State v. Taylor

18 S.W.2d 474, 323 Mo. 15, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 444
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 4, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 18 S.W.2d 474 (State v. Taylor) 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. Taylor, 18 S.W.2d 474, 323 Mo. 15, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 444 (Mo. 1929).

Opinion

*19 BLAIR, P. J.

-Appellant, together with Elmer Schneider and Joseph Buschman, was charged with the crime of robbery in the first degree, as defined by Section 3307, Revised Statutes 1919. A former conviction of felony was alleged against each defendant, thus bringing the case within Section 3702, Revised Statutes 1919, usually referred to as the Habitual Criminal Act. Appellant was separately tried and found guilty of robbery as charged, and also guilty of a prior conviction of felony, as also charged in the information. His punishment was accordingly assessed by the jury at imprisonment in the penitentiary during his natural life. He was granted an appeal from the judgment entered on such verdict.

*20 A brief statement of tbe evidence will suffice. 'William G. Nicklin was president of Nicklin Tannery Company, doing business at 409 South Second Street in the city of St. Louis. At about 12:30 p. m., on Saturday, August 13, 1927, Mr. Nicklin was in his office at that place making up the weekly pay roll for the employees of the Tannery Company, when four or five men armed with pistols appeared at the office and took from him over three hundred dollars in money, belonging in part to him and in part to his company, and departed in an automobile previously parked in the alley at the rear. Nick-lin did not identify appellant as one of the men who took the money. However, he did identify Buschman, appellant’s co-defendant, as one of the men.

An eighteen-year-old negro boy, named Oi’Dell Slattery, testified on behalf of the State that he worked as pony boy for one John Berne, who conducted a blacksmith shop in the alley in the rear of 415 South Second Street; that on the forenoon of the robbery appellant drove and parked in the alley near the shop a gray colored Hudson automobile; that appellant, Buschman, Schneider and others Avere frequently at this blacksmith shop; and that these men were around the shop on the day of the robbery until about 12:30 p. m. ; that they then all armed themselves with pistols and left the shop; that appellant went to the Hudson automobile and remained there, while Buschman, Schneider and the others went toward the Nicklin Tannery; that in about five minutes these men came running into the alley carrying a sack and entered the automobile in which appellant was seated at the time with the engine running; that they immediately drove out of the alley and disappeared. Appellant was arrested the next morning, but had only a few dollars and no weapon of any character upon his person.

The record of a former conviction of appellant for the crime of robbery in the city of St. Louis was put in evidence, together with the penitentiary record showing his discharge from that institution. Appellant was identified- as the Edward Taylor mentioned in said records by the officer who arrested him upon the former occasion and by the record of his finger prints.

Appellant took the witness stand and contented himself with stating his age (twenty-two years) and.giving his place of residence. He offered several witnesses who testified to his presence in Webster Groves and later at his uncle’s home in St. Louis County on the day of the robbery. The period thus covered included not only the time of the robbery, but some hours before and after it was committed.

A witness was also offered by appellant in an attempt to impeach the witness Slattery. This witness said that Slattery told her he *21 could not identify appellant as one of the robbers. Slattery was recalled and denied having made any such statement. Apparently he had testified substantially to the same facts at the preliminary examination, yet no other effort was made to impeach his testimony.

The case was peculiarly one for the jury. If it believed the testimony of Slattery, it had the undoubted right to find appellant guilty. Had it believed appellant's alibi witnesses, it should, and doubtless would, have foDnd appellant not guilty. The testimony of Slattery a~i d that of appellant's alibi witnesses was utterly inconsistent. Both could not be true. The trial court approved the verdict as not being against the weight of the evidence. The evidence tending to establish appellant's guilt was substantial and, unless some procedural error was committed of which appellant is here entitled to complain, we are not authorized to set a side the judg~ment rendered on the jury's verdict.

Appellant contends that Section 3702, Revised Statutes 1919, which we have referred to as' the Habitual Criminal Act, was repealed by implication by Laws of 1927, page 173. Said Section 3702, so far as here applicable, reads as follows:

“If any person convicted of any offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or of any attempt to commit an offense which, if perpetrated, would be punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, shall be discharged, either upon pardon or upon compliance with the sentence, and shall subsequently be convicted of any offense committed after such pardon or discharge, he shall be punished as follows: First, if such subsequent offense be such that, upon a first conviction, the offender would be punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, or for a term which under the provisions of this lay might extend to imprisonment for life, then such person shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for life: . . .”

Section 1 of Laws of 1927, page 173, reads as follows':

“If any person shall be convicted of committing a felony, or attempting to commit a felony, while armed with a pistol or any deadly weapon the punishment elsewhere prescribed for said offense in the statutes and laws of the State of Missouri for the felony of which he is convicted shall be increased by the trial judge by imprisonment in the state penitentia^ for two years. Upon a second conviction for a felony so committed such period of imprisonment shall be increased by ten years; and upon a third conviction for a felony so committed such period of imprisonment shall be increased by fifteen years. Upon a fourth or subsequent conviction for a felony so committed the person so convicted shall be imprisoned for life.’'

*22 Appellant was charged with robbery in the first degree under Section 3307, Revised Statutes 1919, and appropriate allegations to bring him under Section 3702 were also made in the information. By Section 3310, Revised Statutes 1919, the punishment for first degree robbery was fixed only at imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five years. Section 3310 was repealed by Laws of 1987, page 174, and a new section of the same number was enacted in lieu thereof and, so far as the punishment provided for robbery in the first degree is concerned, reads as follows:

“Every person convicted of robbery in the first degree by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon shall suffer death, or be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than ten years, and every person convicted of robbery in the first degree by any other means shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years. . . .”

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Bluebook (online)
18 S.W.2d 474, 323 Mo. 15, 1929 Mo. LEXIS 444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-taylor-mo-1929.