

Q. “Did you keep a diary?
A. “I did.
Q. “During the fall of 1928 and the spring of 1929?
A. “I kept a diary of every day.
Q. “How did you keep that diary?
Mr. Skahen: “Objected to as immaterial.
“Objection sustained.
Q. “Did that diary' sIioav who you Avere with and Avhere you Avere ?
Mr. Skahen: “Wait.
A. “It did.
Mr. Burke: “I haven’t finished the question.
Mr. Skahen: “You have been on the stand enough times to know you should wait until I get a chance to object and don’t inject your answer. I move that be stricken out.
The Court: “It may be stricken.
Q. “Did that diary shoAv Avhere you were and who you Avere Avith on January 12, 1929?
Mr. Skahen: “That is objected to as incompetent, immaterial, and not the best evidence.
“Objection sustained.
Q. “When did you last see this diary you speak of ?
*37 Mr. Skahen: “Objected to as immaterial.
The Court: “He may answer.
A. “I saw it, I should judge, the day after I was arrested, April 26, 1929, down in Mr. Meehan’s office in the presence of Mr. Meehan and Mr. Mahoney, that I remember especially.
Q. “Where were you in the habit of keeping that diary ?
Mr. Skahen: “Objected to as immaterial.
“Objection sustained.
“Exception by defendant.
Q. “Do you know how that diary come to be in Mr. Meehan’s office?
Mr.

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Related

State v. Stockton
233 N.W. 307 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 N.W. 344, 186 Minn. 33, 1932 Minn. LEXIS 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stockton-minn-1932.