WEDMORE v. State of Indiana

133 N.E.2d 842, 235 Ind. 341, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 160
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1956
Docket29,289
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 133 N.E.2d 842 (WEDMORE v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
WEDMORE v. State of Indiana, 133 N.E.2d 842, 235 Ind. 341, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 160 (Ind. 1956).

Opinions

Achor, J.

This is an appeal from a criminal action charging the appellants and one Holderman of contributing to the delinquency of minors by encouraging them “to use intoxicants, to-wit: beer.” The appellants were tried and found guilty by a jury as charged, and were sentenced to pay a fine of $250 each. Judgment was rendered accordingly, from which this appeal is taken.

Appellants assign error in the overruling of three separate motions to be discharged for lack of prosecution under the “term statutes,” §§9-1402 and 9-1403 (Acts 1905, ch. 169, §§219 and 220, p. 584; 1927, ch. 132, §12, p. 411).

Section 9-1402, supra, in part provides:

“. . . And no defendant shall be detained in jail, without a trial, . . . more than two (2) [343]*343terms after his arrest and commitment thereof

Section 9-1403, supra, provides in part:

“No person shall be held by recognizance to answer an indictment or affidavit without trial for a period embracing more than three (3) terms of court, . . .”

The record shows the charges against the appellants were filed on April 4, 1953, and they were arrested on the same day. On April 7, 1953, they were released on their own recognizance “for the reason they are charged in another cause in this court and are now under $5000 bond each.”

The record shows that neither of appellants were held by any recognizance bond for this charge until appellant Jack Wedmore gave a bond in the amount of $1000 approved on December 7, 1954. Between that date and the time of the trial, January 11, 1955, three terms of court had not run.

As to the appellant, Richard Wedmore, the record does not show that he ever gave bond or was in jail under the charge with which we are concerned in this case. The record does show that he was confined in jail and in the Indiana State Reformatory under another charge.

It was incumbent upon the appellants to show that they came clearly within the terms of the provisions of the above statutes. Where it appears that appellants gave no recognizance bonds by reason of the action with which we are here concerned, and were not in jail as a result of this charge for the period provided in the related statute (§9-1402, supra), the statutes have no application in such cases and appellants are not entitled to be discharged thereunder. Woodward v. State (1910), 174 Ind. 743, 93 N. E. 169; [344]*344State v. Beckwith et al. (1947), 225 Ind. 288, 290, 291, 74 N. E. 2d 742, 743.

This court in State v. Beckwith, supra, made the following comment relative to a like situation:

“The appellees have placed much stress upon the fact that each of them was named as a defendant in an indictment returned in the Marion Criminal Court on June 20, 1941, in Cause No. 74552 of that court (which was nolle prossed on June 16, 1942), and that each of these defendants was recognized to appear in this indictment at the time of its return. The appellees contend that this indictment was on the same facts, and this being the situation, no further bonds or bail were required or necessary when the indictments were returned in the cases involved in this appeal. With this contention we cannot agree. The giving of bail bond in Cause No. 74552 could under no circumstances be considered as tantamount to the letting of the appellees to bail in the cases now under consideration. The recognizance bonds given in Cause No. 74552 were to guarantee an appearance in that case and in no other.”

Since the appellants have not brought themselves within the purview of the statutes (§§9-1402 and 9-1403, supra) upon which they rely, we find no error in the trial court’s refusal to discharge the appellants.

The appellants further claim error in the overruling of their motion for a new trial on the ground that the verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence. The offense charged in this case alleges that the appellants and one Jack Holderman “did then and there unlawfully contribute to the delinquency of a minor child, to-wit: Nancy Marie Reed, a female then and there being under the age of eighteen (18) years, to-wit: fifteen (15) years; Martha Ann Richards, a female, then and there being under the age of eighteen (18) [345]*345years, to-wit: fourteen (14) years of age, and Carroll Bauer, a female, then and there being under the age of eighteen (18) years, to-wit: sixteen (16) years of age, by knowingly, wilfully encouraging and causing said Nancy Marie Reed, Martha Ann Richards, and Carroll Bauer to use intoxicants, to-wit: beer as a beverage, contrary to the form of statute in such cases made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Indiana.”

The statutes under which this action is brought are §10-812, Burns’ 1942 Repl. (1953 Supp.), being Acts of 1945, ch. 218, §1, p. 1011; §9-3204 (14), Burns’ 1942 Repl. (1953 Supp.), Acts 1945, ch. 356, §4, p. 1724, which read as follows:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to cause or encourage any boy under the full age of eighteen (18) years, or any girl under the full age of eighteen (18) years, to commit any act which would cause such boy or girl to become delinquent child as defined by the laws of this state;
“Or for any person to knowingly encourage or contribute to or in any way cause any such boy or girl to violate any law of this state or ordinance of any city.
“Or for any person by any continued negligence or toilful act, to encourage, or cause any such boy or girl to become a delinquent child as defined by the laws of this state.
“And, any person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00) to which may be added imprisonment in the county jail for a term not to exceed six (6) months.” (Our italics.) §10-812, supra.
“The words ‘delinquent child’ shall include any boy under the full age of eighteen (18) years and [346]*346any girl under the full age of eighteen (18) years who:
“(14) Uses intoxicating liquor as a beverage, . . §9-3204(14), supra.

We must, therefore, consider the evidence most favorable to the state, not for the purpose of weighing the same, but for the purpose of determining whether there is any evidence of probative value to support the verdict of the jury. Watson v. State (1955), 234 Ind. 239, 125 N. E. 2d 793; Dixon v. State (1945), 223 Ind. 521, 62 N. E. 2d 629; Osbon v. State (1938), 213 Ind. 413, 13 N. E. 2d 223; Rhoades v. State (1949), 227 Ind. 126, 84 N. E. 2d 583.

Here we have a situation where two men, Richard Wedmore and Jack Holderman, picked up two girls, ages 14 and 15, under the false representation to the father of one of the girls that they were taking the girls to baby sit for Wedmore’s sister, in which false representation the girls concurred. Instead the men told the girls, “We are going dancing, have a party,” and took the girls up to Michigan and bought two cases of beer. The colloquy of the 14 year old girl regarding their trip to Michigan is as follows:

“Q.

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Related

Shorter v. State
334 N.E.2d 710 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1975)
Reeves v. State
315 N.E.2d 397 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1974)
WEDMORE v. State of Indiana
133 N.E.2d 842 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
133 N.E.2d 842, 235 Ind. 341, 1956 Ind. LEXIS 160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wedmore-v-state-of-indiana-ind-1956.