Watts v. Commonwealth

272 S.W.2d 475, 1954 Ky. LEXIS 1112
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedOctober 29, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 272 S.W.2d 475 (Watts v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watts v. Commonwealth, 272 S.W.2d 475, 1954 Ky. LEXIS 1112 (Ky. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

MOREM.EN, Justice.

A grand jury of Boone County accused appellant, Swango Watts, of the crime of armed robbery by the following indictment:

“•The Grand Jury of Boone County, in the name and by the authority of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, accuse Brown Thompson, Lester -Raleigh, and Swango Watts of the crime of armed robbery committed in manner and form as follows, to wit:
“The said defendants Brown Thompson, Lester Raleigh, and Swango Watts in the said county of Boone, on the 30th day of March A.D. 1953, and before the finding of this indictment, did unlawfully, willfully', feloniously, by force and violence and by use and display of pistols, deadly weapons, and by putting in fear of some immediate injury or bodily harm and in fear of life of said Lillian Bristow, the cashier and employee of the Union Deposit Bank of Union, Kentucky, they did take and rob $5,200.00 dollars, the property of the Union Deposit Bank, and in the custody of the said Lillian, Bristow against the will and consent of said Lillian Bristow and the Union Deposit Bank. Contrary to the form of the statutes in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The commonwealth was granted a severance and elected to try appellant, Watts,, who was found guilty and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for five years.

Appellant urges as grounds for reversal,. (1) that having been indicted for armed robbery with no accusation that he was an accomplice, aider or abettor, or accessory before or after the fact, he should not have been tried on the charge of being an accessory after the fact, and (2) that the court erred in giving an instruction on the crime of being an accessory after the fact when the indictment did not charge that offense. We will discuss these points in inverse order.

Since counsel for both parties have found it necessary to discuss at some length .our many statutes which deal with robbery, we believe a résumé of them is required.

KRS 433.120 fixes the penalty for the common law offenses of robbery and 'burglary at confinement in the penitentiary for not less than two nor more than ten years:

KRS 433.140 pertains to armed robbery and fixes the penalty at confinement in .the penitentiary for life, or by death. .

KRS 433.150 applies in cases of armed assault with intent to rob and sets forth the penalty of confinement in the penitentiary for twenty-one years or for life, or by death.

KRS 433.160 deals with accessories after the fact to certain special crimes, an.d reads:

“Any person knowingly aiding or giving protection or comfort .to any person who has committed an act of robbery or burglary within the meaning of KRS 433.120 or 433.130 shall be confined in the penitentiary for not less • than two nor more than ten years.”

KRS 433.130 referred to in the quoted statute deals with burglary of- a. bank or safe and is not applicable here, and, since appellant was not indicted under KRS 433.~ [477]*477120, the said' sections, together with KRS 433.160, may be eliminated from consideration.

When we reconsider the indictment above quoted, we find it was returned under KRS 433.140, the violation of which carries the punishment of confinement in the penitentiary for life, or by death.

Instruction No. 2 given by the court properly submitted this matter to the jury. However, Instruction No. 3 required the jury to believe that Brown Thompson and Lester Raleigh by force of arms or with display of a pistol committed the robbery, and further required the jury to find “that the defendant, Swango Watts, unlawfully, knowingly, and feloniously gave aid, protection, or comfort to the defendants, Brown Thompson and Lester Raleigh, after they had committed the robbery, then you will find the defendant, Swango Watts, guilty, as an accessory after the fact and fix his punishment at confinement in the State Penitentiary for a period of not less than two years nor more than ten years in your discretion.”

It is plain that' the court based this instruction arid set forth the penalty- under KRS -433.160 -which we have quoted above. We believe that in this the court was in error. The statute applicable (we will later discuss whether any instruction on this point should have been given at all) was KRS 431.170 which reads in part:

“An accessory after the fact, not otherwise punished, shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor, and fined and imprisoned at the discretion of the jury. ‡ * ⅜ tf

KRS 431.075 provides that any person convicted of a common-law offense, the pfenaity'for which is not otherwise provided by statute, shall ■ be imprisoned in the county jail for a term not exceeding twelve months, or fined a sum not exceeding $5,-000 or both. Therefore, even if it was proper to give an instruction on this phase of the case, it is plain that Instruction No. 3 provided an improper punishment.

We believe appellant is also correct in his contention that no instruction at all should have been given under which the jury could find appellant guilty of being an accessory after the fact. He was indicted as a principal. We have held in a number of cases that where the indictment names two or more persons as the perpetrators, either one may be convicted as an aider and abettor of the other in the commission of the crime. Bailey v. Commonwealth, 295 Ky. 441, 174 S.W.2d 719; McKinney v. Commonwealth, 284 Ky. 16, 143 S.W.2d 745; KRS 431.160. But where the accused is the only one charged as principal in the commission of the offense, no instruction may be given on aiding and abetting alone. Cupp v. Commonwealth, 296 Ky. 464, 177 S.W.2d 581; Stacy v. Commonwealth, 301 Ky. 379, 192 S.W.2d 94. The reason for this distinction is obscure. See the discussion in the Stacy case aforesaid.

However, this rule does not apply in cases involving an accessory after the fact. In Reed v.

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Brown v. Commonwealth
498 S.W.2d 119 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
272 S.W.2d 475, 1954 Ky. LEXIS 1112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watts-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-1954.