State v. Wilkerson

70 S.W. 478, 170 Mo. 184, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 48
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 18, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 70 S.W. 478 (State v. Wilkerson) 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. Wilkerson, 70 S.W. 478, 170 Mo. 184, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 48 (Mo. 1902).

Opinion

BURGESS,'J.

Defendant was convicted, and his punishment fixed at two years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary, under an indictment charging that he, with three others, did “unlawfully and feloniously aid and assist in making and establishing a policy as a business and avocation.” The punishment was reduced by the court of its own motion to six months imprisonment in the county jail.

After unsuccessful motions for new trial and in arrest defendant appeals.

The indictment, so far as necessary to quote it reads as follows: “That James Steele, Seth P. Anderson, Jno. Martin and William Wilkerson, late of the county aforesaid, on the 31st day of July, 1900, at the county of Jackson, State of Missouri, unlawfully and feloniously did make and establish a policy as a business and avocation in the State of Missouri, against the peace and dignity of the State, and the .grand jurors aforesaid do further present and say that James Steele, [187]*187Seth P. Anderson, John Martin and William Wilkerson, late of the connty aforesaid, on the 31st day of July, 1900, at the connty of Jackson and State of Missouri, unlawfully and feloniously did aid and assist in making and establishing a policy as a business and avocation in the State of Missouri, against the peace and dignity of the State, and the grand jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid do further say and present that James Steele, Seth P. Anderson, Jno. Martin and William Wilkerson, late of the county of. Jackson aforesaid, on the 31st day of July, 1900, at the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, unlawfully and feloni-ously, did make and establish a scheme of drawing, in the nature of a lottery, called ‘policy,’ as a business and avocation, against the peace and dignity of the State. ’ ’

The facts are that the defendant, with two of his co-indictees, was arrested in a roadhouse on the Southwest boulevard near the state line, in Kansas City, Missouri. The remaining co-indictee was there present in the building at the time, but was not arrested until af-terwards. A policy wheel, the numbers for the drawing, the blackboard, and all other paraphernalia for policy drawing was found in the same building.

In the forenoon of July 31, 1900, the marshal of Jackson county, acting on information that there was a policy-drawing being conducted in the building where the arrests were made, started with two of his deputies to raid the place. On the car going out they saw two of the defendants — Wilkerson and Steele; these men alighted from the car some distance from the roadhouse and entered the basement of the building from the rear; the officers coming immediately behind found the door barred. Gaining entrance by another door they found that the two men and Anderson, a co-de: fendant, had gone up stairs into a room occupied by a sick servant, and pretended when arrested that they were attending to the sick man. On going down to the basement room, by which defendant and his companion had entered, the officers found a counter-blackboard and [188]*188a “case” (a.case for holding a glass policy wheel). When the officers asked, “Where is the wheel,” Anderson in the presence of defendant says, “Yon are a little early, the game hadn’t started.” In the cellar, immediately next to this room where the “case” was found, and communicating with-it, the policy wheel was discovered, and fresh footprints in the mud leading to it. In another corner they found the policy numbers, 78, and Anderson said in defendant’s presence at the finding of the case and wheel, “You were a little early, you broke up a good game.” Defendant then told the officers that he was running a policy, that/ “I was out here, I was writing policy. I was out there with my hooks,” and had been there every day for two weeks— twice a day, morning and evening drawings.

The evidence further showed that defendant had been engaged selling policy at intervals for five years before that.

Defendant himself testified that when out of work he sold policy tickets, and volunteered the information without being asked that he was the party who was convicted for selling or exposing to sale certain policy tickets, referring to the record of former convictions previously shown by the State.

It was further shown that a person who sells tickets or writes policy is a necessary part of the game; that his duties are entirely different from the service of one selling lottery tickets. A lottery ticket is made printed and complete, and a sale of it consists of a delivery simply of the ticket. While one selling policy necessarily writes the tickets himself, keeps duplicate copies thereof in what is called ‘ ‘ a book, ’ ’ which is two sheets of manifold paper — one he must deliver at the place of the drawing before it takes place, the other he keeps to pay winning tickets (if any) by. He secures the winning numbers or reports and is then prepared to and does pay the winning tickets, having first sold them and collected the money for them.

He is a necessary part, a condition precedent, subsequent and in praesenti of the drawing.

[189]*189The defendant admitted that he was “writing policy tickets” but claimed that that did not bring him within the purpose of the statute, as it did not constitute “aiding and assisting in making and establishing a policy as a business or avocation.”

The court instructed the jury as follows:

“The court instructs the jury that if they find and believe from the evidence that at the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, at any time within three years next before the 27th day of October, 1900, the defendant. William Wilkerson, did either alone or acting in concert with 'another or others, unlawfully and feloni-ously aid and assist in making out and establishing a policy as a business and avocation in the State of Missouri, you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the second count in the indictment and assess his punishment at imprisonment in the State penitentiary at not less than two nor more than five years, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than six months nor more than twelve months.
“Felonious,"as used in these instructions, means wickedly and against the admonition of the law, unlawfully.
“If verbal statements of the defendant have been proven 'in this case, you may take them into consideration, with all the other facts and circumstances proven. What the proof may show you, if anything, that the defendant has said against himself, the law presumes to be true, because against himself; but anything you may believe from the evidence the defendant said in his own behalf, you are not obliged to believe, but you may treat the same as true or false, just as you believe it true or false, when considered with a view to all the other facts and circumstances in the case. ’ ’

The defendant asked the following instructions, which were refused, and he duly excepted:

“1. The jury are instructed that if verbal admissions are claimed to have been made by the defendant in the course of casual conversation, the jury should consider them with caution, because of the liability of [190]*190the witness to forget what was said or to imperfectly remember it or to misconstrue the statement of the speaker.
‘ ‘ 2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 S.W. 478, 170 Mo. 184, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 48, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilkerson-mo-1902.