State v. Woolman

33 P.2d 640, 84 Utah 23, 93 A.L.R. 723, 1934 Utah LEXIS 72
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJune 14, 1934
DocketNo. 5453.
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 33 P.2d 640 (State v. Woolman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Woolman, 33 P.2d 640, 84 Utah 23, 93 A.L.R. 723, 1934 Utah LEXIS 72 (Utah 1934).

Opinions

MOFFAT, Justice.

The defendant and appellant, James Woolman, and others, were accused by the information in the cause of the crime of participating in a riot. The alleged riot it is charged occurred on the 23d day of February, 1933, at the City and County building in Salt Lake City, Utah, while the sheriff of the county in pursuance of his duty was holding a sale of real property. The appellant, James Woolman, alone stood trial upon the information.

Upon the trial to a jury, the defendant was found “guilty of the crime of participating in an unlawful assembly.”

The information upon which the defendant was tried sets forth that the defendant and another having been duly com *26 mitted by a committing magistrate is accused by the district attorney of the crime of participating in a riot at the time and place above stated, and charges specifically that the defendant and others “on the 23rd day of February, A. D. 1933, at the County of Salt Lake, State of Utah, acting together and concertedly, and with divers other persons whose names are unknown, did without authority of law, wilfully, unlawfully, and feloniously use and threaten to use force and violence in disturbing the public peace, said threats to use force and violence being then and there accompanied by immediate power of execution and said persons acting as aforesaid among other things, did then and there, wilfully, unlawfully, feloniously, riotously, and with force and violence obstruct and prevent S. Grant Young, duly elected, qualified, and acting Sheriff of Salt Lake County, State of Utah, from performing the duties and obligations of his office incident to the conducting of a duly authorized Sheriff’s Sale of Real property, and did then and there wilfully, unlawfully, and feloniously use and threaten to use force bruise, and illtreat German Dean, Charles Fernstrom, and Ray Cahoon, duly qualified peace officers of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, State of Utah, who were then and there acting in the line of their duty in preserving the public peace, and did then and there wilfully, unlawfully, riotously, felon-iously, and with force and violence break and damage the doors leading into the office of said Sheriff S. Grant Young, said doors being located in the City and County Building, Salt Lake City, Utah, and did then and there wilfully, unlawfully, riotously, and feloniously make great noise, and did then and there threaten to cut, beat, bruise, harm, and kill the said Sheriff S. Grant Young and his deputies, said threats being then and there accompanied by immediate power of execution, and all to the terror and disturbance of the peace of the people of the State of Utah, and contrary to the provisions of the Statute of the State of Utah,” etc.

The case is in this court upon the judgment roll alone.

*27 After verdict and before judgment, defendant interposed a motion in arrest of judgment and in due time filed his motion for a new trial.

Appellant’s first assignment of error goes to the question of alleged error by the trial court in denying his motion in arrest of judgment, and particularly specifies the ground upon which the motion was based as follows:

(a) That the information fails to state facts sufficient to constitute the crime of unlawful assembly of which the verdict purports to find the appellant guilty.

(b) That the commission of the crime of unlawful assembly is not necessarily included in the crime of riot as defined by the Utah statute defining riot.

(c) That it was error to instruct the jury that the crime of unlawful assembly is necessarily included in the crime of riot as defined by the Utah statutes, and was also error to permit the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty of unlawful assembly or guilty of participating in an unlawful assembly upon an information which alleges only those elements which charge the crime of riot.

The second assignment of error goes to the question raised that the court erred in denying appellant’s motion for a new trial upon the ground that the verdict is contrary to law.

The third assignment attacks the validity of the verdict based upon a purported offense not expressly charged nor sufficiently alleged, in the information.

The fourth assignment assails the judgment and sentence as being unconstitutional in that it deprives the appellant of his liberty without due process of law, because of his having been convicted of an alleged offense not contained in the information, and therefore no notice was given to him by the information which failed to charge the crime of which he was convicted.

Manifestly the errors complained of by assignments Nos. 3 and 4 are subsidiary questions to those raised by assignments Nos. 1 and 2, and, while there is a clear distinction *28 to be drawn between assignment No. 3 and assignments Nos. 1 and 2, in that assignment No; 3 attacks the sufficiency of the information to charge the crime of unlawful assembly whether or not the crime of unlawful assembly is or is not an included offense of the crime of riot as defined by the statute. If, therefore, the crime of unlawful assemly is not an included offense of the crime of riot, the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury, and the verdict may not stand. Likewise, if the information fails to allege facts sufficient to charge unlawful assembly, and the offense of riot and unlawful assembly are distinct offenses as defined by the statute, the defendant may not be charged with the one and tried upon the other.

The court instructed the jury as follows:

“You are instructed that the offense specifically charged in the information is that of participating in a riot. This charge necessarily includes in contemplation of law, the charge of participating in an unlawful assembly, of assault, and of battery, and under the law the defendant may be convicted of the offense specifically charged or of any of such other offenses so included. You are therefore instructed that if you find from the evidence that the defendant is not guilty of participating in a riot, but is guilty of one of the included offenses named, then you may find him guilty of that included offense, which from all of the evidence and under these instructions, you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of.” (Italics added.)

The court further instructed the jury that their verdict should be:

“Guilty of participating in a riot, as charged in the information, or guilty of participating in an unlawful assembly, as charged in the information, or
“Guilty of assault as charged in the information, or
“Guilty of battery as charged in the information, or
“Not Guilty as your deliberations may result.”

The trial court also instructed the jury as to the law defining each of the offenses referred to in the instructions.

*29

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Bluebook (online)
33 P.2d 640, 84 Utah 23, 93 A.L.R. 723, 1934 Utah LEXIS 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-woolman-utah-1934.