State v. Wilson

125 S.W. 479, 225 Mo. 503, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 18
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 12, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 125 S.W. 479 (State v. Wilson) 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. Wilson, 125 S.W. 479, 225 Mo. 503, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 18 (Mo. 1910).

Opinion

FOX, J.

The defendant has brought this cause to the Supreme Court by appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Clinton county, Missouri, convicting him of the offense of burglary and larceny.

On August 28, 1907, the prosecuting attorney of Clinton county filed an information, which was duly verified, charging the defendant with the crime of burglary and larceny. Following this there were three trials, in each of which the jury was. unable to agree. The trial which resulted in the judgment now before the court for consideration was the fourth trial. The testimony developed upon the trial was substantially as follows:

On the part of the State, Dr. Oourtwright testified that on Tuesday night, between one and two o’clock, August 6, upon being aroused by a noise in his sleeping- room, he saw a man crouched at the dresser, and immediately jumped from his bed toward the burglar, who thereupon ran into another room, where all the windows were screened. From this room he [509]*509ran into the sitting room, where a bright light was burning. When he reached this room, he and witness met and a struggle between the two followed, during the course of which they fell to the floor several times. The burglar finally forced his way into another room, where a window was open, the screen having been theretofore removed, and through this window made his escape. The screen had been removed from the window before the struggle, and sometime after ten o ’clock that night, the hour when Dr. Courtwright and his family retired, and was found soon after the commission of the crime, standing at the side of the window. After the burglar made his escape, it was found that he had taken a pair of trousers, two dollars and seventy cents in cash, and two pocket knives. The trousers, pocket knives and one silver dollar were found the next morning in the yard. During the scuffle the burglar lost his hat, and this was found in the house. The hat was of soft material and light color.

The burglar was identified as being Solomon Wilson, the defendant in this cause, by both Dr. Court-wright and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Daniels, who entered the room while the struggle was in progress. They were well acquainted with defendant, having known him for a number of years, and were positive in their identification of him as the person who entered the house. The light-colored hat found in the house was definitely identified by the night watchman of Lathrop as the hat of defendant, and one which he had worn for several months. The hat was also recognized by Dr. Courtwright, William Anderson, Miss Ballew, Mr. Welch, Dick Weir and J. Bickle, as looking “exactly like” the light-colored hat which they had seen defendant wear immediately prior to the commission of this crime.

On the part of defendant, the testimony tended to prove that on the afternoon of August 6th, at about [510]*510three or four o ’clock, defendant and four other colored hoys, left the town of Lathrop, and by means of a freight train went to Cameron Junction, arriving there at about 4:45 p. m. At that place they made connections with a freight train hound for St. Joseph, and on it rode in a box car to Stewartsville, where they separated, defendant and one other colored hoy getting into a car different from the one in which the remainder had located a free berth. In this manner they continued their travel to St. Joseph, reaching there at about 7:30 p. m. Defendant and his companion went directly to the home of a friend, where they remained all night. The colored people of St. Joseph were giving a picnic, and the defendant found occasion to remain there until August 9th, at which time he returned to Lathrop, and was placed under arrest.

Defendant denied that the hat which was found in the house on the night of the crime, was his, or that he had worn a hat of similar description at any time within two years preceding the commission of the crime. He also denied that he entered the house and stole the property, hut contended that he was in St. Joseph on the night in question. The evidence also tended to prove that on-the night when the crime was committed, a strange negro, wearing a light-colored, soft hat, was seen in the town of Lathrop.

At the close of the evidence the court instructed the jury. We do not deem it essential to reproduce the intructions, hut will give them such attention as may be necessary during the course of the opinion. The cause was submitted to the jury upon the evidence introduced and the instructions of the court and they returned their- verdict finding the defendant guilty as charged, of both burglary and larceny, assessing his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of five years. Timely motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed, taken up by the court and overruled. Sentence and judgment were entered [511]*511in accordance with the verdict returned by the jury and from such judgment the defendant prosecuted this appeal, and the record is now before us for consideration.

OPINION.

I.

It is insisted by learned counsel for appellant that the judgment in this cause should he reversed for the reason that the information charged burglary in the first degree, and that if the evidence tended to show the commission of any offense, it was that of burglary in the first degree; hence the conviction of the defendant of burglary .in the second degree was erroneous. This contention is predicated mainly upon the theory that the burglary charged in this case was in a dwelling house in which there was at the time of the commission of such burglary a human being. This proposition necessitates a brief review of the sections of the statute defining burglary.

Section 1880, which defines burglary in the first degree, provides: “Every person who shall be convicted of breaking into and entering the dwelling-house of another, in which there shall be at the time some human being, with intent to commit some felony or any larceny therein, either: First, by forcibly bursting or breaking the wall or outer door, window or shutter of a window of such house, or the lock or bolt of such door, or the fastening of such window or shutter; or second, by breaking in any other manner, being armed with some dangerous weapon, or with the assistance and aid of one or more confederates, then actually present, aiding and assisting; or third, by unlocking an outer door by means of false keys, or by picking the lock thereof, shall be adjudged guilty of burglary in the first degree.”

[512]*512Following this section it is provided by section 1881 that “every person who shall be convicted of breaking into a dwelling-house, with intent to commit a felony or any larceny, but under such circumstances as shall not constitute the offense of burglary in the first degree, shall be deemed guilty of burglary in the second degree.”

These two sections of the statute make substantially the same provisions concerning the offense of burglary as were made in Wagner’s Statutes 454, secs. 10 and 11. The provisions of these sections of the statute were in judgment before this court in State v. Tutt, 63 Mo. 595. In that case, as in the case at bar, it was earnestly insisted that the defendant, upon the charge in the indictment and the facts developed upon the trial, could not be convicted of burglary in the second degree.

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Bluebook (online)
125 S.W. 479, 225 Mo. 503, 1910 Mo. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilson-mo-1910.